Japanese Versions

Many of our shirts were originally bought brand-new in Japan (in the 1990s and 00s), where Western brands like Nike and Adidas have been popular for decades. Over time, they’ve made their way into second-hand markets across Asia, where our suppliers source them today.

As a result, lots of our shirts are Japanese national team shirts and J-League shirts, which obviously were sold in Japan, and Japanese versions of other club and country shirts. Here are some examples of the labels from those shirts:

 

Have a look at the wash labels from a Japanese release Nike 2002 Brazil shirt:

Below is a 2002 Barcelona shirt featuring the same wash tag style as the Brazil shirt, common across Japanese-market versions.

Most have the distinctive small box with “Men’s M,” a standardised sizing detail seen on products from various brands made for Japan.

Here are the neck labels for a Japanese release of an Adidas Yugoslavia shirt from 2000:

And here's a Japanese version of a Germany 2002 shirt: 

In the 1990s, Adidas licensed production and distribution in Japan to a company called Descente. 

See below for an example of a Netherlands 1988 home shirt, made by Adidas with Descente on the wash labels:

See below for an example of a USA 1994 with an Adidas neck label & Descente wash label:

If we say it’s a Japanese version, you can take our word for it.