Everton have released a collaboration with LA-based fashion brand Anti-Social Social Club.
The Everton store is stocking high-priced jackets, t-shirts, hoodies, pint glasses and a teapot with the Anti-Social Social Club logo from today (30 October) here.
Is a streetwear brand known for its high prices and flaunted by celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Travis Scott really a good fit for Everton Football Club?
Founder Andrew Buenaflor, known as Neek Lunk, launched the brand back in 2015 as an emotional outlet for his depression and it quickly became popular with those embedded in internet culture. Despite it’s noble beginnings it quickly became a brand for rich kids and troublesome celebrities such as Kanye West.
In recent years ASSC has launched collaborations with other brands including F1, Call of Duty, Minecraft and Barbie.
The latest one is at Everton, where the brand has reportedly tapped into ‘fan culture’ with some images shot at the The Terrace Bar.
The result is an eclectic mix of items including those terrace classics; varsity jackets, teapots and some hoodies with the ASSC logo. Prices are an eye-watering £150 for the jacket, £45 for a teapot and £110 for some track suit bottoms.
It is interesting that Everton and retail partner Fanatics have once again gone down the American route when it comes to merchandise. The frankly bizarre baseball range was so universally unpopular that it’s probably the only range launch that remains available in club shops neary a year after launch.
Another US brand focused on ultra-expensive streetwear and viral internet culture seems like a strange fit for a football club whose fanbase is decidedly local. While the Friedkin Group have been casting eyes towards the US market and has been open with its ambitions it may have taken its eye off the large number of local fans.
Probably the most successful launch in recent years was the one-off Heritage Shirt, which was a popular bit of merchandise with a clever launch and plenty of interest in the club’s adult fanbase.
Does anybody at Fanatics or Everton ever stroll around the Fan Plaza before games and simply take a look at what the average Everton fans wears? The club could collaborate with Liverpool sportswear brand Montirex and sell out in a day.
When the club does team up with a local brand it also tends to go a bit wrong. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the Castore gear but it just feels lazy. The merch is just standard Castore fare with a small Everton badge ironed on. The training gear with a giant winged Castore logo and the word ‘Everton’ in miniscule letters is an astonishingly poor effort, while every half decent hoodie or t-shirt instantly becomes unwearable because of huge logos and paragraphs of text on the back.
In defence of the club the Everton Essentials range of £30 hoodies and simple t-shirts are about as close as you can get to a solid, affordable range that fans will love.
But in reality Everton fans still have to look outside official channels for genuinely good streetwear and leisurewear. The cost and quality of fan offerings often outperforms that of the club and actually taps in to what fans actually want.