Vertical black and white stripes. Santos FC’s shirt is the most understated iconic jersey in Brazilian football — a clean, elegant kit made legendary by the greatest player who ever lived.
Founded on the day the Titanic sank
Santos Futebol Clube was founded on 14 April 1912 in the port city of Santos, São Paulo — curiously, the same day the RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic. The club’s original colours were blue, white and gold. They were soon replaced by the vertical black-and-white stripes that remain to this day, giving Santos one of the most recognisable kits in world football.
Pelé and the shirt that crossed continents
Santos’ jersey became globally famous because of Pelé, who joined the club aged 15 and never truly left until 1974. His record speaks for itself: 1,091 goals in 1,116 games. He was the São Paulo State Championship top scorer eleven times — a national record that still stands. When Santos toured the world in the 1960s, cities in Africa, Europe and Asia requested friendlies purely to see Pelé in the black-and-white stripes. Many African nations were granted temporary ceasefires in local conflicts to allow the matches to go ahead.
The first club on earth to score 10,000 goals
In January 1998, with a goal by Jorginho against Villa Nova from Minas Gerais, Santos became the first football club in the world to score 10,000 official goals — a milestone recognised by FIFA. The record had started back in 1959, when the Santos attack scored 155 goals in a single São Paulo State Championship season, a national record that remains unbroken in any competition to this day.
Back-to-back world titles — the most collectible era
Between 1962 and 1963, Santos won the Copa Libertadores and the Intercontinental Cup in consecutive years — the only Brazilian club to achieve that back-to-back double. The black-and-white jersey from that era, with the number 10 on the back, is among the most valuable pieces in all of Brazilian football collecting. Authentic originals from that period are extraordinarily rare.
Why Santos jerseys are frequently counterfeited
The simplicity of the stripes makes Santos jerseys — especially retro editions from the Pelé era — easy to replicate and hard to verify at first glance. Buyers relying on photos alone often receive Thai replicas dressed up with aged labels and worn fabric. At Garrincha Shirts, every Santos jersey is 100% original and comes with full traceability. The Peixe deserves nothing less.