Arguably one of the biggest sports stars that ever walked the Earth, David Beckham has garnered a worldwide following not only for his prowess on the field but also for his undeniable good looks. Understandably, the marketing of this star has itself become a discipline with various Beckham branded goods bringing in seemingly endless profits. One of the most popular products baring the soccer stars emblem is t shirts authorized and not authorized.

One of the most popular types of David Beckham t shirts is the many soccer jerseys from his years with Manchester United. These pieces of sports memorabilia include the numbers 28, 24, 10, and 7- a group which spans the almost decade long period that he played for the English team. Of course, the David Beckham t-shirts from his years with Real Madrid and the LA Galaxy are also popular, as is most of the authorized Beckham merchandise.

Another exploitable niche of the David Beckham t shirts market is for those shirts which have the star's face or general visage printed on them. As would be imagined, a t-shirt with a person's picture is easy to create (yay for printers!). However, this is predictably and understandably great for fans and horrible for those holding the trademark and their subsequent army of lawyers. The market for fake David Beckham t-shirts is huge and found not only in brick and mortar stores but online and on street corners worldwide. Interestingly enough, many fan made t shirts which use Beckham's image actually take these pictures from his advertising campaigns in a strange circle of cross promotion and theft. In this situation one must ask, who really benefits from the illegal use of such images? While it is usually certain that the fan is satisfied in their creation, promoters earn the additional publicity/ general face time in exchange for the money they would typically receive in revenue- a double edged sword to say the least!

An extension of this is those David Beckham t-shirts which simply use the athlete's name. This is by far the trickiest because of the sheer number of ways in which it is used both in directly reference to David Beckham and indirectly in an attempt to snap up fan purchases without breeching piracy laws.

It is in these ways that David Beckham t shirts have gone beyond the typical realm of the sports star and have become a widespread business.