In my days as the best ruckman of all time under 6 foot, I would rock up to footy training in birks and socks to change into my boots with a vintage xxl melbourne demons quarter zip.
Style has never been the first thing that comes to mind when you think of AFL, at times it can be the opposite.
My thoughts on style and fashion is that the beauty is always seen in the natural and effortless. The people that don't even realise what they're doing is cool.
I love what's unique to our game; collared singlets, short shorts, knee length socks. Why not embrace that? Why not build our own style embracing our own culture?
It's so ironic to me that AFL players will wear NBA merch like they're not playing the best sport in the world. If they don't believe they are I'm not sure who will.
To me Chris Judd is Kobe Bryant and Buddy Franklin is Lebron.
This week we saw some actor Paul Mescal wearing collingwood footy shorts to smack a run out, people on tiktok were losing their minds. But why do we need Europeans or Americans to come here and always cosign what we have for us to think it's cool.
Last year I did my first Footy Collection and unfortunately I think it was too early of an idea. I'm not sure when Melbourne or Australia will be confident enough to simply embrace what is our own but either way I'll be doing these Footy Collections regardless.
This May I'll be hosting a pop up store to launch the Footy Collection, more info soon.
Cheers, Simo
