Only NY x New York City Football Club
BRIEF
Only NY collaborated with New York City Football Club in partnership with NYC Parks to create their second highly-anticipated apparel collection. The collection centered around the idea of “The World’s Game” with the goal of celebrating New York’s diversity and love of soccer in local parks. Nash served as the creative lead for marketing, working on behalf of Only NY to create the campaign, marketing strategy, and curating the launch party. This page shares a brief highlight of the dynamic content captured to tell the story of “The World’s Game” straight from Queens, New York.
The project comprises of three sections; The Campaign, Unisphere Mini-ball, and the Launch Event.
SCOPE OF WORK
Creative Direction
Art Direction
Campaign
Product Design
OOH Print - Wheatpaste
Art / Object Curation
Photo Direction
THE CAMPAIGN
The campaign included two NYCFC players and two local New Yorkers. I felt it was best to tell this story from two perspectives. The NYCFC athletes represent the aspirations of many soccer fans within the city with dreams of playing professionally; while the local New Yorkers represent the relatability and wearability of the collection, making it feel homegrown rather than big budget. For the two part shoot we chose to document the players in the shadow of the iconic Unisphere within Flushing Meadows Corona Park, and the models were shot in the diverse neighborhood of Corona, Queens which is proudly Hispanic and has a strong connection to the NYCFC team.
A large wheatpaste campaign released the week of the collection going live, and was displayed across the city’s 5 boroughs, with a concentrated effort being shown in the team’s fanbase areas of Queens and Brooklyn.
Some of our favorite selects are presented below.
CUSTOM UNISPHERE MINI-BALL
The heart and soul of the collection and collaboration between brands was based around the idea of “Soccer in the Parks”. That mantra carried through quite literally with the Unisphere being flipped into an actual soccer ball featured on the apparel, headwear, and accessories.
Nash pitched the idea of designing a limited edition Unisphere soccer mini-ball to commemorate the collaboration and give the fans something unexpected. The ball and stand were designed from scratch by Nash with the help of NYCFC vendors for fabrication and production. Due to licensing restrictions the mini-ball was not for sale, and only 50 were produced, with just 10 receiving stands.
The Unisphere miniballs were raffled off online and at the in-store event at 49 Franklin Street with over 4000 raffle tickets to win.
THE LAUNCH EVENT
The launch event for the Only NY x NYCFC collection was held at the Only NY Brooklyn store at 49 Franklin St. in Greenpoint on XX date. The event featured the exclusive release of the limited edition collection, NYCFC player appearances, Uni-sphere Miniball raffles, music by local producers/DJ’s Austin Marc & Travis George of Sundae Sauuce, and complimentary slices by Valentine’s Pizza and beverages by Brooklyn Brewery and Brooklyn’s Best.
Nash planned, coordinated, and directed the event from concept to release date. The event had over 1600 RSVP’s and saw over 400 people come through the doors to celebrate the release, with a line stretching around the residential block. In 4 hours the collection had predominately sold out. Below is selection of photos recapping a successful night in Brooklyn.
