Umbro are celebrating the upcycling skills of talented creators with its latest campaign ‘Make New’, and it launches with the first designer to reveal their work, Nouveau Nova.

Upcycling has rightly found a lot of traction in recent years, with the popular trend of repurposing materials and products that would otherwise be discarded as waste reaching all new heights. And now Umbro are breathing new life into boots, balls, jerseys, sneakers and even football socks by challenging four talented creators to transform them into unique and interesting projects as part of their latest campaign, ‘Make New’.

For the launch, Umbro has teamed up with designer and creator Nova Nørgaard (Nouveau Nova), who uses second hand yarns and her knitting skills to customise used football jerseys and sportswear garments. For ‘Make New’, Nova has used the 21/22 EA Guingamp goalkeeper jersey which has been transformed into a unisex ‘ball gown’. The garment features knitted panels and patterns which are all made using cotton yarns in shades of green to match the jersey. The garment is completed with a drawstring which has been woven into the seams of the gown so the fit can be adjusted.

The theme of my project is contrasts – the contrast between the more masculine football jersey against the stereotypically feminine shape of the gown," explained Nørgaard. "The synthetic, durable fabrics of the jersey versus the delicate knitted panels in cotton, the two-dimensional top versus the three-dimensional bottom and so on.” 

Talented creators can also get involved in the campaign by submitting examples of their latest upcycled projects to umbro.com. From all submissions, the best entries will be sent a Mystery Box of Umbro products and challenged to create a unique project using them.

The winner will join Umbro’s global influencer team, Diamond FC where they will receive regular product drops and upcycling challenges for one year. Entries are possible now via umbro.com/make-new and will close on 15 June, 2023 at Midnight UK Time.

Stay tuned for more upcycled projects dropping very soon across Umbro social channels and on #MakeNew.