Trash Compactor: The Freshest Scam & the World's Game
Drawing the line between fashion and the grotesque. And making fun of that Balenciaga shirt, because that thing sucks.
“Design is the freshest scam. Quote me on that.” That is something Virgil Abloh tweeted and subsequently deleted in 2012. Abloh is an architect by training who has gone on to be a creative director at Louis Vuitton, launched his own incredibly successful brand, Off-White (those expensive shoes and clothing with the zip ties on them and words printed on them like “Shoes” and “Laces” and stuff? That’s Off-White), and even recently just designed a new Mercedes-Benz G-Class.
That quote from 2012 doesn’t serve as some sort of “gotcha” statement for everything Virgil does now. He was proving how true it was himself that very year, when he launched his first personal brand, Pyrex Visions. Essentially, he bought blank, dead-stock Champion sports wear and Ralph Lauren button ups, and screen printed designs on them, sometimes paintings, sometimes the number 23. Those Ralph Lauren shirts? He bought them for $40, before printing some things on them and turning around to sell them for over $500. And let me tell you what: those things sold. You can still go on Grailed and find people selling those hoodies for hundreds of dollars.
High fashion and the way street fashion infiltrates it, or vice versa, is often predicated on assigning value to something because a certain name is attached to it. Not necessarily how good quality the garment was or how expensive it was to make, not even necessarily how good it looks. In that sense, fashion and soccer are ready bedfellows. Look no further than the persistence of the European Super League concept, an idea that hangs around and is designed to keep old guard teams on top of the world. No Champions League qualification, just the most expensive brands in the world facing off against all the other most expensive brands in the world. It is a theoretical league designed to connote luxury and greatness simply by existing, without having to worry about competitions against smaller, poorer teams that could possibly damage these brands.
In this world, who is the scammer and who gets scammed? I’m not sure as to the answer to that question in an overarching, metaphorical sense, but I am very certain that this week, Balenciaga is the scammer and whoever buys this stupid shirt is the one who being scammed.
In a bid, perhaps, to continue proving that value is inherently attached to nothing but the name printed on a shirt, Balenciaga released a $780 soccer jersey exclusively designed by a soccer video game company attempting to come up with team names and jersey designs for fictional clubs when they can’t get the image rights to all of the teams in Belgium, or something. Oh, and the video game is from 2004, too, because look at how that thing fits.
There is no redeeming quality about this. The graphics are horribly dated. The cut of the shirt and the sleeves make you look like you’re doing some weird crossover cosplay of Smalls at the beginning of The Sandlot. There are three (!) separate Balenciaga logos on the front of it, each one in a different style and each one looking more and more like the sort of off-brand you find at a TJ Maxx while looking for cheap workout clothes. One can assume the price point of the jersey itself was derived from these logos, which apparently cost $260 apiece.
So, why does all this fashion stuff matter in the first place? It matters in the sense that fashion, clothing, and personal style is it’s own art in and of itself. It matters in the sense that things that look good are more likely to be bought. Hence you see clubs going out of their way to not only make their kits look good on the field, but also off of it, which gives rise to things like Manchester United’s third kit, a uniform that I think misses the mark as a full soccer kit, but will be sure as hell worn by several rappers at concerts next year and will subsequently move many, many units.
But we’re not really talking about fashion when we talk about Virgil Abloh or this Balenciaga kit anymore. We’re talking about luxury, which is its own market altogether. And in that sense, I don’t think design is the scam, per se. I think that luxury is the scam. The idea that something is prestigious and rich and worth oodles of money just because it is what it is. In a way, that goes against everything that soccer is about. So many of the best players to ever play the game came from poor families, immigrant families, people who were surviving the day-to-day. So many of the people who love the sport and those players and teams are still in that exact same place. And an ugly-ass, $780 soccer kit does a little bit more than simply exist as a testament to luxury brands being able to do whatever they want. They serve as a grotesque reminder to fans that can’t even afford the already-expensive $70-$100 kits of the team they support. They divide who has and who has not. And soccer, at its best, doesn’t give a shit about who has what.
Yes, that doesn’t always work out that way. The big clubs figure out ways to stay on top, most of the time. The rich stay rich. Talent, at its most basic level, is undeniable, however. It will shine through. There’s a reason Sheffield United placed better than Everton last season, and it has absolutely nothing to do with how much money either club spent.
Luxury design doesn’t function the same way. It doesn’t answer to the likes and dislikes of people around the world. It props itself up with the people who buy simply because they can buy, who have to show everyone around them that they have not. And I think that sucks.
This has been a long and winding newsletter today, and I’m not exactly sure what it’s all supposed to be about. The message, I suppose, is “don’t get scammed.” The game, despite how earnest and cringey this sounds, is still beautiful. Sometimes you just have to look harder for the beauty than what it might immediately present to you.
Tobin Is Red
And I expect Christen will be soon, as well. I have a take brewing about all these American transfers to the WSL, but I’m going to let it stew for another week or two.
Fantasy Premier League
Me and my brother run an FPL League called WTFPL, because we’re very mature. There’s prizes for the winner of the league, so if that’s your kind of thing, go ahead, hit this link, and join up!
CP10
Christian Pulisic was given the No. 10 shirt at Chelsea, which is very exciting and cool! But also, this is how y’all sound today.
It’s Wednesday, my dudes. Have a good one.