Creative Directors In Football: Why Should Fans Care?

The Premier League 2023/24 season has been – from a fashion standpoint – one of the most notable ever. Football fans and fashionistas shared a heated bloke-core-fever over the summer, and Wales Bonner’s latest & second sold-out collection with adidas is seemingly carrying the hype of fashionable football into the winter. Matching football jerseys with denim bottoms and sleek sneaker silhouettes have been trending vigorously on TikTok and Instagram, and other collabs like Martine Rose x Nike and Napoli’s Giorgio Armani kits are just a few examples of the infatuation that fashion has in football. But back in August, something notable happened with fashion’s heated holiday love affair with football. 

The trend of collaborations suddenly shapeshifted into a long-term partnership as Crystal Palace announced their first-ever creative director, Kenny Annan-Jonathan. And with that, an essential role in fashion now officially became a part of a Premier League club’s business model and according to Kenny Annan-Jonathan, there’s more to come: “Ever since my announcement I’ve heard a lot of conversations, and I think it is needed! Things have been evolving for a very long time and clubs have been doing creative things on certain levels, but now it’s about how to push and drive the creative elements within sports. Right now you're seeing the change happen, and I welcome it!” he said on a call from Ghana, where he was visiting the local artistic talent, Nana Danso, and working a boxing event with one of the athletes signed to his PR & Sports Marketing agency, THE MAILROOM.

But football fans can be notoriously protective of not only the club they support but the sport as a whole. Mention the addition of VAR to the sport and it will be viciously discussed. Note FIFA’s continued accusations of corruption and hear the deep sighs of disapproval. Spark conversation on the transfers of players to the Saudi League and you’ll hear fans claiming that top players are sell-outs. It seems as though the majority of football fans are not necessarily ecstatic about change – and why should they be, when they are supporting what is famously referred to as “the beautiful game”, implying football’s perfection of sports. So, why should creative directors suddenly be a part of fans’ favorite clubs? What’s in it for them?

“This new role is about how we can better the community of clubs through apparel. Design is a universal language that people can experience and connect with, and for a long time brands and clubs have tried to send messages and engage with their fans solely through these extremely specific performance-enhancing player kits that the general fan would probably not use on a day to day basis – and this doesn’t make sense to me” says Kenny Annan-Jonathan, as he passionately continues: “For me, it’s about creating club offerings that can communicate to the many micro communities within the biggest sporting infrastructure. Storytelling will be a much bigger part of the Crystal Palace offerings – something that fans can connect with. For example, Crystal Palace is one of the most multicultural clubs within the Premier League – fanbase and player-wise – and sometimes we haven’t offered a clear representation of that. So, this role of mine is to provide apparel, experiences, and collaborations that really speak to the many groups of core Crystal Palace fans.”

What Kenny Annan-Jonathan says he wants to achieve with this new role within the Premier League sounds admirable. But from the most critical standpoint, this new role is perceived as just another way of clubs capitalizing on the €25.2 billion European football industry, and Kenny Annan-Jonathan is not being naive to that take: “Of course I understand that some might believe that. In this world, almost everything has some sort of financial reason. It’s a conversation you can never shy away from, right?” he states before repelling: “But for those people, I go back to the root of what made them connect with the sport. It could have been a club achievement, or a player doing magic on the field. But for some, the hooligan culture and like the fight clubs could have been someone’s way into supporting a club – as absurd as that is, right? What I’m saying is that people connect differently with culture. Right now the evolution of that is way bigger, obviously because of social media, so the amount of different mediums in which people connect with football is growing. Why can’t one of these mediums be through the love of fashion?” he states. 

Around the time of the interview, the Netflix documentary on David Beckham had just topped hit-lists around the world, and Kenny Annan-Jonathan pointed exactly to that as how David Beckham was drawing in a new crowd for the sport. He did it through his spectacular work on the field, but also through his handsome traits, his taste in fashion, and his collection of cars – things that non-hardcore-football fans could relate to. “Someone’s first entry point into understanding a football club could be through a collaboration they’ve done with your favorite brand. Newcomers could be like ‘wow, this club is really forward focused on apparel’, and then the next step could be checking out what the players are about, and what the club is about.” he explains. “We should be following the ever-evolving landscape of not just football, but life. That is why the creative director role is important for the club, but also for the fans, because we tie in all of the communities together in order to engage with each other, and with the sport that they all love.”

Even though the creative director role is brand new to the Premier League, there’s been previous and ongoing examples of it. Notably within the MLS League Cup, which Guillermo Andrade from 424 has helmed as creative director. Birmingham City FC joined forces with one of sneaker culture’s favorite shops with UNDEFEATED as their creative lead. And outside of football, the role is grounded firmly within the NBA, with Daniel Arsham at the Cleveland Cavaliers and Ronnie Fieg at New York Knicks – and Colm Dillane, the founder of KidSuper, who also designed collections for all of the 30 NBA teams. The product of the partnership between clubs and designers named above have already been released or previewed for fans to indulge in, but Kenny Annan-Jonathan’s output has been intentionally a little more under the radar – for now at least.

“In terms of the creative reach I’ve been given, the landscape is wide open. But what I don’t want to do is to run before we walk. There’s a lot of things internally that we have to build out. The focus is of course apparel, product offerings at the club store, and special projects. But right now, it’s about building out the team, looking at the club's history, and digging through the archives.” states Kenny Annan-Jonathan, and even when he’s poked a little harder, he still keeps some of the inner workings close to his chest: “It’s too early to give out information… But we’re trying to tell stories of London – especially South London, where I’m from, and where Selhurst Park is. It has a very distinctive tone. A cult-like community that is really patriotic about where they’re from. A lot of different stories within the borough of Croyden, branching out to the southwest and the southeast. Telling the story of the players that came beforehand, tying in the old with the new, and getting significant voices from our community to join the journey.” he says, slightly revealing the creative direction of club apparel and special projects in the workings for Crystal Palace fans.

So, should the fans care? Well, Kenny Annan-Jonathan believes the new role can provide fans another level of engagement and another way of enjoying football culture by cultivating a modern take on clubs’ brand. And it could rake in new fans, ultimately expanding the growth of football clubs – financially and culturally. Most importantly, it could provide two industries – fashion and football – and two parties – clubs and fans – an opportunity to intertwine deeper with each other. 

And don’t worry – of course we asked the creative director of Crystal Palace what his all-time favorite kit is: “Oh, wauw. Okay, hold on. It’s too hard to choose my favorite one, but one that I really liked was the 1997-98 season kit. But Crystal Palace is also really known for their sash designs, which I like, where it goes across the chest, so you will kind of see that brought back in a few different styles. But the 1997-98 kit definitely comes to mind.”