How Arsenal became fashion’s favourite football club

Arsenal has been instrumental in the rise of women’s football, too, with all women’s matches this season due to be played at the 60,000-capacity Emirates ground — a first for the Women’s Super League. A recent report compiled by Visa predicts the commercial value of the women’s game to increase sixfold over the next decade, and Pacer’s Gilbertson sees Arsenal’s investment as savvy. “The shift in recoding what football is and who it’s for is super important in terms of cracking open [women’s football] potential for fashion brands,” she says, pointing in particular to the LGBTIQA+ part of the fan base. “I play football with a lot of queer women, and the Aries collaboration was blowing up the Whatsapp group,” she says. “It’s a brand that has style credibility with streetwear-adjacent followers but it’s also very resonant within sapphic culture in London.”

For brands, working with a football club with 126.5 million followers across social platforms no doubt appeals. The reach is significant: Lefty data reveals that Labrum’s earned media value (EMV) grew by 997 per cent following the Emirates show, making it the fastest-growing brand at London Fashion Week. (EMV is the equivalent advertising spend to achieve the same number of impressions.)

For the club, working with brands like Labrum appeals to their fans — but beyond them, too. “Collaborations like these open up us and our partners to new audiences with different, intersectional interests,” says Gardiner. “We know there’s a huge global audience who crave that sense of belonging to Arsenal, and brands like Adidas and now Labrum and Aries have done such a good job in appealing to different supporters and serving them with style choices.”

Dumbuya, meanwhile, has seen an undeniable impact; thanks to the Arsenal kit, he’s become something of a celebrity. “People come up to me on the train,” he says. “Everywhere I go, everyone is wearing the kit, even at [Notting Hill] Carnival. My friends were teasing me saying, ‘Oh, you’re famous now.’”

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