Diving Into the Trend of Soccer Crossovers With American Sports | OneFootball

From the NFL to basketball and baseball, we’ve seen plenty of inter-sport crossovers involving the beautiful game. We highlight a few, and get to the root cause of it all — money, of course.

Why do Premier League clubs release NFL jerseys?

The crossover between American sports and football — or soccer, I should say — isn’t a newer thing. We’ve had this for a while now, where European clubs will release merchandise tailored towards an American audience, using American sports as their muse. NFL jerseys, basketball jerseys, and even hockey jerseys have gotten the soccer treatment. It’s one part of an overarching effort to capture American sports fans, which also includes initiatives like preseason United States tours and collaborations with American celebrities.

But is this trend about growing the game, selling out, or stepping into global fashion culture?

If you browse the likes of Tottenham, Arsenal and Chelsea’s archive of merchandise, you’ll find a ton of American-inspired stuff. Arsenal have most recently released a U.S. tour shirt inspired by the classic pinstriped jerseys synonymous with baseball, otherwise known as America’s pastime. It’s not just English clubs doing this, either. The Arsenal shirt formed part of adidas’ wider baseball-inspired release which includes clubs like Real Madrid, Juventus, and Bayern Munich.

🔗 Instagram

🔗 Instagram

PSG, perhaps the king of team merch, has released a wide variety of gear inspired by American sports as well. In addition to baseball and American football jerseys of their own, the club collaborated with basketball star Kevin Durant for an incredibly luxe line that included a varsity jacket, custom Air Force 1s, a basketball, and travel gear from Paris-based label Au Départ.

Of course, the NFL also had to get in on the action. By far the biggest sports league in the world when it comes to revenue, we’ve seen plenty of American football-style jerseys from clubs like Tottenham, PSG, and Barcelona. Most recently, the NFL went in the other direction, cooking up a set of soccer-inspired jerseys for all 32 teams in collaboration with Fanatics.

American soccer teams have also joined the trend, and we’ve seen basketball-style jerseys from LA Galaxy, LAFC, and Orlando City SC, among others. As the sport continues to grow in the U.S., tapping into other sports’ fan bases to bring more eyes to soccer is an understandable strategy. Design a cool-looking basketball shirt? Basketball fans might just take notice and clue into the game more. That’s the theory.

The motivation behind this lies in global expansion for soccer teams both in and out of the U.S. A talking point that is probably over-saturated and won’t need more commentary is the notion of teams becoming more brands than they are clubs, and regardless of your point of view on this, it’s true. It was inevitable, and it’s here to stay.

The aim of this crossover into American-inspired merchandise is to target the American and Asian markets, where the American sport aesthetic dominates. Riding the wave of soccer fashion and harnessing the already cemented love for American sports fashion, football clubs can garner a strong revenue stream from non-traditional fan bases.

Crossover culture is strong across sports, especially with superstars in the game operating in crossover spaces. LeBron James supports and invests in Liverpool while wearing their kits, Neymar regularly wears basketball gear and attends games, and even Tom Brady ventured into club ownership with Birmingham City. This all influences the trend and the ever-growing crossover and connection between soccer and American sports.

Probably the most important reason why this is so prominent in the game boils down to one thing: money. Merchandising in the U.S., delivering items focused on the U.S. market, and branching into wider categories away from soccer (including streetwear and homeware) is adding more revenue streams. If a club can tap into the U.S. market with a strong link to their culture via MLB, NFL, or NBA, then from a commercial perspective, why wouldn’t they?

In soccer, heritage and traditions are so prominent, especially in Europe and South America. The game is slowly moving away from putting this first, and instead, teams are looking at how they can expand their audiences in foreign markets and become more of a global brand. One way of doing that is tapping into the U.S. market, which has huge potential for commercial gains. There’s a reason why so many Italian clubs and the Serie A itself are focusing so much on North America.

Alongside this commercial potential, clubs are releasing special edition kits in order to tap into fashion trends. Soccer shirts are fashionable, yes, but there’s a wider trend of sports gear in general. Basketball and American football jerseys are popular around the world, and while soccer shirts seem to be having their moment in the spotlight, it’s this combining of sports gear with everyday lifestyle fashion that is such a significant part of fashion culture. If clubs can tap into that through multiple means, then they increase their selling potential.

This all blurs lines. A worrying trend in Gen Alpha is that this generation seems to support aesthetics, stories, and players themselves over specific teams. They feel less tied to their heritage and the age-old tradition of supporting your local team or supporting the family team. So, with this, there’s potential to influence younger generations to buy more products. Again, it’s all about money and brand growth.

While the increase in merchandise and the movement into American sports fashion is focused on revenue streams and global expansion, the culture is significant. It’s blurring the lines between sports and culture, harnessing the power of sports and fashion to look at brand awareness and growth. Soccer is at the forefront of this and has been for a while, with the NFL starting to tap into the power of soccer, too. We will see more of this going forward, for sure. For me, though, I will never buy into it. I’ll not be repping a Newcastle United basketball jersey anytime soon, trust me…