Here’s a new release for the weekend that challenges the concept of the charity football shirt.
The Love is Love jersey is the fourth in a series of shirts from Kit and Bone, the playful and inventive brand on the up; and St Pauli On-Sea, the Southend-based charity football team and official supporters group of the German “Kult” club, St Pauli.
As with their previous designs, this pride-themed shirt will support a charity chosen by the club, with every one of the shirts and sticker packs sold, seeing a donation made to Football vs Homophobia, an international initiative aimed at challenging discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression at all levels of the game.
For our money, the Love is Love shirt is the bravest and most interesting shirt of their collaboration, and shows just how far Kit and Bone have helped the Essex boys develop a distinctive visual identity of their own over the past 12 months.
Yes, the ethos and inspiration of their Kiezkicker brothers is their for all to see in the anti-discrimination messages and causes they promote, but through the evolution of their badge and a characteristic font style; they have certainly put their own anarchic, rebellious twist on the source material.
The spikey end result is an edgy, eye catching shirt that really packs a punky punch.
We thought there might be a little of the Andy Warhol, a little of the Roy Liechtenstein about the finished article but it seems that any pop art reference is purely in our heads.
Matt Pascoe at Kit and Bone told us:
“The pattern in this one was created by taking the waves from the St Pauli On-Sea crest and running the rainbow colours through it, before slicing it up and rescaling those pieces to create those big bold shapes.”
“To make it feel much more in keeping with the visual feel of the club that we’ve worked on together over the last year, I didn’t just want to put a standard rainbow in there, I wanted to push the boundaries of what is expected from a pride shirt.”
As with all of our their shirts, Kit and Bone have created this with fans in mind, so there’s none of that skintight nonsense going on here.
The patterns and logos are sublimated into cool, moisture-wicking fabric and finished with a heat-pressed vinyl club crest, to gives the finished product that authentic soccer jersey look and feel, whilst retaining all the comfort of a casual tee.
Playful, inventive and in support a fantastic cause, this is a lovely piece of kit.
The Love is Love shirt is available to pre-order from Kit and Bone now.
Sartorial Soccer 