ladbible logo

To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

Artist Designs Amazing Football Shirts You'll Never See In The Premier League

Artist Designs Amazing Football Shirts You'll Never See In The Premier League

His shirt designs are embroidered and printed with sponsors such as 'Doner Kebab' and 'Pie & Mash'

Jake Massey

Jake Massey

In the last two decades, top level football has grown into a major international business.

Clubs spend millions acquiring players, who are in turn paid grotesque amounts for often woeful attempts at acting.


Shirt sponsorship deals are a huge part of the money machine. This season, Premier League clubs will earn £315 million ($403m) from their collective shirt sponsorship deals, according to Sporting Intelligence.

The Manchester clubs - United and City - earn the most from these deals, but an artist from the very same city is designing his own football shirts, emblazoned with sponsors you are unlikely to see in the Premier League club any time soon.

Stanley Chow's shirt designs incorporate sponsors such as 'Pie & Mash', 'Paulo Maldini' and 'Doner Kebab'.

Instagram/stanleychowfc

The 44-year-old uses Pro Evolution Soccer's kit creator feature to see how the design looks on the likes of Eden Hazard and David Beckham, before printing and embroidering the shirts.

Chow said: "It's just me being ironic basically, that's all it is.

"On Pro Evolution Soccer, you can actually design your own kits and stick them into the game, so I used that to see how the actual shirts would look without having to make them first.

Instagram/stanleychowfc

"To a certain degree I am poking fun. I think shirt sponsorship has gone stupid now. You've got arm sponsors now, and if you go to places like Mexico they've got two sponsors on the back, a sleeve sponsor and a front sponsor.

"It's kind of mocking sponsorship in football but it's also praising it as well to some degree, because when shirts first started getting sponsors I remember thinking they looked amazing and they could add to the whole design of the kit."

Instagram/stanleychowfc

Chow was inspired to start producing the shirts after envisaging a football kit sponsored by cigarette manufacturer, Malboro.

He said: "Knowing full well that you can't advertise tobacco, I thought a football shirt with Malboro on it would look amazing because it's such a beautiful brand in terms of its design. So I just thought I'd stick it on a Pro Evo player and see what it looked like - and it looked great.

Instragram/stanleychowfc

"So then I sourced a similar base shirt and took it to the printers and asked them to embroider a badge on. Then I shared it online and people started to message me saying they would love one, so I thought sod it, I'll make em."

Instragram/stanleychowfc

There was a small snag, however.

The Advertising Standards Authority got in touch with Chow and told him he can't sell the Malboro shirts. Chow took them off his site and is keen to ensure the project remains 'a bit of fun'.

He said: "The doner kebab one is like...what's the most ludicrous thing that you can stick on a shirt?

"It's trying to understand branding, design, football fandom and how it works. It seems as if there is no science behind it but I'm sure there is somewhere.

Instagram/stanleychowfc

"I'm trying to take a microscopic amount out of it and see if I can flog it and push it further into my kind of thinking.

"It's all just a bit of fun really, at the end of the day."

Chow, who has made a name for him with his instantly recognisable illustrated portraits of famous pop culture faces, has more designs in the pipeline - it's just a matter of figuring out how to circumvent the challenges he faced with the Malboro design.

He said: "I want to do a kind of Japanese KFC one, but I want to do it without breaching any intellectual property, so it has got to be done subtly. That's the challenge."

To see more of his designs, check out Stanley Chow FC on Instagram, or to buy a shirt, visit stanleychowfc.com.

Featured Image Credit: Instagram/stanleychowfc

Topics: SPORT, Football