Crystal Palace & MRCA: Football and Fashion with Kenny Annan-Jonathan

On the latest Footballco Business Podcast, our guest was Kenny Annan-Jonathan , founder of the Mailroom Creative Agency and creative director for Crystal Palace Football Club . We spoke to Kenny about his career before Palace and his vision for how the club can merge football and fashion.

In this newsletter, we have three highlights from the show, but if you would like to hear it in full, search for 'Footballco' wherever you get your podcasts from or click below.

Catwalk to the Terraces

Fashion's relationship with football is as varied as fashion itself. While high-end partnerships and players walking the runway for Fashion Week might grab most of the headlines, terrace culture has had a relationship with a more 'working-class' asthetic for decades. So, with football and fashion existing across this spectrum, we asked Kenny where he sees his work with Crystal Palace sitting.

That's a very good question. Cause I think this kind of gets left because I think, like anything, when brands start to jump into new spaces, what happens is there's a whole hyperfocus on trying to create luxury. And then what happens is you miss out all the other tiers and what you do is you gradually start to push out the purists or the casual fans, right? And it just becomes about the glitz and glamor. So for me, yes, it is a very broad spectrum. But for me, where I believe clubs should be focusing is across the board. You know, it's all great doing these high-end collaborations, but as I said, the price points probably, are not favorable for the average Londoner in general. Let alone the average sporting fan.

I believe that the day and age of clubs trying to sell their branded sportswear and training gear to average fans, expecting them to wear them on a Saturday is obsolete. It's not comfortable. It doesn't speak of personal identity. It is something to sell numbers. Most of the people that are buying from the club stores are not, it's not, design focused. And in today's market, where even your average high street store is selling premium goods for affordable prices, there is a gap that's being left out in just favorable fashion wear.

When I say that, it's like, how do we redesign the uniform for the average fan across many different spectrums? Because, like we say, now the spectrum of who comes to these games and what they wear is diversified. You've got a younger audience level, let's just say the Gen Zs, who might be more into street wear. Then you might have someone else who is a luxury wearer. But we want more shapes and silhouettes. It isn't always just about the collaborations.

It's saying about how do we speak to these communities that have been left out, but we can still communicate to them through design value, through comfortability and brand identity.

Size isn't everything

While Crystal Palace are a Premier League team, they're far from an elite team on or off the pitch. But when it comes to fashion, could this work to their advantage? While PSG set the bar 2018 through their Jordan colaboration, Venezia proved that size of brand or fanbase comes second to creativity. So we asked Kenny, is there actually an advantage in working with a club like Palace over higher profile clubs with added layers of bureaucracy?

I actually think it's a great thing. I think for the size of Crystal Palace, they're heavily community-based, which I absolutely love. I believe statistically, Crystal Palace is the most multicultural club, actually, from a player perspective within the Premier League. So therefore, we have diversity within there where we're able to speak to different communities and, again, allows us to express ourselves in so many different ways.

I think the size of the club is beautiful. I think you look at the surrounding area, also South London. I think there's an energy that comes from South London that needs to be tapped into. There's, how can I say it? There's a bravado, there's a proudness about being out. Like the tagline of Crystal Palace is South London and proud. That means something. So there's all of these kinds of entities that we can tap into. I think it's a beautiful story. Even if you look at the kind of players that they have, the academy system, everything speaks to the underdog story that is gunning for the top. And I think that is a beautiful element to it.

I don't think there's no downside to it. I think they're progressing, they've announced the building of the new building of the academy and the stadium. We want to be able to bring everything forth with it. So it's going to be a beautiful journey. Steve's doing an amazing job there. Everyone within the Palace infrastructure is doing great.

Players vs Models

Fashion and football tend to collide in one of two directions. Either the label or designer is working with a player to model their clothing, or a club is partnering with a label for a club-led collaboration. In both cases, the players being used in the shoots are chosen in line with the partnership. However, when it comes to the fashion house, they're able to choose the best player for the job, whether that's Ronaldo, Messi, Bellingham or Haaland, regardless of club affiliation. When it's club-led, those players are limited to those playing for that club. Sometimes, this is a huge advantage - it goes without saying that Mbappe being at PSG for the Jordan deal worked well for all involved. But for Kenny, while he sees many positives in having Crystal Palace players to work with, he doesn't think it's always necessary to turn players into models.

Paid models get paid to do what they do because they understand what it's like, what they need to do to sell a product. And that's the difference. Some people, it comes naturally and then others, maybe not so not so much.

Fashion and football has become synonymous when it comes to having conversations when the intersection of sports. If you ask me, actually, I'm probably not super pro athlete led product. I believe that if something is strong enough and you can tell the story behind it, you don't necessarily need the players in the kit. But also, I do believe there's a responsibility probably on myself, and this is because I work with so many athletes and footballers that I want to also design stuff that they can feel comfortable in and feel like they look good in when they are moving around.

I think that is also a big thing for me. We have great people, I think the first names that will come to mind, especially with Crystal Palace is [Michael] Olise and [Eberechi] Eze. They like youth culture, they're flair players. And they look good in clothes too. And there are many more players, but I guess, naturally, they're the two names that come up.

But necessarily, sometimes, they might not be right for a shoot. They will sell product to a certain audience. But again, fashion is bigger than just the entity wearing it. I understand there's influence, but design value and telling the story of why this product was made or the story behind it is what drives visibility and conversation, not just. I say just specifically, the players that are in them. It helps and adds value, but I believe we could have a shoot with all non-sporting individuals and sell a product. It doesn't have to be led by the athletes themselves.

If you liked this edition of the Footballco Business Podcast newsletter or listened to the full show, there's more available in the Footballco Business Podcast archive. Just search 'Footballco' wherever you get your podcasts.