Boys' Fashion

Where a boy’s hoodie, football boots and cap each go:

clothes, footwear and accessories have their own branches. A hoodie belongs in boys’ clothing, a pair of football boots or school shoes in boys’ shoes, and a cap or backpack in boys’ accessories. Plain tees and neutral trainers fit any child, so a look through girls’ fashion can turn up the same piece in a colour he will wear.

Football boots, turf shoes and futsal shoes, matched to the surface:

the sole matters more than the logo on the side. Moulded football boots marked FG are made for natural grass, the kind still found on village playing fields and club training grounds. Most of the newer synthetic pitches around the GAM are long-pile artificial grass, where turf shoes, with a flat sole covered in short rubber nubs, or an AG sole grip without catching. Cement and indoor courts call for futsal shoes. Football boots worn every week on synthetic turf or cement wear down fast and can lock the foot on a turn, so a boy who plays on more than one surface usually ends up with two pairs, and that is why good ones keep coming back second-hand. A kids’ pair from Nike, Adidas or Joma runs about ₡45,000 to ₡60,000 new, whichever surface it is built for, and junior pairs from lesser labels start near ₡20,000. Second-hand, the brand counts for less than the studs and the size: a good pair outgrown in one season with sharp studs is worth paying for, while a cheap pair worn smooth has nothing left to offer the next boy.

The traditional outfit for Independence Day celebrations:

the version most boys wear is a white or light shirt with matching long trousers, a neckerchief knotted at the front, a cloth sash at the waist and a small-brimmed white hat. The Guanacaste outfit brings in vivid blues and yellows with a red sash, and a boy who dances in it needs trousers that let him move. Worn so rarely, a used one is usually close to new, and what harms it is time in a drawer: check the hat brim for creases and yellowing and the neckerchief for fading along the folds. A complete outfit in one size is worth far more than loose pieces, because nobody wants to hunt for a matching sash the week before the acts.

Second-hand football boots and how they give themselves away:

turn the boot over first. Studs under the big toe and the ball of the foot wear down before the rest, and a turf sole worn smooth at the front has lost the grip it was bought for. Press where the sole meets the upper at the toe: if it opens, the glue has gone, and a home repair rarely lasts a match. Boots carrying a star player’s name are the most copied, so compare the size and product code on the label inside the tongue with the box, and look at the stitching round the logo. On a traditional shirt, check the collar and cuffs, where white cotton greys first.

Listing a boy’s football boots or traditional outfit:

say which surface the boots were played on and photograph the soles straight on, because a parent judges a pair by its studs. Give the brand, whether it is FG, AG, turf or indoor, the size on the label and how many months he played in them. For the traditional outfit, name every piece that comes with it, including the hat, neckerchief and sash, and give the chest width of the shirt and the length of the trousers rather than only the age on the tag. List it a few weeks before the Independence Day celebrations, when families start looking. A family coming in from Turrialba or Santa Cruz needs an outfit that fits that morning, and those two measurements are what decide whether they make the trip.