Modest clubs and small creative teams revolutionize football through fashion

In 2019 the Valencia C.F. changed the second most visible icon on his shirt, changing the three bands of Adidas for the feline profile of Puma. The brand landed in the club deploying a graphic campaign that caused a tingle, perhaps of curiosity, perhaps of emotion, in a fan who had to calculate if it was worth going to the official store to change their skin.

That exchange of pennants between the brand and the club was announced with the motto “football is for the brave” and delved into the Roman origins of the city: Valentia. The advertising action, with coinage included, revealed the idea championed by the person who orchestrated it: “Football is emotion and identity bond.” Sculpt the phrase Pau Piaon the one hand Valencian and Valencianist; by another big brand consultant, urban culture expert and in searching for routes to reach new generations of consumers.

In 2016 he founded Lenders Magazine, a publication with which he sought to draw a line between unconnected points, at least in Spain: as a consumer of sports press I missed something more artistic than what the magazines offered. big headersbut lighter than what I found in more careful publications; On the other hand, he saw how brands had difficulty promoting their products without resorting to traditional advertising. He united everything in one publication, which sold football, fashion, brands. Today Lenders, together with its parent company 25 gramsare associated, for example, with Adidas shares for the Real Madrid.

Ibiza UD. (on loan)

Three years before Pía convinced Puma to generate that emotional dialogue with the Mestalla fans, in Madrid the designer David Delfín had turned the football scarf into the center of his parade in Cybele. “A debate arose about whether that was fashion, and it turned out that it was advancing an era,” recalls the Valencian journalist. Patricia Morenoan editor in publications such as Vogue who has delved into the aesthetic value of football and its relationship with social struggles such as feminism in various articles. Jenni Hermoso gave her the first interview after the Rubiales case, published in GQ.

“Football is a totem related to traditional masculinity, which is also experiencing its own deconstruction and internal revision; fashion is interested in dialogue with that,” says Moreno. Pía controls: “Before you bought a soccer jersey and it was for playing, now that is largely no longer the case. Brands understand that soccer is no longer just a sport as such, so they begin to collaborate with fashion brands and synergies are generated between clubs, big brands and independent firms” goal is to sell more,” he concludes.

Pía mentions the element of surprise, the new and loose verse. These are small creative teams that began generating irreverent, innovative content that addressed football from artistic perspectives. Suddenly they found themselves promoted on social networks by niches of the young population. The big brands, with larger and more rigid structures than those teams, knocked on the doors of these groups in search of fresh ideas and then tried to convince the clubs, which often move like huge dinosaurs, to move towards new ones. aesthetic postulates. In some cases they achieved this with notable success.

Model posing. (Lenders Magazine/Pablo Alzaga)

“In France y United Kingdom They are ahead in that regard. Here we begin to see the first seeds sprout,” explains Pía, delving into an idea that turns – at least in this territory – the classification table: “Smaller teams, which perhaps have less budget, dare to innovate more in this sense”.

Pía cites an example that also starts from Valencia: the work that the collective of creators Equipo FC carried out with the Ibiza UDa club in the third category of Spanish football. Photo sessions away from the playing field, models wearing the new shirt instead of players, a story that places the sports equipment on the street, where a clothing trend known as blokecore.

“The club’s shield doesn’t even appear, they wanted to reach a very specific audience,” explains Marta Beitia, art director of Equipo FC. This creative collective works in two lines with brands and football clubs: in the identity construction of the brand and as a communication agency. “They come to us out of a clear need to reach new trends and communicate to a late millennial generation ob”, adds Beitia. This studio has worked with clubs such as the Betis, The Palms o Ibiza developing products aimed at an audience with a defined aesthetic. With other equipment, such as Real Valladolid u healthact as a communication agency, collaborating in the launch of new kits, for example, to position them in a territory more related to fashion.

Betis players in an image. (FC Team/Iván Zahinos)

“We are in a global space and success stories immediately generate a trend. If a third or fourth category team achieves relevance for its communicative actions, someone takes advantage of that example on another side of the world. And there is a market need evident. The clubs feel that they have to communicate beyond sports, that is why they look for alliances like ours,” says the creative.

Some of these small groups manage to make the leap by joining large firms. Beitia says that Equipo FC is now working on expanding its reach and structure in Italy, hand in hand with Kappa. And soon they will carry out an action in Thailand together with a local club, AC Saen Saep. “In December we were in Tokyo presenting our intercontinental t-shirt,” he adds.

The case of Venezia FC

In recent years, many of the clubs that attract emerging creatives slip them a suggestion: “We want to look like Venezia“The case of the modest Italian team represented a paradigm shift when Ted Philipakos and Diego Moscosoni, responsible for the first creative agency dedicated to football, took the reins. Fly Nowhere. Moscosoni had worked with brands such as Supreme or Marc Jacobs and sponsored a comprehensive redesign of the identity of Venezia FC, from the crest to publications on social networks; passing, of course, through the kits.

The success of the proposal was unprecedented: the shirts were sold out within a few hours of the launch, while specialized media and prescribers from around the world praised this small squad of Serie Bwhich was suddenly talked about more than the Juventus. “They did what no one dared. Being a discreet team in the international map They achieved great visibility through a creative decision that others with more notoriety and budget did not dare to make, perhaps because they had much more at stake,” says Moreno.

Osasuna equipment. (FC Team/Iván Zahinos)

The example, of course, was copied ad nauseum; sometimes in form, sometimes also in substance: “There are movements everywhere towards this direction. Crystal Palace – of the Premier League – has appointed a creative director, one of the few cases in the world of football”, Pía points out.

Returning to creative alliances, “big brands follow new consumer profiles through these small groups or social movements,” highlights the consultant. It is the mercado expanding all its tentacles. But, in that attempt to connect with new realities, does football renews only its aesthetics or also their values?

“Football wants to be part of the conversation, to remain relevant, and in contact with other disciplines openness is generated” analyzes Moreno. He quotes some green shoots: “Players like Hector Bellerin They are an example that there are many narratives to conquer from men’s football, when it points out the employment inequality towards women footballers or the alarming non-existence of male footballers in the LGTBIQ+ collective“.

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The journalist travels precisely this month of October to United Kingdominvited by Visit Britain and the Premier Leagueto learn about various actions that the competition is carrying out in favor of diversity and inclusion in football “If football wants to continue being permeable to its contemporaneity, they have to be part of a change,” says Moreno about social struggles such as intersectional feminism or environmentalism.

“It’s a global change“adds Pía when asked the same question, and goes further: “Football needs people from other sectors to come in to provide freshness on many levels.” In contact with these new voices, many of them coming from those small groups with whom the clubs are associated, there is a deeper transformation than what is perceived on the shirt.