Case Study: Forest Green Rovers Apparel
It's in our history, we love crafting apparel before we evolved into the client serving agency you know today, we'd cut our crust with our 9-year strong streetwear brand that was at one stage wholesaled all over the world, under the independent retail world went a bit wobbly. Because of that, we've always had a soft spot for wearable art, so when English professional football club Forest Green Rovers came calling to ask us to create them a line of AnyForty curated apparel and merchandise we snapped their green fingers off!
If you didn't know, South West based Forest Green Rovers are officially the world's greenest football club, Sustainability is central to everything they do. From solar panels and electric vehicle charging points at The New Lawn stadium to their vegan matchday menu, everything they do is with an eye on looking after this planet of ours.
With that, we've so far helped them to release two capsule collections of organic, eco-friendly clothing, screen printed on premium organic cotton and recycled polyester blends. The first drop was in Winter of 2017 by French artist Short which sold out in a matter of months, and in Autumn of 2018 we helped them create their own lifestyle brand called 1889, a nod to the date the club was formed, which saw us create some slick, simple, memorable branding which can appear over various ethical products seasonal, for the FGR fan that may not want to wear the more in your face AnyForty collabo's, the first drop consisted of a tee, a polo, a hoodie, a crewneck sweater, a windbreaker and a bamboo cap, all gracing the 1889 branding. As part of the 1889 collection we also dropped a epic tattoo flash inspired capsule collection, featuring stunning art by Australian artist Dale Bigeni.
Watch this space as we update this case study as our collaborations continue into the new seasons and beyond!
Interview with AnyForty Art Director Alan Wardle about the Forest Green Rovers capsule collection by Short
Detail close up of our We Are Forest Green Rovers design by Portland based artist Short, beautifully screen printed designs on a super soft organic cotton and recycled polyester garments
Slideshow: A selection of images from the lookbook we shot with FGR's photographer Alex Tyler
The 1889 branding we created for FGR's own lifestyle brand is simple but bold one colour branding that can be reproduced easily in screenprinting, embroidery, reflective vinyl, embossing, you name it.
Alongside the main 1889 branding, we created a simple double stacked variant, to allow different use on garments without being repetitive
As well as designing the entire collection, we also sourced and manufactured all the garments, including this recycled bamboo strap back cap
Slideshow: A selection of images from the lookbook we shot with FGR's photographer Alex Tyler for the 1889 x AnyForty collection, all artwork by Sydney's Dale Bigeni
1889 x AnyForty football scarf, Dale's artwork replicated so well in knitted form
Closer look at the details on the 1889 x AnyForty scarf being worn by FGR goalkeeper James Montgomery
There's not many artists that can craft hand drawn type equally as well as they can illustrate, Dale Bigeni is one of them, how clean is this "We Are Forest Green Rovers" script tee?
Video introduction to the 1889 lifestyle brand, again interview with AnyForty's Alan Wardle. Click above to watch and then head here to get your shop on!