The Story
Two months ago I made the move from Brisbane in Australia to Berlin in Germany to learn a bit more about the world, get closer to European football and devote more time to my online projects. Anyone who has been to Berlin will know that in addition to its excellent football culture – 50,000 supporters at a second division football match anyone? – it also boasts a rather spectacular night life.
Back home in Australia I made a habit of going to the local pub in the wee hours of the morning to watch the games, often with my brother Patrick and a host of other Brisbane Gooners (see below), dressed in my Arsenal kit to show my support for the boys.
The Brisbane Gooners
But since moving to Berlin, where the football is on at a more reasonable time and there is always something social going on after the games, the opportunity to wear my Arsenal shirt has been few and far between. No bouncer in their right mind is going to let a guy into a bar or club wearing a shirt that says ‘Djourou 20’ on the back and cycling 30 minutes home on a cold and windy night just to change shirts is hardly an ideal solution.
Then one night a thought occurred to me: what if there was a way of combining football and fashion in such a way that I could follow up a night at the pub supporting Arsenal with a night out on the town without having to change shirts? I quickly emailed my friend Mel Baxter, founder of graphic design company Moonshine Madness, shared with her my concept and we started to throw around some ideas.
One and half months and a hell of a lot of late nights later I am pleased to announce the launch of The AFCB Shop.
The Shop
Home of the best unofficial Arsenal t-shirts, hoodies and stickers on the web, The AFCB Shop balances football culture with modern fashion to produce shirts that look good, fit superbly and celebrate the unique culture of the Arsenal Football Club. Quality is very much the name of the game: all designs are printed on American Apparel products and are available in multiple colours and sizes for both men and women.
There are four designs to accompany the launch of The AFCB Shop, with new designs to be added regularly, and I’m excited to share them with you below.
The Art of Song
Two years ago Alex Song was unloved and unwanted. Now we can’t get enough of him. ‘The Art of Song’ is a representation of Song’s raw physicality and new-found elegance: a portrait still unfinished, a story with many plot twists to come.
Click to purchase 'The Art of Song'
You’ve Only Come To See Eboué
‘You’ve Only Come To See Eboué’ is a celebration of one of the true cult characters of the modern game. In a world of ungrateful, overpaid footballers he is a breath of fresh air: hilarious, melodramatic and infectiously honest. So put down your Korean textbooks, take off your tiger suit and throw on this tee to celebrate the genius that is Emmanuel Eboué.
Click to purchase 'You’ve Only Come To See Eboué'
Chamakh Attack!!
Holy heart-thumping hat-trick, Wenger! It’s a Batman-inspired Marouane Chamakh tee to pow-wow the Tottenhams and Chelseas of the world into the stratosphere! Whether it’s in the air or on the ground the ‘Chamakh Attack!!’ is relentless. Defence is futile so get outtathaway!
Click to purchase 'Chamakh Attack!!'
In Arsène We Trust
Trust should always be given out with caution. But after 14 years of loyal service, the discovery and development of some of the most engaging characters to play the modern game and an unwavering desire to play attractive, enterprising football Arsène Wenger is well and truly deserving of ours. ‘In Arsène We Trust’ is about believing in the beautiful game, about being unafraid to conquer evil with class and dignity. After all if you don’t, who will?
Click to purchase 'In Arsène We Trust'
Purchasing a shirt
Each of the t-shirts shown above can be purchased here at The AFCB Shop for the very reasonable price of £16.80 (excluding VAT for people in the EU) and Red Bubble, the brilliant company that handles the production and customer service, ships worldwide. So whether you’re living in Bosnia, Brazil or Bermuda, there’s nothing stopping you from supporting your team or indeed, the Arsenal FC Blog.
Please note: Upon entering The AFCB Shop, regardless of where you live in the world, please change the currency to Pounds Sterling (GPB). This will ensure you get the best price possible.
Before I go today I just want to say a big thank-you to everybody who has read and commented on the blog over the past three-and-a-half years. As I’ve mentioned previously your comments, feedback and support have inspired me to pursue football writing and online projects as a new career and I hope today’s launch is a step in the right direction.
One final thing: if you have any ideas or concepts that you would love to see turned into future designs, be sure to contact me on admin@arsenalfcblog.com. This blog’s biggest strength is its intelligent and positive community and judging from the superb comments that are often posted I find it hard to believe there isn’t a killer idea out there waiting to be developed.
Yours sincerely,
Andrew Weber
AFCB Founder
Have your say on the launch of The AFCB Shop by leaving a comment.
I like the t-shirts! I’ll have to get a couple for my Holiday to Barbados 🙂
@ Roystan – Ah, perfect! Sounds great.
Yeah the t-shirts are awesome! get more in ASAP! Request a Cesc, Nasri and Arshavin one!
Hey Andy, one thing. When you go to the site and are viewing a shirt, can you choose any of the colours available underneath the picture? E.g. Theres the Song one where the image is grey or red, but can you change the colour of the rest of the shirt or are the only available in that specific combination of grey with yellow shirt and red with grey shirt??
good idea, designs not attractive enough though! when you’ve come up with more i’d like to buy one 🙂
Great idea and I for one will be ordering a few once there is a little more choice…Just one thing though…you say the t-shirts are 19.99 english pounds…when I change the currency from dollars to pounds (due to the favourable exchange rate) it shows as 16.80 pounds a shirt. obviously better for me but wasnt sure if it was correct or not so thought id point it out.
@ Lee – You can change the colours – just click on the one you want.
@ Laura – Glad you like the idea, there will be more designs in the future. Feel free to email any ideas if you have them.
@ Lux – If the shirts are being delivered outside of the EU it removes the VAT tax. It is indeed favourable 🙂
One with a sexy design for Fabregas saying ‘Let’s get Cescual’ or something about his very sexy style of play being Cescual would be awesome. But thats just an expression my friends and i use, not sure if many would like that haha
great idea, some awesome designs so far. i especially like the Song shirt. and i agree with lee, designs featuring fabregas, nasri & co would go down just great.
may i suggest a few ideas –
– the verminator
– something to do with ‘cescy’ in place of the word ‘sexy’ – e.g. “bringing cescy back”, etc.
also, would be nice to get some classics like bergkamp, henry, david seaman and his mo…
Any chance of getting a football nomad tee on there?
@ C-Bass – Football Nomad shirts are coming. I’ll be setting up a similar store sometime in the future. One step at a time.
Great idea Andy!! 🙂
For some reason the links don’t work for me? I tried both the text link as well as clicking on the picture, but it only takes me to a Redbubble page saying:
“Now where did we put that page?
The page that you requested doesn’t exist anymore, but don’t worry, there are lots of other interesting things on RedBubble.”
Any idea?
@ Berrern – Hmmm – can you try it again now?
They are some really awesome ideas and good shirts
might buy some when i get the chance to do so
Excellent Andy, it works perfectly now!
Must say I’m really impressed with the designs so far… I already know what my brother’s getting for Xmas – will likely get one for myself too 🙂
yes i do love