Tottenham Hotspur and kit partner Under Armour launched new home and away kits in an initiative revolving around club legend Bill Nicholson.
The former player and manager is one of the club’s greatest icons and 2014 marks the 10th anniversary of his death.
The initiative, ‘Echo Of Glory’, aims to pay tribute to Nicholson’s great achievements and significant contributions to the club.
The campaign builds on one of Nicholson’s most famous and inspirational quotes:
‘It is better to fail aiming high than to succeed aiming low. And we of Spurs have set our sights very high, so high in fact that even failure will have in it an echo of glory.’
Fans are also offered their own personal opportunity to engage with the initiative and salute the club legend through an immersive, digital experience running through the season.
Supporters are invited to add their own voice to the ‘Echo of Glory’ by tweeting messages of support to the team using the hashtag #SeizeGlory.
These supporter messages are then being digitally sewn around the body of Brazil midfielder Paulinho to create the new home shirt.
The home kit, which sees a traditional lilywhite shirt set off by a navy blue horizontal stripe running across the chest – includes a jacquard running across the shoulders that bears the ‘Echo of Glory’ quote alongside a graphic pattern inspired by the famous Bill Nicholson gates which lead up to White Hart Lane stadium on Bill Nicholson Way.
Yellow taping on the sleeve cuff and collar adds an additional colour flash to set off solid navy blue shorts and white socks.
While the new away kit features a yellow highlight down the front of the black shirt, with 11 stripes signifying the number of trophies won during Bill’s reign.
The official launch was fronted by a set of leading Spurs stars – including Andros Townsend, Erik Lamela, Christian Eriksen and Emmanuel Adebayor – while an online film starring Paulinho (seeded on Spurs own channels and those of Under Armour) drives fans to the SeizeTheGlory digital hub.
Fan engagement is further incentivised by offering lucky winners both the chance of seeing their message of support printed in the match day programme and of winning match tickets to Spurs games.
Comment
Sewing fans messages into shorts fabric has been around for several years now.
In fact, adidas All Blacks ‘This Is Not A Jersey – Adithread’ campaign was built around a similar mechanic and ran was back in 2008.
Nevertheless, by building the initiative around an appropriate anniversary of a club legend and by linking the initiative to other owned assets (like the traditional match programme), as well as a ticket sweepstakes, this joint Under Armour and Spurs initiative adds a fresh twist to the approach.
This is a multi-platform engagement initiative in which each element is neatly matched to an appropriate fan platform.
Links
Seize Glory Website
http://www.seizeglory.com/#/tweet/
Tottenham Hotspur Website
http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/
Tottenham Hotspur Twitter
https://twitter.com/SpursOfficial
#THFC
#Spurs
Under Armour UK YouTube
