Labrum London Pays Homage to Africa in New Arsenal Away Kit
Foday Dumbuya’s fashion brand notches another achievement, designing a remarkable and thoughtful away kit for English soccer club, Arsenal.
The Arsenal away kit for the 2024/25 season is a celebration of the club’s connection with its fans across the black diaspora.
English football club Arsenal and its jersey-makers over the last few years, Adidas, have unveiled the away kit for the 2024/25 season. The new alternate, which will be mainly worn at Arsenal’s away games, was designed in collaboration with LABRUM London, the fashion brand by Sierra Leone-born Foday Dumbuya.
The jersey, a celebration of Arsenal’s connection to its supporters across the Black diaspora, is built on a black base and features a hand-drawn zig-zag graphic that flows from the underarm to the sides and down to the shorts. The graphic is a representation of the flow and movement of people, as well as a celebration of the pattern designs found in many African fabrics.
Adding more color to the design, the collar and shoulders of the jersey are adorned with stripes in green and red, colors that are traditionally associated with pan-Africanism.
Alongside the kit, Labrum and Adidas also collaborated on a five-piece capsule collection featuring two jackets, a tee, a jumper, and track pants. “Each piece showcases a reworked Labrum London logo with the 'Nomoli' icon, symbolizing protection and prosperity from the Mende and Kissi tribes of Sierra Leone,” the website for the collection says.
Like all of his work, Dumbuya’s integral contribution to the new Arsenal jersey reflects his guiding principle of bridging Western and West African cultures, and telling stories in the process. Born and raised in Sierra Leone, before moving to Cyprus at age 12 and eventually settling in London, Dumbuya’s designs foreground his West African heritage, merged with Western tailoring practices.
In the decade since he founded Labrum London, the fashion brand has grown at a remarkable rate and earned Dumbuya high praise. Last year, King Charles III presented Dumbuya with the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design, an award that spotlights Labrum as a fashion brand making a “difference to society through either sustainable practices or community engagement.”
This new Arsenal away kit is the second time this summer Labrum is collaborating with adidas, with Sierra Leone’s Olympic contingent set to grace Paris with thoughtfully designed kits helmed by the pair. For Labrum, it’s the second time running it’s dressed Sierra Leonean athletes for the biggest sporting event in the world, following its 2020 outing.
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