In August 2023, Crystal Palace Football Club made headlines after they announced Kenny Annan-Jonathan as the Premier League’s first-ever creative director. Not the type of signing that Palace fans might have expected at the time, Annan-Jonathan’s addition showcased the club’s ambition to form deeper connections with its fanbase and engage with the rich culture of London.
And since his appointment, he’s done just that, creating content for fans, as shown in the collection “South London and Proud.” Clinical — they found the winning formula. Looking at the landscape just over a year later, though, creative directors in sports are still sporadic — in the public eye, at least. Frankly, the tide needs to turn, and as more fans want to see their teams collaborate across fashion, music, and the arts, more teams grapple to find their own formula.
The days when fans were satisfied with the bare minimum — match updates, standard seasonal jersey and kit drops, and new player announcements — are gone. Modern fans want — and expect — more, and that’s where a proper creative director comes in. Directors are tasked with bringing the core elements of the club’s identity to life, like the logo, team colors, and merchandise. Equally important is creating and delivering unique content that better tells the story of the club’s history, vision, and values.
Which is why fans have grown thirsty for content that focuses on the personalities of their players, coaches, and teams. Fans want to know what their teams stand for and what they value and promote. And they expect to get it directly from the source.
It’s an expectation set by early adopters of creative directors in the front office, and while Crystal Palace and Annan-Jonathan might have been the first in the Prem, they weren’t the first to adopt the model. That title belongs to former Barclays-era Manchester United striker David Bellion, who took his chances early.
Bellion began his football career in Cannes, quickly attracting attention from a young age, which earned him a move to Sunderland. After a five-year stint in England, spending time with West Ham and the Red Devils, he returned to his native France. He concluded his career at Red Star FC, a linkup that proved the most critical move of his career — on and off the pitch. Directly after his retirement in 2016, Bellion was appointed Creative Director and Brand Manager. Once the fastest player in the Champions League, Bellion has shown a different kind of pace with Red Star, and he’s made strides. In the eight years since his appointment, he has helped solidify the second-division French team as one of the most fashion-forward clubs in the sports world. (For reference, look at their 23/24 jersey announcement, which easily made it into my top five for the season.)
Always a forward thinker, Bellion told HighSnobiety: “In 2001, I was wearing Dries Van Noten, Cavalli, Comme des Garçons, and Yohji Yamamoto in the north of England! I knew I had my own style and it was my personality.”
And it’s this personality that has helped Red Star become a model club for teams aiming to grow their brand off the field. The club produces content around not only fashion but also community involvement, sustainability efforts, and promoting the women’s game. After recognizing the combination of the club’s progressive mentality with Bellion’s artistic vision, other sports teams began to realize the blueprint needed to maximize the creative director position.
Bellion, in particular, checked all of the boxes. He is a native of the team’s city, Paris, has a career background in professional football and has accentuated this CV with passions for fashion and self-expression. But while Bellion seemed a clear-cut hire, a key piece of the partnership came from a joint willingness to take the team in new directions and explore untested methods to grow the brand and connect with the fans.
An understanding of the city’s fans and culture, a professional background within the sport or adjacent artistic areas, and a willingness to lead the team down new creative paths are the key criteria for which creative directors in sports work best. Under the lens of these core factors, we can assess more recent linkups that have moved the needle and pushed the culture.
Since we discussed checking boxes, let’s talk about Domo Wells and the Washington Spirit. In March 2024, the former National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) champions team announced Wells as the club’s inaugural Creative Director & Designer – tasking her with ushering in a new era of culture and creativity for Washington, DC’s premier women’s football club, aiming to capitalize on the new-found surge of interest in women’s sports in the last two years. Like Bellion, Wells is a native of the city and an all-around creative from a background rooted in music and fashion. The former editorial lead of Black Music and Culture at Spotify and founder of Dead Dirt, her creative firm, Wells is most well-known for her work in the music industry as a DJ.
In her debut season, Wells’ work throughout the year culminated in the release of an exclusive capsule collection, “New Growth,” launched during the Spirit’s 2024 playoff run. The collection represented the renaissance of women’s sports and was critically well-received. Wells is different, and as far as creative directors in sports go, this one worked. Like Bellion and Red Star, Wells and the Spirit checked all the boxes. They followed the blueprint to a tee, and we hope more teams can do the same.
So who’s next?For me, Jae and Trey Richards need a strong look. This duo immediately comes to mind when thinking of creators who would excel in the role of creative director, specifically for the NBA’s Toronto Raptors franchise. The Brampton, Ontario natives have created content for over a decade, ranging from YouTube to streaming and long-form videos – even growing into the fashion space with 4YE Media. The comedic pair gained a following after creating skits centered around their everyday lives in Toronto, growing up with immigrant parents, playing basketball, and finding themselves in hilarious situations. They garnered the attention of Drake and Kevin Hart and recently released their debut TV show, “The Office Movers,” on Crave Canada.
They have expertise in the city and its people, which would be invaluable to any front office. They’re not talking corporate partnerships or naming rights deals — that’s not what these brothers bring. Not that they’re incapable in that lane, but they would come with creative ideas to enhance off-the-field activations, bolster the team’s social media presence, and elevate new clothing/fashion collections. Being tapped in is something that is hard to quantify as it involves an ear-to-the-streets presence that is hard for brands to capture, especially those with the size and profile of NBA teams. That’s where creative directors like Jae and Trey would come into the picture. They would provide new creative direction for the Raptors from their perspective, which resonates with the current generation of fans.
As a former collegiate soccer player – enriched with the opportunity to have teammates from around the world – I have seen first-hand the importance of the connection that a team must have inside a locker room and in the community. Players are always attuned to the landscape – after all, they’re an integral part of it. Which is something Isaiah Reid, a Clemson University grad two years into his professional career at Houston Dynamo 2 in MLS Next, clearly understands. After being drafted as a highly sought-after prospect in 2022, the Charlotte Soccer Academy alum used his experience and knowledge in football to co-found Drip FC, a brand that, according to its channels, highlights the intersection of footy, style, and culture. Since its conception, Drip FC has grown – resonating with young people who are attracted to the best on-field styles, celebrations, and trends within the modern game.
Reid’s Drip FC has helped to garner an authentic presence that major front offices struggle to emulate. And he’s shown the ability to move in both spaces, as a professional footballer and as a creative continuing to shape the culture, which is why Drip Fest, the brand’s inaugural in-person event centered around live games, food, and music for the community to engage in, was super smart. Clubs like Reid’s hometown, Charlotte FC, would be wise to watch him for future creative director roles and keep an eye on Drip FC in the process.This might be hard to hear or read, but front offices have become – and continue to be – complacent and comfortable – and need to recognize the changing tide and branch out to find more creative solutions. Franchises, like dinosaurs, move slowly, and fans can do more than sit and wait for them to adopt new methods. And as fans, rather than accept the lack of creativity from your hometown team’s front office, think of artists, designers, and storytellers from your city and think of ways to help build their platforms. And teams are taking notice of the waves we make – more often than not, you’re more tapped in than you know.
Writer Maxwell Wright, who played Division 1 soccer at American and Coastal Carolina University, works for a full-service sports and entertainment firm. He has a passion for exploring the convergence of music, culture, and sport and an eye for seeing what’s at the forefront of all three.