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

For more information, or to pick up a kit from Napa Valley 1839 FC.

- Joshua Duder

PDX FC, of the NPSL, has worked with Hummel as their apparel provider since its founding in 2017. For the first two year, the club proudly wore the Danish brand’s standard Core SS soccer jersey. However, behind the scenes they were working with Hummel to put out a custom jersey which accomplished two things: kept within the guidelines of their branding, to connect to the city of Portland, Oregon and to release a shirt that somebody on the other side of the country would want to wear. Mission accomplished.

The shirt was released mid-week sometime in May and within 48 hours, some sizes were sold out—this was unexpected and more shirts had to be requested from Hummel to fulfill the orders. Orders had shipped out to New York, California, and as far as Argentina and England. For something which took nearly a year to be completed, it was a bit of surprise to see the positive reactions. They knew the design was sophisticated but fell within the comfort zone of soccer fans, but really, the kit was always meant to lend the PDX FC squad an identifiable on-pitch branding.

Since the new kit’s debut, PDX FC have beat their Portland rival twice – it might be one to keep

From the onset, the club had always worn black and gold, with white as the alternate top. While some soccer fans love all black kits, others think they’re just a marketing gimmick and that clubs should stick to their team’s colors. For PDX FC, this is both and the results are elegant and original. Despite having reworked their badge in 2018, the team’s owners, Luke and Max Babson, insisted on sticking with the original colorways and it was a great choice – few clubs have a badge and a kit which stand out as original and professional.

From discussion early on in the discussion of a custom-designed soccer jersey, it was an imperative to make sure the design for the home shirt wasn’t too experimental, and worked within the norms of what soccer fans are used to seeing. Fans in Portland have always coveted a “Hoops” look and at the onset of planning, it was decided to go that route, but use subtlety rather than a big bold design to accomplish this. Sketches for both a black kit with gold trim, as well as a white kit with gold trim, were submitted to Hummel to create test kits. Both Alfonso Poblete, of Santiago, Chile and Portland soccer supporter, Aaron Flynn contributed to creating the 3D modeling which gave Hummel the guidance to create their mock-up templates.

This initial 3D modeling by Alfonso Poblete, was beautifully done and selected from a handful of images he produced for Hummel to create their mock-ups and tester kits.

When the test kits arrived in the fall of 2018, it was decided that the colors might need a slight adjustment, and that the club wanted to make space on the shirt for sponsors – this meant that the plan for sublimation and production had to wait until the sponsors and their respective location on the shirt had been decided upon. If you work in soccer in America, at this level, then you understand that this had the potential to be a lengthily postponement, but absolutely necessary to ensure that the sponsors would be well-represented on the shirts and that no additional printed would have to be done, getting all branding sublimated would be cost effective and ensure the longevity of the branding on the shirts.

Hummel turned the original sketches into pre-production kit mock-ups. Only one each of either shirt was ever made.

By early Spring 2019, the sponsors’ location on the shirt had been decided upon and the final draft was sent off to Hummel to produce the primary kits. Budgets at this level of soccer are tight… like, very very tight. So only one of the two designs could be made. The owners went with creating a custom “home” kit first and sat on the design for the alternate, or “away” whites. Instead, they stuck with the tried and tested Hummel Core SS and added a couple of Hummel’s keepers kits to the order. In that time, PDX FC’s season began and they would be found wearing the alternates, which they luckily already had.

As the weeks went by, anticipation grew, everyone was eager to see something which took so much care to finalize. Finally, the call came in from the owner that the shirts were in, and that they looked as amazing, if not better, than expected! The announcement was made on social media, the product was added to the club’s online shop and before their first match in the shirts, they had sold out of a couple sizes and generated a little excitement. Since their release, the club have picked up a few wins in the league and looked pretty good doing it!

- Joshua Duder

PDX FC, of the NPSL Northwest, look good and feel good in their black & gold Hummel kits.

For more information about PDX FC, or to check out their online shop: https://www.pdxfc.com/

Napa Valley 1839 FC’s 2019 Home Shirt

Designing PDX FC