Following the trail blazed by Venezia FC, a new team has announced itself on the style scene: Athens Kallithea. The Greek second division side have announced themselves with a new visual identity and home and away shirts that instantly mark them out as ones to watch
Ted Philipakos, the man behind the disruptive rise of Venezia FC, has been working on a parallel project in another European cultural capital that’s closer to his roots, this time leading the takeover and transformation of a football club in Athens, which has now presented a new name — Athens Kallithea FC. That rename also comes along with a new visual identity designed once again by Bureau Borsche (they were key in Venezia’s recent rebrand), as well as the club’s new home and away shirts for 22/23, designed by Borsche and produced by Kappa that exhibit the high aesthetic standard of Venezia but in a unique style of its own, as the team prepare for a promotion push to join the likes of Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, and AEK Athens.
Founded in 1966, the club are based in the Athenian district of Kallithea (meaning “beautiful view” in Greek), playing 1 km south of the Acropolis at the small but distinct Grigoris Lambrakis Stadium.
While renaming the club as Athens Kallithea FC from Kallithea FC, Munich-based design studio Bureau Borsche were engaged to develop a new visual identity, which features a stylised “AK” crest as the centrepiece. The club’s traditional blue and white have also been updated, while gold was introduced as a fresh complementary colour. Both shirts express a modern minimalist take on classic Greek aesthetics.
The home shirt arrives in a deep navy base with a white polo collar. Gold, navy and white details feature on the cuffs and collar, while the Kappa branding and modernised club badge are also gold.
The away shirt is then white with navy and gold details throughout, notably on collar and cuff and on a delicious centre stripe that runs from collar to hem. Golden embellishments again feature in the form of that sleek, redesigned crest and the Kappa Omni logo, which features on the chest and at the top of both arms.
“The game has a beautiful heritage in Greece, but that’s been tortured over the last 15 years, which was set in motion by UEFA systematically marginalizing football outside of the top five leagues, and made worse by the country’s most important stakeholders not working together and generally falling out of touch,” said Philipakos. “At the core of the mission of Athens Kallithea FC is to contribute in our own small way to a repositioning of football in Greece.”
The Athens Kallithea home and away shirts are available now at shop.akfc66.gr
