Its our favorite time of year! With the amateur leagues all preparing for kickoff and all of our favorite clubs releasing their amazing kits - not only for the practical purpose of having a jersey and shorts to wear for the year, but also to assail our senses and to woo our wallets. San Francisco City FC, an ideal model of a supporter-owned club, regularly releases fantastic new shirts and 2023 will be no different. We caught wind of the goings on in the city by the bay and reached out to the club for more information about the time, effort, and intentionality which goes into each release.

We've spoken with SFCFC in the past and understand it’s a supporter-operated club - how are roles like "creative lead" determined, how many volunteers work with you on a project like coming up with new kits for a season, and what is the starting point for this process?
Ian: I got involved with the club right before the pandemic, coming from an advertising background and a few years working in-house at Levi Strauss & Co. I didn’t really take the lead on creative until early 2022. The club’s main graphic designer, Vince Sacco (Foggy, Sutro badge, pretty much all merch graphics), had to take a step back from club creative, so I stepped up the best I could, which isn’t much. I’m a copywriter, but I did take several classes for Photoshop and Illustrator. I’m just trying to inspire someone that’s better than I am to want to take over and make us look even better.

Brendan Browne is in charge of merchandise, and we talk about inspiration for kits together. ast year we saw the SF Giants come out with a “Fog” jersey that a lot of people hated and we thought we could make a much better one. Once we have some ideas for each type of kit, I start messing around in Photoshop. Once we have a decent concept we send itoff to our manufacturer to fine-tune everything. We already have next season’s away shirt ready to go, which I’m very excited about. I think each year they just get better and better.

This year, we’ve been focusing more on us being DIY, and held a fan vote for our home shirt. I had three designs and a fan, Todd Jaschke (quick aside: this dude became a member for the first time last season, then at the end of the season upgraded to Lifetime and won a seat on the Members Board of Directors), handed over a design for a shirt (his first time ever doing so) and it won! We have plans to open the designing opportunities to more members going forward.

I'm sure that every penny counts when the club is owned and operated by the fans - how do you ensure the process of making new kits annually is economical? Is it ever profitable or is the cost accounted for in another way; i.e. charity or marketing?
Ian: We see it more as a marketing opportunity. People love soccer jerseys, and when they’re unique and different, they get shared across the internet. For the most part, we recoup all the costs of getting them made plus a little bit of profit (which goes back into the club in other ways). It costs a lot to make, but when it’s all said and done, we come out on top. I would suggest starting this process as early as possible; last year we got our jerseys delivered literally three days before kickoff.

I think small clubs need to do whatever they can to stand out and attract new support. When you have a growing fanbase, it makes getting partners and investment into the club a whole lot easier. And dope-ass kits have the potential to get seen by thousands of people, and you just need one kit collector to see it and share with their huge following. Also, you don’t need to get a big amount; we like doing small batches for now. It keeps upfront costs low, you don’t sit on a lot of inventory for too long, and you get to say they’re limited. For our keepers we order just the minimum required for custom orders, so they’re super limited too. Smaller clubs: use SEO to your advantage.

Last year's kits with Errea were fantastic; did you use the same kit maker for this year? If so, were other manufacturers considered? If not, what led the creative team to that decision?
Ian: I don’t want to speak ill of our manufacturer from last year, but there were things that could’ve been better. We were under the impression that the badges would be rubberized, but they were delivered as sublimated, which sucks charging people $80 for. It was tough communicating with them being based in Italy; several times I was staying up until around1:30am to call their office to get updates. Not to mention sizing was off: mediums were more like smalls, and we unfortunately didn’t order any XXL. Also, one of our keeper kits last year was supposed to be tie-dyed to look like the 1992 Lithuanian Olympic Basketball team, but they couldn’t get it to look that way. We just had to go with what we had or we wouldn’t have gotten them in time. We thought it was halfway-decent until Vermont Green released their tie-dye and killed it. And the Pride kit last year was supposed to be more tie-dyed than pixelated.

So we saw the quality Ballard FC had, and reached out to Inaria. The home and away shirts will have rubber badges, sizes will be more like Nike’s, and we will have XXL.

Tell us about this year's kits; how many new shirts will there be? How many designs were reviewed before settling on the ones chosen? Finally, who is behind their designs?
Ian: Throughout the offseason, I just try and find some pieces of San Francisco to pull inspiration from. This year we had somewhat of a cohesive theme with three of the five being inspired by Golden Gate Park, four if the golden poppy design,inspired by Conservatory of Flowers, won the member vote.

Away kit: Kezar Stadium, our main home. It has an iconic arch that’s like limestone and has this sunwashed pink at the bottom.

Keeper 1: 49 Mile Scenic Drive. If you visit San Francisco, you’ll see these signs all around the City. It’s a self-guided tour with a few spots in Golden Gate Park. The sign is mostly blue with an illustrated seagull. The mood board we sent Inaria for this one did have MPLS City’s kit from last year as inspiration.

Keeper 2: Robin Williams Meadows. (Let’s add “Meadows” so we don’t get sued or anything, though publicity of a fourth-tier club getting tangled in a celebrity lawsuit could be good PR for us.) This keeper is inspired by a certain character he played. On the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge is a tunnel named after him that features a rainbow. There’s also a mural of him in the Haight wearing rainbow suspenders, which is why we went with this character out of all the ones he’s played. He left such an impact on the city, from stories of performing free comedy in the park to just cycling around. He might be the most famous SF resident, or at least most loved, even though he did move to the North Bay eventually. We didn’t want just to pay homage to him with a design, but to do something even more special, so we reached out to San Francisco Suicide Prevention.We’re putting their QR code on the jersey so people can easily donate straight to them to help save lives.

Last year was the club’s first year making unique kits. Keepers often get overlooked and often wear just plain neon shirts. Jorge Campos set the standard for keeper kits, and that’s where we can have that out-there, campy style that is kinda synonymous with San Francisco.

Our third kit, which is always our Pride one, is in partnership with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

I know that each shirt is more than just a pretty design; what causes are being addressed and how were they chosen?
Ian: As I mentioned, this year we have the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence for our Pride shirt and SF Suicide Prevention for one of our keepers. We reached out to the Sisters because they’re an iconic part of San Francisco and the LGBTQIA+ community here. Every Easter they hold an event at Dolores Park, and it’s one of the most fun things that happens here.

For our keeper, we wanted to honor Robin Williams and got in touch with SF Suicide Prevention. We are still working on other ways we can make this kit bigger for the season.

There are lots of causes around us; we’re fortunate to live in a place that has a depth of culture and rich LGBTQIA+ history and organizations. Once the season is over, we’ll start looking for 2024 Pride partners. We have another non-profit in mind to partner with for at least one keeper kit per season, so hopefully we can figure all that needs to be done to get that going.

When will the shirts be released for sale and where can they be found? If folks can't afford a shirt, but want to help the club or the causes associated, how can they assist?
Ian: We’ve held a few preorders for the home and away kits. We have plans for marketing once we release them sometime in April. They’ll be available on our webstore, at home matches, and at neighborhood flea markets throughout the year.

We do mark down our shirts around the holidays to make them more affordable for everyone. We’ll give these 2023 shirts to our team that plays in the local SFSFL, and after that, the game-worn shirts will be available for purchase at an affordable price. We also encourage any member of ours to reach out, as we can always use extra talent, not only with kits, but with merch in general.

We’re in the early stages of having a special kit for the holidays. We’re in the process of getting some local brands to collaborate with, but designs haven’t been considered yet, so it could be an opportunity for someone.

- by Joshua Duder