There’s something beautiful about a football shirt. It’s not just the fabric, how it looks on you or what it represents. To me, it means so much more. It’s all about memories.

When you wear a new one for the first time, such as any of the new football shirts for the 2009-2010 Premier League season, it’s all about the material and the identity of your club. But after that has worn off, the shirt becomes an open book as the new season begins. The shirt absorbs the visual memories of what happens that season.

Years later when you look at that shirt in your closet, you’ll remember your memories of that season and your favorite players scoring wonderful goals in it, the agony of defeat and the ecstasy of winning three points against your arch-rivals, and hopefully the joy of celebrating when your club wins silverware.

I only have a handful of football shirts in my closet. I got rid of most of the ones I had to help finance the down-payment for the house where I’m now living in, so I’m not too sad that I no longer have them. The ones I still have, though, are my travel-team shirt from my high school days, a couple of horrible Swansea City shirts from the early 90s that are very scratchy and uncomfortable to wear, an England away shirt from the 2006 World Cup when I got caught up in the hype and thought that was going to be “their tournament,” a Miami Fusion shirt from the 2000 season which is the most sentimental shirt for me because it was the one I wore when I proposed to my now-wife on the pitch during half-time of a Fusion game, and a couple of shirts sent to me by football retailers as gifts (a Barca shirt from last season, and the new England jersey, which looks very snazzy when accompanied by a pair of blue jeans).

So, what football shirts are hiding in your closet, and what are the memories that you have attached to them? Click the comments link below and share your stories.

If you’re interested in creating your own new memories, go ahead and browse through the new Premier League jerseys from all 20 clubs. EPL Talk offers the widest selection of shirts for Premier League clubs in the US of A and overseas.