Ahead of the 2024 Copa América, our expert panellists break down exactly how soccer and creativity currently collide in the Big Apple.
Earlier this month at SoccerBible’s 'On A Plate' Creative Soccer Culture Tour in Brooklyn, New York, we hosted a memorable dinner party in partnership with adidas to salute the 2024 Copa América. It all started with a panel discussion about the city's exploding football culture and how the sport steers some of the most exciting creative projects. SoccerBible’s creative director, Pete Martin, associate creative director, Keane Pearce Shaw, and editor-in-chief, Felicia Pennant, spoke with three football fans who’ve turned their fandom into industry-changing professions: Sam Herzog, Systemarosa co-founder; Sam Handy, vice president of design at adidas football, and Lucas Capozzi-Shanks, the founder of Scenes NY. The panellists opened up about everything from their takes on Creative Soccer Culture to the sustainability of new and vintage football products, as well as their unique approaches to modernising nostalgia through curation and design, plus the value they’ve found in embracing specific niches in the intersection between football, fashion and style.
Below, read standout quotes from the panel.
Sam Herzog, co-founder of Systemarosa
“For me, growing up, and I think a lot of women in the US have this experience as well, I was always invited to play with the boys [but] never invited to watch. So I was never really a fan until, until recently. And for [my co-founder] Naomi Accardi, her dad never considered that she would play. We are both obsessed with the game and we really focus on people excluded from the game.”
“When you think about creative projects all day and then play soccer five days a week, the game has become part of my creative expression. Creative Soccer Culture is an organic combination of my passions.”
“Naomi and I are really passionate and we are extremely directional, so you know what will be showcased and what we source is very specific. I love to see more and more people in the space that have different visions and it is the same sort of secret code in the way that all fashion is.”
Sam Handy, vice president of design at adidas football
“There’s a real shift in culture in that a pro baller now can express themselves and change the game on and off the pitch. There’s been a beautiful stretch of the definition of what it means to be a pro footballer.”
“We remain authentically rooted in soccer culture… making players play better and I think that’s what adidas has always done to create the future. So the culture for us is honouring the player, [helping them] score more goals, run faster. And I think from the kit design [perspective], expressing the culture of a club or federation in as new a way as possible – that’s our innovation, design, authenticity.”
Lucas Capozzi-Shanks, founder of Scenes NY
“Creative Soccer Culture is about being able to impact the game in your own way. We love playing but it’s those moments when it stops that allows us to be creative in a different way but still still revolve around soccer.”
“I took 200 pairs of vintage shorts that I have, all the details and what I loved the most about them, and turned them into my first pattern which was specifically a pair of soccer shorts.”
Photography Phil Provencio
