The Real Cost Of Wearing Your Nation's Shirt This World Cup
Wearing your country's shirt is part of every World Cup. You buy the new home kit, pull it on, and ride out the next four or so weeks in it. For a fan in Switzerland, that ritual of getting the latest jersey costs around two hours of work. For a fan in DR Congo, around 29 days. Same tournament, same global brands, very different cost in hours of labour.
The World Cup Shirt Index 2026 from Gambling.com research takes the official retail price of every home kit across the 48 nations heading to next summer’s tournament and measures it against the average monthly wage in the country it represents. Prices come straight from manufacturer storefronts. You will find the full table is at the bottom of this page but there's more to it than that, certain brands dominate and we delve into where, how and why.
The shelf price tells half the story
Before wages enter the picture, the shop prices vary more than people assume.
Nike sits at the top. Replicas worn by 12 nations including England, France, Brazil and the USA retail at £89.99. Adidas covers 14 teams at £84.99. Puma kits 11 nations from £76.99. Below them, smaller manufacturers including Saeta, 7Saber and Tempo sell kits for less than half the Nike price.
Thirteen brands in total supply the 48 qualified nations. The Big Three (Nike, Adidas and Puma) cover 77% of the tournament.
Prices have also moved upwards since the last World Cup. Across Nike’s 2026 roster, replica prices are up an average of 16.7% on Qatar 2022. The England shirt has gone up by around 20% over the same period (£74.95 to £89.99) and is the most expensive in the team’s history. Puma’s replica line is up 25%.
The cost in hours of work
Once wages are factored in, the picture changes quickly.
In DR Congo, the Umbro replica works out at roughly 130% of an average month’s formal-sector wage. That’s not 130% of disposable income, it’s more than a full month’s average pay for one shirt.
In Egypt, after recent currency devaluation, the Puma replica accounts for around 50% of average monthly earnings. Across the African nations in the tournament, seven of the 10 least affordable shirts in the index sit on the continent. Ghana and Senegal both clear 30% of a month’s wage. Ivory Coast sits around 30%.
At the other end of the table, fans in Switzerland pay 1.4% of their monthly wage for a shirt. In the USA it’s 1.5%. In Norway, around 2%. For fans in those countries, a replica is essentially the cost of a round of drinks.
The gap between the most and least affordable shirts in the index sits at more than 90x in days of work.
Same shirt, different price tag in real terms
The major manufacturers price replicas similarly worldwide. A Nike kit on the shelf in Manchester costs roughly what it costs on the shelf in New York. That same price tag lands very differently in Kinshasa or Cairo, where average wages are a fraction of the size.
That’s the index in one line: same product, same global brands, very different cost depending on where you live.
Retail prices were taken from official manufacturer storefronts in May 2026. Wage data is drawn from World Bank formal-sector averages, 2024. Days of labour are calculated as retail price divided by average daily wage, based on a 22-day working month.
These figures are based on formal-sector wage averages. In several of the lower-income countries in the index, the informal workforce is the majority of earners, and the real cost of a shirt against typical informal earnings is likely higher than the figures stated.
