What to Wear to a Wales Football Match: A Red Wall Guide

There is no official uniform for following Wales.

There is plenty of red, obviously. Replica shirts. Old shirts. Scarves that have been to more countries than most people. Bucket hats. Jackets bought because somebody looked at the forecast two hours before leaving for Cardiff and realised a T-shirt was not going to cut it.

Then there are the things that only really make sense if you follow Wales.

1958.

The Red Wall.

Yma O Hyd.

A year, a song or a place that says considerably more to another Wales supporter than a badge ever could.

So if you are heading to your first Wales match, going back after a few years away or wondering what people actually wear in the Welsh end, the answer is fairly simple.

Wear Wales.

How you do that is up to you.

Do you have to wear red to a Wales match?

No.

But you'll understand why so many people do the moment you walk towards the ground.

On a Wales matchday, Cardiff changes colour. The trains coming in from across the country fill with red shirts. The pubs fill with them. By the time you reach the stadium, thousands of individual supporters have turned into something that looks like one enormous block of red.

The Red Wall.

It is one of those names that now feels as though it has always existed, even though Welsh football supporters were travelling in numbers long before anybody started calling them that.

Red became the visual identity of the support.

You do not need to be wearing the latest Wales shirt to be part of it. An old shirt from ten years ago is just as welcome. So is a red T-shirt, a hoodie, a jacket or something completely different.

There isn't a dress code.

That is probably part of what makes it work.

Replica shirt or something different?

For a lot of supporters, the Wales shirt is still the obvious choice.

And there is something brilliant about seeing old ones appear on matchday.

You will see shirts from France 2016 alongside shirts from Qatar. Old shirts, shirts people have owned for twenty years and whatever Wales happen to be wearing now.

They become markers of time.

Sometimes you can almost work out when somebody started following Wales by the shirt they refuse to stop wearing.

But you don't have to wear a replica shirt to show where you belong.

In fact, Welsh supporter clothing has increasingly developed an identity of its own.

The years.

The songs.

The away ends.

The players.

The places.

That is a big part of what we make at Made in Cymru. Our Welsh Football T-Shirts aren't replicas and aren't trying to be. They're built around the things that following Wales actually means.

Because sometimes a number like 1958 means more than a crest.

What to wear for a Wales home match

If you're heading to Cardiff, the biggest consideration after looking vaguely Welsh is the weather.

There is a tendency to plan an outfit for the pub and forget that you are eventually going to spend two hours sitting or standing outside.

In September, a T-shirt might be enough.

In November, it probably isn't.

A sensible Wales matchday outfit is usually built in layers.

T-shirt underneath. Hoodie or sweatshirt over it. Something waterproof if the forecast looks particularly Welsh.

The advantage is that once you are inside the ground, surrounded by thousands of people and singing, it gets considerably warmer than it felt walking down Westgate Street an hour earlier.

Our Welsh hoodies work particularly well for that reason. Heavy enough for the walk to the ground, easy enough to layer over a tee and not something that looks like football training wear once the match is finished.

And if it is somehow 24 degrees and sunny in Cardiff?

Take the win.

What to wear in the Red Wall

This is where people sometimes overthink it.

You don't need to turn up dressed head to toe in official merchandise.

The best Wales matchday clothing tends to be the stuff that feels personal.

Maybe you were there in France in 2016.

Maybe your dad told you about 1958 so many times that it feels as though you were there too.

Maybe Gary Speed is the reason this generation of Welsh football means what it does to you.

Maybe you have followed Wales to places you would never otherwise have visited.

Or maybe Yma O Hyd starts and something happens in your chest that you can't really explain to somebody who doesn't feel the same thing.

Those stories are what make Welsh football support different.

Our 1958 story goes back to the first Welsh side to reach a World Cup and the quarter-final in Sweden. It remained Wales' only World Cup appearance for 64 years.

The Euro 2016 story is about the summer when an entirely different generation finally got its tournament.

And Yma O Hyd explains how a song written decades earlier became part of the sound of modern Welsh football.

Wear the one that means something to you.

What to wear on a Wales away day

Away days are different.

You start thinking about what you are wearing approximately three minutes after thinking about how you are actually getting there.

Flights.

Trains.

Hotels.

A stadium somewhere you have never been.

Then the inevitable question of whether the weather forecast is lying.

The best away-day clothing needs to survive all of it.

A comfortable T-shirt you can travel in. A hoodie or jacket you can layer. Shoes you are happy walking several miles in. And something Welsh enough that you can spot your own people across an airport terminal.

Because that happens.

You arrive in a city hundreds or thousands of miles from Wales and suddenly there are red shirts everywhere.

That feeling is the reason we made The Away Days T-Shirt.

The early trains, long drives, pre-match drinks in unfamiliar cities and complete strangers becoming old friends within ten minutes.

It is also the thinking behind We Travel.

Some people watch Wales.

Some follow Wales.

There is a difference.

And yes, the bucket hat

There are certain things that eventually stop being an accessory and become part of the culture.

The Welsh football bucket hat is probably one of them.

You only need to look at photographs of the Wales support during the tournament years to understand how closely the two became connected.

Part practicality, part identity and part complete refusal to take yourself too seriously.

Which, when you think about it, is quite a good description of a Wales away end.

Wear one if you want.

Don't if you don't.

There are no rules here.

Should you wear the new Wales shirt?

That depends entirely on whether you like it.

The release of a new Wales kit always produces opinions, and the latest one certainly managed that. I wrote about why the new Wales kit divided opinion when it was released.

But there is something worth remembering.

The shirt changes.

The manufacturer changes.

The design changes.

The support doesn't.

The people who filled Bordeaux, Lens, Toulouse and Paris were Wales supporters before that particular shirt existed and remained Wales supporters once it disappeared.

The kit is part of it.

It isn't all of it.

What should you wear to your first Wales match?

If it is your first one, don't worry about getting it right.

Wear some red if you have it.

Dress for the weather.

Wear something comfortable.

Get into Cardiff early enough to experience the build-up rather than rushing straight to your seat.

Listen.

You will learn more about Welsh football support in the couple of hours before kick-off than you will from any guide on the internet.

And when the anthem starts, sing.

Even if your Welsh is not perfect.

Especially if your Welsh is not perfect.

Nobody in that ground is checking.

Clothes that mean something

That is ultimately what I think Wales matchday clothing should be.

Not a costume.

Not something covered in dragons simply because dragons are Welsh.

Something you would actually wear away from the stadium.

Something another Welsh supporter might notice from across the room and understand without needing it explained.

That is what we have tried to build with Made in Cymru.

1958.

The Red Wall.

The Catalyst.

Away Days.

We Travel.

Yma O Hyd.

They are clothing designs, but the clothing came second.

The story came first.

If you're looking for something to wear the next time Wales play, you can shop Welsh Football T-Shirts.

Wear the shirt. Wear the old one. Wear the bucket hat. Wear something only five people in the room understand.

Just wear Wales.

Diolch, Mike.