EE: Hope United
Social media at it’s best can be a great space for sharing ideas, connecting with people around the world and for keeping up to date on the things and people we care about. But as we all know, there’s a dark side too.
Online abuse of all forms has been a much talked about topic in recent years, but it seems that the powers that be are still struggling to get a handle on it. It’s a massive problem in the sporting arena, particularly sexist abuse aimed at our female sports stars.
Last year, EE launched Hope United, a campaign against online hate. It has been created by the mobile giants, with the help of Saatchi & Saatchi, and features an array of household names from the world of football and beyond. And most crucially for us at Kitlocker.com, it features a very unique shirt.
Lionesses such as Lucy Bronze, Lauren James, Ellen White have teamed up with their counterparts from the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish national teams in the fight against online hate. The men’s teams have also joined the campaign, with the likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Andy Robertson and Gareth Southgate all stepping up to make a change.
As part of the launch campaign, EE produced this har-hitting and impressive advert, featuring a host of stars from the men’s and women’s game.
The level of detail put into the shirts is incredible. Each of the 30 Hope United players have a unique design, relating to the data from the abuse they’ve received online. The incredibly talented team at The Mill creative agency developed an algorithm which meshed positive and negative content relating to the specific players and outputted the design.
Where Kitlocker come in…
We were approached by Saatchi & Saatchi to work with them on this campaign in conjunction with The Mill, after they were referred to us by our partners at The FA and Nike.
Our initial involvement in the campaign was to work closely with the incredibly talented and creative people at The Mill on the design for the Hope United shirt. Firstly, we were provided with a rendered 3D model of the potential kit. Using our knowledge and experience of working with these types of garments, we took that model and established what the specifications for each shirt would need to be. There were lots of complex factors to consider at this stage, including how different sizings, from childrens to adults, would affect the unique patterns of the garment and how this would need to be tackled at the production stage.
Once all of this was established and agreed upon, we set upon sourcing an appropriate partner factory that could produce the Hope United shirts to our precise requirements.
Once the base of the shirt was produced and delivered to us at Kitlocker HQ in Sheffield, our next task was to apply all of the post-production embellishments. Some might consider these to be the finishing touches but these are the pieces of the puzzle that make a football shirt a football shirt.
Our final role in this incredible campaign is the fulfillment of orders on behalf of EE/BT. With shirts being sent all over the country to excited customers who were inspired by the message behind the campaign and the unique design elements of the shirts.
All in all this was an incredibly successful campaign and a real honor to be involved in it. Hope United received nationwide attention via TV advertisements and Social Media content featuring some of the biggest names in sport. We demonstrated our capabilities on multiple fronts, including expert embellishment, efficient logistics, industry knowledge, meticulous sourcing and collaborative design.
The EE Hope United shirt is available to purchase from the EE Store, with 100% of profits going to The Cybersmile Foundation.
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