Forward Madison Is Built For Times Like These
A look at the inner workings of the much-beloved Drip Kit and its release show a soccer club built to take over the world, pandemic be damned.
If you’re not from the United States, and you’re tasked with coming up with an American soccer team, a names probably leap out at you first. You’ve most likely heard of the LA Galaxy, home of David Beckham, Robbie Keane, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, among others. Maybe it’s newcomers to the American soccer scene, like LAFC or Atlanta United.
There’s also a chance, however faint, that all you can think about is that damn flamingo team in Wisconsin. And that, my friend, is by design.
Forward Madison, a team whose brand principles are at least partially based on trying to be America’s second-favorite club, aren’t strangers to international acclaim. That sounds stupid to say for a team that’s only been in existence for two years, but it’s true. Madison’s merch drops are the stuff of legends, whether that’s a new kit or a gravy boat. Maybe it’s the inherently ridiculous nature of Madison’s city bird legally being the plastic lawn flamingo, maybe it’s the bombastic color coordination of the pink and blue, maybe it’s the baked-in irony, but Madison is up there with America’s favorite teams, despite playing in the third tier of American soccer, where the first tier often feels like other countries’ third tiers (it’s a joke, take a breath, it’ll be ok). The release of the brand new “Drip Kit” only continues that tradition. Even if it all had to come together in the middle of a pandemic.
“We were a little behind on our timeline for the alternates. We had to scrap the direction we were going, and this was around the turn of the year when COVID-19 had taken off overseas,” says Chase Eagen, Director of Merchandising. “Typically, the design process is a lot of emails with Hummel, and we’re never actually at the factory or able to interact with the factory. There’s always a little disconnect.” The factory that would have produced Madison’s newest jersey sensation was Chinese, and was going to be shut down due to the virus for at least three to four weeks. That wasn’t going to work for Madison. “We went to Jeff Duback, the president of Hummel USA, and expressed our concerns. He said ‘we understand this, we’re looking for other options domestically. Would you be able to fly out to LA and meet me at the factory?’ We went to our ownership group, and they were all-in to see what the other options were.”
All-in might be the best way to describe Forward Madison, an attitude that starts at the top and flows all the way down to the merchandise being sold, the social media presence, and the supporters group the club inspires. The switch from a Chinese manufacturer to an American one would be more expensive, and the Drip Kit did indeed see a price bump up to $85 from the usual $79. The bump could’ve been more, if it weren’t for an ownership group that understood what it takes to produce jerseys that are impressive, but also that people can actually buy. “On the club side, our owners absorbed the additional cost,” Eagan says. “Obviously, our price had to go up some, on our end the expense [of producing the kits] was more.” Kuba Krzyzostaniak, Director of Brand, chimes in on the price point as well, pointing to the need for affordability: “We want to keep our jerseys at a fan-friendly price point as much as we can. We think $85 is still a pretty good price, with the added benefit of producing in the USA… We have a good dialogue with The Flock, and we reached out to them when we were thinking about making the switch. We laid it all out for them, and they were ok with it.”
What many don’t realize is that the $85 they’re paying for a Forward Madison FC jersey is actually still discounted in a way: Eagan says that the kits sold from the Madison store are actually “on-field authentic.” All the Madison shirts being worn in the stands by their fans are the same material and quality that their players are wearing on the field. $85 doesn’t sound too bad when authentic MLS jerseys are going for as much as $135 on team websites, right now.
Still, manufacturing and selling jerseys in the time of global disease isn’t easy. And, as a USL League One side facing what looks to be a near-complete loss of ticket revenue for the 2020 season, Madison’s primary source of income becomes jersey sales and creating something of a feeding frenzy around new merch drops. Eagan and Krzyzostaniak have spoken previously on the pressure created by the club to constantly be out-doing themselves, but I had to wonder, was there pressure financially for the Drip Kit to perform well in sales?
Nope. And that stems from Forward Madison leadership as well.
“As far as regular season merchandise, we do a lot of private label stuff, which has a five to seventh month lead time. The ship was already sailed before we knew we wouldn’t be playing to start the season,” says Eagan. “But we’re very fortunate to have our fans still come out and support us in this ‘season without a season.’ And our ownership group wants to inspire us, make sure we reach our full potential, make sure we are innovators in this space. There was some pressure on Cassidy Sepnieski, our deisgner, but ultimately I think that pressure helps us to amplify our brand and put our higher-quality products with the support that comes from our ownership group.” Krzyzostaniak agrees, pointing to the pressure the club and its employees puts on themselves to perform at a higher standard, not a fear that “if this flops, the club is going to go under.”
The more you talk to the pair, the more you realized how Forward Madison was built for a time like this. At a moment where sports around the world are threatened, and minor/lower tier clubs bear the brunt of that threat, Madison is still thriving thanks to the space they’ve carved out for themselves in the global soccer consciousness. Yes, the irony and goofy social media stuff is fun. Yes, the kits are ridiculous and, somehow, always cool. But they’re also a club legitimately poised to come back from the virus break stronger than ever as a brand, because the brand they’ve built is so strong. In just two years, Forward Madison might have one of the most loyal followings in the United States. And you can’t separate the social media or the merchandise or the club crest and label them just as “gimmicks,” because it’s all central to the branding whole. Forward Madison is a club made for the Internet. And in a time when all of our interaction has transferred to the Internet, that means they are a success, USL League One club or no.
“We don’t see ourselves as being just a third division team,” says Krzyzostaniak. “We're not going to be quiet and stay down in the third division. Online, we don’t see why we can’t be as big as anybody else. We’re a first division digital club.”
Looking around the digital neighborhood, you can’t say he’s wrong.
It’s hard to picture another scenario where a USL team becomes the toast of American soccer (and trust me, as a person who had a Rochester Rhinos signed jersey as a teenager, that pains me to say). But even now, while there is still no soccer happening in the United States for at least a couple more weeks, the never-ending Forward Madison train rolls on, buoyed up endlessly by jerseys and t-shirts, sailing in branded gravy boats to a place where you don’t need to be in the first division to be the biggest club in the country, and you don’t need to be winning the Champions League to gain international attention.
You need owners who aren’t afraid to break away from the norm, and designers and managers who aren’t afraid to go crazy. There is a method to the Forward Madness. And if a pandemic can’t stop them, I don’t know what will.