Fountain of Yus - #006
Invading your inbox once again, with issue #6 of FOY. This time discussing football, collabs, fashion and creator economy
adidas Football launch ‘Pitch, Please’ initiative
adidas Football has partnered with Powerleague and VERSUS to make 150 hours of pitch space across the country free for women and non-binary players.
The initiative was born out of the insight that 59% of girls drop out of the game due to lack of opportunities and facilities.
Speaking to Beth Anderton-Allen, my colleague at Amplify and player for grassroots club, Ex-Girlfriend FC, the issues are much deeper. Most pitches in London, for instance, are unavailable due to the pitches being booked by men's teams. Without mentioning the cost to book these pitches which in turn becomes another barrier of entry, there are intangible yet reversible limits placed on the potential diversity of the game. Lastly, current women's leagues are not inclusive of non-binary players, making it even harder for womens teams to find a safe space to play the game.
With all of these issues limiting the growth the game beyond the men’s version, the importance for brands to step up and play a role in addressing the issues heightens. This is a great initiative for adidas, especially on the back end of the Women’s Euros.
However the problems in the women's game need long-term solutions. With Pitch, Please only set to run for the month of August, one begs the question, what happens after?
Jean-Paul Gaultier Fashion Freak Show
“To blend clothes, people, social classes, genres...and have fun with it“. – Jean-Paul Gaultier
Famous for championing the unconventional, Jean-Paul Gaultier has always used his brand as a medium to connect with different subcultures and merge worlds. Through this building foundation, we’ve seen JPG explore the relationship between fashion and art through his work, then fashion and film. His latest exploration is the Fashion Freak Show, which serves as a celebration of the designers' relationship to music.
Hosted in London, the 52 shows provide ample time and opportunity to explore 50 years of Pop Culture through the eyes of one fashion's greatest designers during this period.
Guests can expect a spectacle of dancers, circus artists, and fashion shows, accompanied with generational hits from disco to punk and everything between.
The show is on at the roundhouse until the 28th of October, find tickets here.
Kim K launches neutral earphones with Beats
Kim Kardashian collaborated with Beats by Dre to release wireless earphones in neutral colours, staying true to her Skims clothing line.
This collaboration arose through Kim’s initiative, she presented the idea to Beats and they took it on board. The idea came from the fact that she had never seen headphones in neutral colours before and wanted to create electrical accessories that blend in as opposed to scream out loud.
This collab differs from the traditional one, where the brand usually gets the talent to endorse a product, instead Kim is bringing her brand into the world of a legacy brand like Beats by Dre. This is an attitude we’ll continue to see in this new iteration of the creator economy where creators are taking more control of their narrative on top of building their own network effect
Ultimately, Kim is a fashion icon, fashion is all about what we wear and how you wear it, therefore it only makes sense for the technology accessories we wear to be fashionable too.
Watch the announcement video here
size? official kickoff ‘The House Party’ series
In partnership with VERSUS, size? Kicked off its ‘The House Party’ series in Brighton last weekend.
The series is a celebration of football culture across the UK's biggest cities including Brighton, London, Bristol and Manchester. Each edition will be themed around an important moment in the football calendar and address important issues within the game.
For Pride weekend, VERSUS took over Brighton’s size? store for a series of panels discussing pride in football and the importance of making the game a safe space for all fans. The panel featured Rinse FM’s Jordss, Lewes FC captain Ellie Hack and VERSUS writers, Amie Cripps and Mayowa Quadri.
Throughout the night, queer dance party collective Gal Pals dished out the tunes while attendees also indulged in FIFA battles and interacted with fellow community members.
On review, the partnership is not only authentic but a reflection of the progress made in football in recent years to not only become more inclusive but closer to culture too. VERSUS as a platform focuses on the intersection between football and culture while Size? are of course a sneaker store. With music and fashion being a big part of the football world, we can expect such partnerships to become the norm in the future.
Instagram strikes back
Instagram recently announced new developments in the app aimed at boosting revenue for creators. First up is the monetisation of reels, content creators will be able to earn $5 for every 1000 views they get on their reels. On top of this, Instagram has also launched a subscription model, allowing creators to charge viewers for access to exclusive content, including; subscriber Chats, subscriber Reels, subscriber Posts, subscriber Home.
The new iteration of the creator economy presented a great threat to platforms like Instagram as creators seeked a bigger share of the financial pie (rightly so). We’ve seen a lot of creators make use of subscription models through platforms like Substack, Patreon, Discord and even Twitter of late. There’s a growing demand for predictable income platform-models, it was therefore in Instagram’s best interests to adapt.
These new features are also a punch back against TikTok, the competitor app that has all the larger platforms fretting. However TikTok, for all its greatness, still falls short when it comes to rewarding creators, especially in comparison to YouTube.
While trying to mimic TikTok may not prove fruitful with creators let alone their audience, these new features will certainly bode well with creators and improve the value of creating on Instagram.
Yuseful Notes
Off-White set to become AC Milan’s official formalwear partner
GRM DAILY hosted their annual gala earlier this month
Somerset House launch ‘This Bright Land’, a month long series of events, workshops and performances
Rinse FM launch ‘Summer Terrace Party’ a 6-week affair of parties every thursday, entry free
adidas floated giant heads of Mo Salah and Miedema across London as part of their #Xspeedportal rollout
That’s all for now
Until next time,
Yus