You know who Sports Banger is.
He’s the guy who made those NHS t-shirts with the Nike tick on. He’s the one who made the FREE TULISA t-shirts. He’s the one who dressed Skepta as a postman on Top of the Pops. He’s the fashion designer who constantly calls bullshit on brands trying to culturally appropriate themselves all over blocks of flats for the sake of a photo shoot that has a ‘streetwear’ ‘aesthetic’ hashtag urban.
His next work has been long-awaited, as the Tottenham-based designer has been teasing images of an old five-pound note stuck inside the sole of a trainer. A trainer that was, until now, of an unnamed brand.
You might have put your bets towards a Reebok collab. He’s put their logo upside down and on t-shirts in the past and has kept his love affair with Reebok Classics a secret from no-one. But nah. He’s doing something much more brilliant. He’s releasing a collab with Slazenger.
The brand was formed in the 19th century and, despite being synonymous with Wimbledon and also being the suppliers of the World Cup final match ball that Geoff Hurst smashed against the underside of a Wembley crossbar, few people talk about Slazenger as a brand of great heritage. Rather, it’s left on the shelves of Sports Direct. It’s seen as an option for those without the money nor ‘sneaker head-ness’ to pay for a more expensive brand. It’s a brand that might provide a few pairs of socks or the sort of trackies you whack on when you know the most formal thing you do all day will be going to get milk.
But Banger is throwing up two fingers at those who look down on the brand, advertising this work as ‘for the many, not the few.’
Fashion’s Corbyn, ‘this generation’s boss of UK bootleg culture,’ has got a Slazenger shoe dropping on the 15th June for the humble price of £29.99. With a fiver being part of this piece, you can take that as a statement about transparent production costs, if you want. Or you can take it to the heart and tremble in fear in your Nike Air Max 2029s, because Slazenger and Banger are about to ruffle some suede uppers in the footwear game.
There seems to be plenty more to come from this debut collab from Sports Banger, with a dressing gown and pieces inspired by the now uniform colour of tennis balls that Slazenger introduced, but until the collection begins to drop on June 15th, here’s Lee Scott and Trellion rocking Slazzy last year.
