Two years ago, with these trends in their infancy, we wanted to put Arsenal at the front of this movement of big and small players working together. We saw an opportunity for a huge club like Arsenal to work directly with its talented fanbase, and co-create a new collection.

Insight

Together with Arsenal’s retail team we planned to concept, design and launch a new collection that would tell the story of its successful youth Academy, Hale End. This is where the club invests in next-generation local talent and it was now time to expand this philosophy to the creative industries. So we got to work planning how to scout a talented young designer and develop a new collection inspired by Hale End. 

Why? Hale End’s successful model has resulted in local talent becoming first team players - most famous of all Bukayo Saka, who joined the club aged seven. What would it look like to do the same in fashion – and with the right support to make a fan the club’s new creative director? These were all questions we had and we went into the process with an experimental mindset.

Approach

With fashion and football continuing to blend together, the project was designed as a platform to spotlight new talent whilst developing a streetwear-inspired collection. Mirroring Hale End’s own process, the programme saw the club scout, develop and then platform Naomi’s talent, with Weirdo documenting the process along the way. As part of the process we partnered with Fashion East, a non-profit talent incubator for the fashion industry, to ensure we had the right mentorship team to support our young designer.

Scouting 

Once we had a programme in place we used our networks to spread word of the opportunity. We received dozens and dozens of applications from a range of local designers. Some were studying fashion, others were making collections from their bedrooms. Arsenal eventually selected Naomi Brady, a designer from South London and ardent supporter. Naomi had spoken in her application about reimagining archive references, finding inspiration from the interconnectedness of London and her mum’s love for the club.

Developing talent

With Naomi onboard we arranged a series of visits to Hale End to see the grounds, meet staff and learn more about the Academy. This was also a chance for Naomi to gather references and take inspiration from the Academy itself – with a key theme being a distinctive use of the colour teal at the training centre. Each time Naomi visited, our production team was there to document the process.

The collection

Over the next year Arsenal, Weirdo and Naomi collaborated to produce the concept, samples and then final collection. Once we had a near-final collection our team then jumped in again to act as a creative agency, creating a launch campaign together with Naomi and Bukayo Saka.

This launch

At launch, the collection took over Arsenal’s website, was advertised across matchdays, in-store and online. Beyond Arsenal’s own channels the launch was picked up by titles across football and fashion: from Versus magazine to industry platforms like Fashion United.

Our big takeaway: fans are your new creative directors. With younger generations more creatively-skilled than ever, finding ways to directly collaborate can create both commercial and community impact. It’s a real win-win.

Secondly: the more documentation of the process the better. We had been able to capture a huge amount of the process, but would have loved more still.

And finally: whilst we took a documentary approach to the creative, we’d love to try more creative approaches in the future, and go further expanding the ethos of the project to the team behind the camera too.