1/2 Nicole saves many football shirts and gives them a new life
Professional football clubs play in new shirts every season. But what happens to the worn and unsold clothing? At the company FC88 in Vught they know what to do: they give the shirts a new life by reusing them. Company founder Nicole Bekkers thinks it is a shame that many hundreds of thousands of garments go into the oven or shredder every year. “It’s a topic that many clubs and brands don’t talk about.”
Nicole worked for many years at the KNVB football association, where she focused on commercial matters. When the Dutch national team did not qualify for the 2018 World Cup, she wondered what would happen to the new shirts. “The players would wear them for a few practice matches at most. I heard that the clothes would go to storage and then be destroyed. A shame. That was a revelation to me, there had to be a different way.”
She started with her own full wardrobe. “I regularly received new shirts from the Dutch team or from the opponents. I chose ten shirts and called a studio in Tilburg to ask if they could make a bag out of them. That became the laptop bag that I still have. Many colleagues liked it so much that they asked if I could make something similar for them.”
“A shirt is much more than a piece of polyester.”
It was the start of the FC88 company in Vught, which she officially founded in 2021. “1988 was a great year for Dutch football, including winning the European Championship. Many at the time thought the shirt was ugly. It is now unaffordable. I believe that a shirt is much more than a piece of polyester. There is a story behind it and it brings back memories.”
Nicole didn’t exactly start her company at the lowest level. With Juventus and Club Brugge, for example, well-known clubs were quickly added to the customer base. “A multi-year contract with the European football association UEFA also followed. For example, we have made Christmas gifts from UEFA materials. And we use Champions League banners to make toiletry bags or backpacks, among other things. Over the years, the KNVB and several major clubs joined. It is a revenue model for them to sell the products that FC88 makes to fans.”
“It’s like a candy store to me.”
All no longer used clothing is sent to FC88 and developed into a new product in one of the studios in, for example, Portugal, France or Macedonia. “At the front we select which clothing we can reuse. For me, as a football fan, it is sometimes like a candy store. Together with the customer we look at what the wishes and possibilities are. It could be anything, we’re just not allowed to make new shirts from it.”
The studios each have their own expertise. “All products are made by hand. In terms of price, we are somewhere between the mass and exclusive markets. There is clearly a demand for exclusive products, especially in football. For example, a product from us may have been worn by a top player from your favorite club.”
FC88 is doing well and will soon open a production location in Los Angeles. The American market is also no longer new. “Well-known American clubs in ice hockey and American Football, for example, come to us instead of the other way around. And so we make more trips to other sports, such as cycling and equestrian sports.”
“We want to save as many clothes as possible.”
FC88 wants to grow further, but Nicole continues to find sustainability most important. “What we do is unique. It was a process of trial and error, but we believe in the process upcycling (ed. you are talking about upcycling when old or unusable materials are transformed into something that is valuable again). We don’t want to get rich, but we want to save as many clothes as possible. Fortunately, there are now clubs that donate their old clothing or give it to youth training, for example. We hope to convince many more people of the benefits of reusing clothing.”