When TV star Rob McElhenny took a gamble on the minnow Welsh football team Wrexham AFC in 2020 with fellow actor Ryan Reynolds, the self-confessed football novice wanted to look the part. What better way than to find a vintage 1970s replica jersey donning the “Wrexham Lager” sponsor?
McElhenney first set about a futile search of the Racehorse Grounds for any leftovers, but he was left empty-handed.
He asked Wrexham AFC’s director Shaun Harvey: “‘Why would they just either throw them out or give them to family and friends? Aren’t they valuable?’
“And he said, no, they weren’t valuable. They actually represented unsold merchandise at a certain time, which was not great for the club, in fact, it was unsustainable,” McElhenney told Fortune.
The Wrexham co-owner is likely cursing those decisions now. His investment in Wrexham AFC and an Emmy award-winning documentary series on the club means he would have likely been sitting on a fresh goldmine of worn-out jerseys if they had stuck around.
Instead, McElhenney found his dream jersey online through U.K. retailer Classic Football Shirts.
Little did he know at the time, but that purchase—one of “a bunch” of old Wrexham shirts the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia co-creator would buy in the proceeding years—would lead to a more sizeable investment in the company.
McElhenney was announced in September as a strategic investor of Classic Football Shirts, a Manchester-founded company reselling old jerseys. His More Better Ventures group was named a strategic backer alongside former USWNT player Alex Morgan and Wasserman Ventures.
Vintage football shirts have become a growth market in recent years, piercing through the traditional demographic of football fans and into the broader zeitgeist as a fashion statement. It’s something that McElhenney noticed when he tried on a match-worn Diego Maradona top from his time at Italian club Napoli.
“The kit itself is so beautiful and so well made,” McElhenney told Fortune. “Back in the day, they were making these almost hand-knit sweaters that these guys would be wearing.
“Depending on the fit, it’s not just an expression of fandom, it’s also a bit of a fashion statement.”
More importantly, classic jerseys have become prized possessions in the burgeoning alternative investment market. After missing out on his own haul of classic Wrexham jerseys, McElhenney isn’t ready to let that chance slip him…
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