Bradford City have collaborated with lifestyle boutique The Chimp Store to launch their 2015/16 home and away kits.
Launching a new kit is often a work of art in itself. Many clubs build campaigns showcasing the latest technological developments and innovations that the fresh wears contain. That is all very good – we're big fans of the finer detail.
In some cases though, strong composition with like minded creative folk gives a platform for the product to speak for itself. In this case, The Chimp Store – a home for street wear, provide the perfect launch partners as Bradford City commissioned them to look after the imagery.
Speaking to The Chimp Store we found discovered a little more about the project...
How did the collaboration come about?
Our creative director Neil Bedford has an existing relationship with the Friends of Bradford City supporters group as he recently loaned them 60 shirts, dating back to 1976, to be displayed permanently at the club. It was during this process that relationships were formed and we are now pushing to help both the supporters trust and club however we can. We proposed last year that we’d like to help with launching the new shirts but the timing wasn’t quite right, so it was a fantastic feeling this time when we knew we’d be able too.
What did you most enjoy about working with the club on something like this?
We are huge fans of Bradford City, having season tickets and travelling the length of the county most of our lives, so to work on this alone was an amazing buzz. We don’t work within football at the store, we are a fashion based business, so for the club to recognise the work we do and want their images shot in our style was incredible. As any fan, seeing shirts before they officially launch is exciting enough, but to have them in our warehouse made us far too giddy.
The hardest part being not sending out picture messages to all our friends, incase it leaked early, which as I’m sure you know, is annoying for any football club! Also, with the shirt being made by Nike it adds that little bit of extra excitement. Im not sure if you know much of the relationship between Nike and Bradford City, but it wasn’t until Arsenal had a shirt made in a very similar hue to our claret that they were able to offer the club shirt templates, something which we personably believe has really helped the club.
Have you noticed a shift in the world of football off the pitch with lifestyle elements of the game becoming ever present?
With the world now being dominated by social networks and the ability to share everything you do i think there is a huge influence on people who are interested in both football and fashion. Its easier than ever to see what your favourite players are wearing and to then find out how and where you can buy things from. Football has never been more powerful, so to have this as an influence for fashion is only a good thing, especially in terms of business. We now see more and more images and videos of players in their downtime, something which for us at least, is more interesting than the images of them playing or being involved in football directly and gives us a real feeling of what their lifestyle is like.
Are there plans for The Chimp Store to do more in the world of football?
As we mentioned before, we are a fashion based business, so going into the world of football as a sport would be a no for now. We do often get football shirt inspired pieces from brands such as Stussy, HUF and adidas which keeps us excited, as they are offer both us a bit more of a stylish way to wear football shirts. We’d obviously love to be able to offer our creative eye to anyone who appreciates it, either in football or any other sport, so we can’t say we won’t be doing something similar in the future and I’m sure we’ll be working with Bradford City and TFoBC in the meantime too.
The kits themselves, both smart in simplicity with the home moving from the traditional stripes by introducing fading checkers and the away a solid black with tonal checkers, these Nike shirts keep things original making it ok to wear a football shirt outside of game time once more.
Harnessing cool, these kits and launch are right on the money.
Big thanks to The Chimp Store and Neil Bedford for taking the time to tell us more about the launch. The home kit will go on sale on Thursday 7th May with the away expected to be out in June.
