My Shimizu S-Pulse Football Shirt Collection – Thomas Fiers

Thomas is a football fan who is based near Paris, France. He is a supported and collector of J-League team Shimizu S-Pulse shirts, a team best known for their outlandish kit designs often featuring map styled detailing due to their long time sponsorship with Japan Air Lines (JAL).

Why Shimizu S-Pulse Shirts?

I started to follow Japanese football just before the 2002 World Cup, which took place in Japan and South Korea. I really liked the team spirit and the mentality of the fans so led me to follow Japanese football even after the World Cup ended. I helped create a French website to do so and, with other fans, we discussed, followed and supported Japanese teams for many years. Since I quickly started to follow the J-League I wanted to support a Japanese club. In 2005, I began to follow Shimizu S-Pulse as I liked several of the players from that team that had been playing for the national team back then and because orange is my favourite colour! Needless to say, as a shirt enthusiast, I naturally began to seek for S-Pulse shirts as well. In 2005, the shirt was orange with a complex design made of yellowish dots and lines on the front. It took me several years to realize that it actually consisted of two stylised and layered world maps, assembled with different angles!

How many shirts do you have in your collection?

I now have 45 S-Pulse shirts including all the home shirts since the club was created in 1992, some away shirts, and some more pieces from various seasons.

What was your first shirt and when did you buy it?

I couldn’t find an S-Pulse shirt to begin with even now getting Japanese shirts isn’t easy as the shops that do stock them usually don’t ship overseas and the rare opportunities you can find are quite expensive. I had to wait for the 2006 season, that’s when my best friend told me that a member of his family was going on a trip in Japan, and he asked me if I wanted a shirt from there. That’s how I got my first Shimizu S-Pulse shirt, the 2006 away jersey. At the same time my best friend got himself a Jubilo Iwata shirt, they are Shimizu S-Pulse local rivals!

What is your favourite shirt and why is it so special?

I think I’ll have to pick two! The first one is a 2002 shirt, printed with the number 10 and the name Sawanobori. I think the 2002 world map design is one of the best designs ever. The team kept the same shirt until 2004. Unfortunately, when I started to support Shimizu in 2005, it was sold out. I finally got it several years later on a Japanese auctions website, and the fact that it was printed with Masaaki Sawanobori’s name set is an awesome touch. Masaaki Sawanobori played all his career for Shimizu, from 1992 to 2005, he’s been the team’s captain for several seasons, and his nickname was « Mister S-Pulse », what else could I ask for?

The second one is the 2018 home shirt, that is simply the shirt I was wearing when I came to the Nihondaira Stadium, the team’s home ground, for the first time, the team lost to Tokyo that day but the journey was unforgettable.

What is the shirt you would like most in your collection?

I would love to find a Ryuzo Morioka shirt from the 2002, 2003 or 2004 season, he’s my favourite player and getting a shirt with his name set printed on it, is a goal of mine. He was a very good defender, had a perfect team spirit, and played the 2002 World Cup in Japan. He even was Japan’s captain for some games! As a defensive kind of player myself when I played in my local club, I thought he had style while being humble and working hard, that’s actually what I’d like to see in every player. As of now I only have his Japan national team shirt, but I love it.

Do you have any other interesting stories?

The 2015 season was terrible for S-Pulse as we were relegated to the second division for the first time in our history! Fortunately, we were promoted the following season. You’d think any fan would hate the 2015 shirt for what it represents, but I actually really like it for one particular reason, it uses the same diamond and gradient pattern as the shirt I used to wear when playing for my local club as a child! My best friend, who got me my first S-Pulse shirt played with me for the same team back then.

Check out Thomas' S-Pulse collection here

Follow Thomas on Twitter here here

Check out our Classic and J-League shirts here

Send us your collections on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Tiktok with the hashtag #CFSCollectorsClub & you could be featured.