How to Buy Vintage Kansas City Chiefs Apparel & Gear

So you want to get some of that vintage heat or throwback Kansas City Chiefs gear but you don't know where to start. Maybe you're a Derick Thomas, Joe Montana, Len Dawson, Marcus Allen, or Deron Cherry fan and you want to get gear that represents those men or the era they played in.

It can be tough finding real, quality, vintage merchandise as time has passed old Chiefs gear has been torn, stained, ripped up, donated, and tossed in the trash that means every year it gets harder to find authentic vintage shirts, hats, and more from the bygone Kansas City Chiefs eras.

We've scoured the web, purchased merchandise, and looked everywhere to help you find the best KC Chiefs vintage gear that is authentic or reproduction.

Step 1: Check eBay

Why start with eBay? They aren't paying us to say this, but from our test shopping eBay has the most authentic vintage Kansas City Chiefs gear and apparel to add to your collection. Other websites might have one or two pieces here and there or carry reproductions of some sort, but real vintage gear appears on the eBay marketplace in droves.

eBay sellers have an incentive to sell authentic vintage merchandise otherwise they could get bad ratings, fewer sales, returns, and even get removed from the auction site.

Step 2: Check Facebook Marketplace

Facebook Marketplace holds a unique distinction in the world of resold goods. Here people will buy and sell merchandise one-off to help clear clutter from their homes or move on from their past self. That means you won't get much protection in the way of a site like eBay where the sellers are selling multiple products and gain a reputation, Facebook does offer a 5-star review system for each seller but a first time seller could be just as reliable as a long-time seller since most products are not being sold for retail profits. However, it also means you'll find products listed by Facebook's billions of users.

A search for "Vintage Kansas City Chiefs" returned hundreds of items for sale, many from folks who live around the KC metro area in Missouri and Kansas.

There are some things to be wary of when using Facebook Marketplace to find vintage merchandise for the Chiefs. The first is to avoid any item listed as "throwback", "old school", or "replica". These are often new (or newer) items than you are looking for but appear to be the same or similar to a vintage design.

The second thing is that FB's search is not the greatest and returned weird results for us like a Luca Doncic jersey, a motorcyle, a Dallas Cowboys helmet, and other things that were not related at all to the Kansas City Chiefs. Make sure you know what you are looking for or at least what you are not looking for when using Facebook Marketplace.

Step 3. Check Poshmark

Poshmark is our #3 option because of the sheer volume of individuals selling their own wardrobe on the app. We also found several awesome vintage items here for sale that were authentically vintage and not replicas.

Like Facebook Marketplace the search function here sucks though and you'll get a lot of unrelated items to wade through such as Cleveland Indians and just random Native American themed apparel.

You do not have to have a Poshmark account to search their inventory on the web. They make it look like you do, but if you scroll down on the homepage and click any category it will take you into their ecommerce-style store where you can change your category, search for keywords, and drill down by product attributes.

Another thing to be aware of here is that the sellers on Poshmark use the term "vintage" quite loosely. For example someone is selling "vintage" Tyreek Hill jerseys on the site from the year 2021.

Step 4. Check These Vintage Apparel Websites

There are several websites now dedicate to obtaining and reselling vintage fashion items, that includes t-shirts, hoodies, sweatpants, etc... across various Kansas City Chiefs eras. Unfortunately in our testing each of these only had a few items available and since they are authentic vintage often in undesirable designs / players or in undesirable sizes.

However, if you haven't found what you're looking for yet, this is a great next step to take on your journey hunting down that perfect vintage piece.

Step 5. Visit Local Thrift Stores

Finally, if your thirst for vintage Chiefs heat has not been quenched yet, you should consider taking a trip to thrift stores local to the Kansas City Chiefs area. If you don't live hear Kansas City that might mean taking a road trip or planning a vacation.

You might even consider planning a trip to see a game at Arrowhead and adding an extra day to hunt for finds at area thrift and resale shops. Here are some cities in the area you should consider starting in:

  • Kansas City, Missouri
  • Kansas City, Kansas
  • Lee's Summit, Missouri
  • Harrisonville, Missouri
  • Leavenworth, Kansas
  • Shawnee, Kansas
  • Overland Park, Kansas
  • Lenexa, Kansas

Step 6. Avoid These Shops

If you're looking for authentic vintage clothing, then avoid most online shops that sell NFL apparel or closely align to selling NFL apparel.

That includes NFLShop.com, Chiefs.com, Fanatics.com, CharlieHustle.com, VintageBrand.com, MitchellandNess.com, JunkFoodClothing.com, and WestsideStorey.com. These websites might sell replicas, throwback style clothing, or vintage-esque clothing styles but they are all new apparel productions and not authentic vintage.

If that's what you're looking for, then all of them are fantastic options of course.

Summary

There are a lot of great ways to find vintage and old Chiefs gears including Kansas City Chiefs Signs, KC Chiefs Apparel, jackets, hoodies, decor, and more to make your man cave FANtastic.

 

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