git clone subdirectory-How do I clone a subdirectory only of a Git repository?

You can combine the sparse checkout and therefore the shallow clone options.

The shallow git clone subdirectory shuts off/cuts off the history and the sparse checkout only pulls the files matching your patterns.

git init 
cd 
git remote add origin 
git config core.sparsecheckout true
echo "finisht/*" >> .git/info/sparse-checkout
git pull --depth=1 origin master

Ensure that the minimum of git version of 1.9 is installed for this to work. Tested it myself only with 2.2.0 and 2.2.2. This way you will still be able to push, which isn't attainable with git archive.