Napa Valley 1839 FC’s 2019 Home Shirt
Founded in 2016 by Josh Goss, Arik Housley, Jonathan Collura, and Michael Hitchcock, Napa Valley 1839 FC began play in 2017 outfitted in kits by Adidas. Then then moved to Stimulus in 2018 and this year, the club was wearing custom kits made by FBT, or Football Thai Factory Sporting Goods Co, Ltd. The new shirts are absolutely stunning so we reached out to Napa to get the story on their threads—Daniel Morales, their marketing and social media contact answered our emails.
First Adidas and then Stimulus, now FBT - what led you away from the big-name kit supplier and into the realm of custom design? FBT is not a well-known brand in the US, why did you go with them?
It’s been three different kit brands we’ve worn. As you mentioned we started with Adidas. Ownership decided for such brand to keep the consistency between Napa Valley 1839 FC and our youth development club Napa United. This consistency continued with Stimulus and our Napa United 1839 Academy teams. Stimulus allowed us to design what we wanted and not go with generic designs that top brands offer.
The two tones of green make the new shirts by Thai manufacturer FBT really pop on the pitch (Photo: Don Lex)
This year's shirt is phenomenal, does the design come from within the club or do you let FBT know what you're looking for and they come up with something? What's the story of Napa 1839's aesthetic? Who designed the badge, what are the meaningful elements and why are the vivid colors such an important part of your branding?
One of our part owners, Joshua Goss is a big fan of jersey designs. He wanted even more creative freedom and FBT offered that to us. Mr. Goss wanted our kit to represent the Napa Valley, just like our crest. And indeed, it does, Chris Payne is not only the designer of the 1839 FC crest but also our current jerseys. Chris did in amazing job in bringing the Napa Valley vineyards to life in our kits. You see two tones of green and the patterns vineyards take all over our Valley.
We love our kit! By far we all agree that the 2019 kit designed by Chris Payne is our favorite out of the three so far. It represents our Valley very well and pays honor to all those who work very hard to maintain the vineyards looking beautiful. If it wasn’t for them, perhaps this jersey wouldn’t exist today. Our away kits have the same design but in all burgundy to represent the red wines.
The kids of Napa United, their affiliated youth soccer organization, look great in green (Photo: Don Lex)
What are some other clubs from around NPSL, UPSL or other leagues, whose kit YOU love? Does seeing other clubs rock unique shirts inspire you to do something even more special with Napa 1839's?
I’d have to say that I am also a big fan of the FC Davis kits, it’s a very unique design that I haven’t seen anything similar anywhere else.
The new Oakland Roots kits are also very nice, it’s simple but very clean and the numbers have that wonderful vibrant design.
Some clubs have found ways to get their shirts on consignment into local retail shops - it’s a clever way to sell a shirt when it’s not matchday. Do you have any arrangements like this? How can fans and kitnerds get their hands on your shirts and other gear?
Our kits at the moment are only sold online and at our home matches. We had not discussed with any merchants about selling our products.
The kits are only available on matchdays and online