PlayerLayer Teams Up With Marshall Islands For ‘The Last Country On Earth To Not Have An International Team, Until Now’

The Marshall Islands is the only nation in the entire world to not have a national football team, but in March the country’s football governing body teamed up with Nottingham based sportswear company PlayerLayer to help form men’s and women’s national football teams with the aim of becoming a fully-fledged FIFA member and raising awareness of climate change.

 

PlayerLayer partnered with The Marshall Islands Soccer Federation’s (MISF) to provide connections and apparel support to help design and produce the country’s first official national kit in a partnership with a group of Marshallese creatives.

 

The nation’s new national team project aims to use football as a means to raise awareness of the ecology dangers and challenges it faces. Climate change is also a huge threat to the country and by 2030 many of its islands could be submerged and

 

The partnership was launched with a PR push and a launch film titled ‘The Last Country On Earth To Not Have An International Team, Until Now’.

 

 

PlayerLayer has joined the MISF mission to develop a school coaching curriculum for the islands, build training and playing infrastructure, recruit men and women to form national leagues and a national team and eventually become a FIFA member.

 

In addition to supporting the initiative’s PR launch, PlayerLayer is supporting the MISF project with kit that will grab the world’s attention and the design process is already underway and involves genuine Marshallese creatives.

 

“This project is not only about enabling the Marshall Islands to compete internationally, but using soccer as a means to raise awareness of the plight facing our nation,” explained The Marshall Islands Soccer Federation’s Marketing Director Matt Webb. “The Marshallese are a strong, proud and adaptable people, and we can’t wait to work alongside PlayerLayer to create striking and unique playing kit and apparel that reflects the rich cultural heritage of the Marshall Islands.”

 

“The design and product development process is going to be really fun, look out for some kit that we think can help change the game,” added PlayerLayer Co-Founder Roderick Bradley. “The design needs to be right, it will help encourage buy in and support from people all over the world, it will visually represent the Marshall Islands Football Project.”

 

 

Comment

 

The Marshall Islands is a small Pacific Ocean nation of just 60,000 people: on the surface it may look like a tropical paradise, but the country is facing an existential ecological crisis. According to its government and the UN, if global temperatures rise by a further 1.5 degrees then some of its islands will become uninhabitable. This could happen as soon as 2030, so there is no time to lose.

 

This campaign follows hot-on-the-heels of PlayerLayer’s recent ‘Girls Belong’ equality campaign and product collaboration.

 

PlayerLayer originally launched in 2008 with a single product line of customised baselayers. The design approach was to create simple, durable, multifunctional sports kits that last and which are customisable so that athletes feel a greater connection to their team and thus to make them feel that they ‘belong’. Later a sustainability element was added to the company ethos when it began making its EcoLayer leggings from old plastic water bottles and then its BambooMix kits.

 

Its kit supplier tie-ups range from universities, schools and amateur teams as well as a partnership with EFL League One club Forest Green Rovers (recognised by FIFA and the United Nations as the greenest sports club in the world) and Warwickshire County Cricket Club.

 

Following in the footsteps of sportswear brands dedicated to the environment, like Patagonia which is currently celebrating its 50th anniversary, the brand’s promise is ‘One Team, One Earth, Belong.’