Delivered client work

A fashion label's football collaboration programme

Four drops in twenty days — 30 order lines and 13,784 units across jersey, fleece, nylon outerwear and embroidered bombers, for a fashion label working with two European football clubs.

Market: Fashion collaborations
Status: Delivered client work
Client: A contemporary fashion label, in collaboration with European football clubs
Named only with the client’s written agreement. Available on request.
Credits: Development, sourcing, production management, quality and delivery — Apex Studio. Creative direction by the client.

Image pendingClient hero — collaboration range, jersey and outerwear together

Challenge

A fashion label collaborating with two football clubs at once, across four separate drops inside three weeks, with four different construction families in play — cotton jersey, heavyweight fleece, technical nylon and embroidered bombers — each needing a different specialist and all needing to look like one programme.

Creative intent

Club identity translated into a fashion label's own product language rather than into replica merchandise. College and rugby silhouettes, a nylon tracksuit family, and bombers heavy enough to carry full embroidery as the range's anchor pieces.

Product architecture

Short-sleeve jersey shirts in 270 gsm cotton, including a contrast white-collar version
Rugby shirt, long-sleeve polo and raglan jumper in 100% cotton
College and raglan college sweatshirts as the volume core of the range
Pullover and full-zip hoodies in 480 gsm fleece
Nylon track jacket and track pant in a 51% polyamide / 42% polyester / 7% elastane shell
Collegial bombers in three constructions — wool and leather, satin, and cotton canvas

Development approach

Four drops planned as one critical path rather than four projects, so the same jersey and fleece qualities carry across clubs
Construction families split by specialist — cotton jersey, heavyweight fleece, technical nylon and bomber-making are four different disciplines
Repeat styles re-quoted per drop against the same specification, so a second run is a reorder and not a redevelopment
Bomber embroidery treated as the long-lead item and started first

Materials and techniques

270 gsm 100% cotton jersey and 480 gsm fleece as the two recurring bases
Technical nylon shell with elastane for the tracksuit family
Wool/leather, polyester/cotton satin and cotton canvas bomber bodies
Heavy embroidery as the primary decoration across the bomber programme

Production route

Split across specialists by construction — cotton jersey and fleece with a knit house, the nylon tracksuit family with a technical-outerwear maker, and the bombers with a specialist capable of heavy embroidery on wool, leather, satin and canvas. One critical path and one approval calendar held across all of them.

Quality approach

A sealed sample per style per drop, with repeat styles measured against the sealed sample from the previous drop rather than re-approved from scratch. Embroidery on the bomber bodies tested on production material before bulk, since density behaves differently on wool, leather, satin and canvas.

What was produced

30 order lines and 13,784 units produced across four dated drops between 26 March and 14 April 2026.

Details

Image pendingPackaging and presentation — box, bag, hangtag, tissue

Four drops, one programme

The hardest part of this programme was not any individual garment. It was that four drops landed inside twenty days, across two club collaborations, with four construction families that live in four different factories.

Treated as four projects, that becomes four sets of approvals, four colour standards and four chances for the jersey in drop one to look nothing like the jersey in drop three. Treated as one programme, the recurring qualities — the 270 gsm cotton jersey, the 480 gsm fleece, the nylon shell — are approved once and carried forward.

Where the specialisation sat

Cotton jersey and fleece. The volume core: jersey shirts, rugby shirts, polos, college and raglan sweatshirts, pullover and full-zip hoodies. One knit house, one set of base qualities.
Technical nylon. The track jacket and pant use a polyamide/polyester/elastane shell — a different make entirely, and a different supplier.
Bombers. Three bodies in one drop: wool and leather, satin, and cotton canvas, all carrying heavy embroidery. This is specialist work, and it set the calendar for everything else.

The repeat-style discipline

Several styles recurred between drops at different quantities. Each was re-quoted against the same written specification and measured against the previous drop's sealed sample.

That is unglamorous and it is the whole reason a programme running this fast stays consistent. It also means the client ends the programme with a documented, reorderable range rather than a pile of one-off purchase orders.

Permissions
Published without naming the client pending written approval. No club marks, crests, kit graphics or collaboration artwork are reproduced here. Commercial terms are not disclosed.

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