‘Hometown hero’: first-of-its kind collaboration between museum and football team celebrated with documentary

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The art world loves a first, and a new documentary is dishing up the story of the first-ever football kit designed in collaboration with a museum.

Made in Walthamstow, directed by Xaymaca Awoyungbo, centres around a set of shirts designed by north east London team Walthamstow FC together with the nearby William Morris Gallery and fellow arts organisation Wood Street Walls, as well as the brand Admiral Sportswear. The shirts, which have been worn by Walthamstow FC’s players since 2023, feature the schematic floral designs of the famed 19th-century designer Morris, who lived in the Walthamstow building that now houses his namesake gallery as a teenager.

Awoyungbo is a long-time fan of the team and told the Guardian that he wanted to “tell a story about a hometown hero and pay homage to football heritage”. More broadly the film explores, he said, “the history of replica football kits, the significance of Morris and the power of community in Walthamstow”.

Morris was a contradictory figure—he wished for art to be for everyone, for example, yet only the wealthy could afford a lot of his work. Nevertheless, his designs have fascinated people around the world for decades.

He was famous for stating “have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful,” and Awoyungbo said he thinks the sophisticated shirts “ticks both boxes”. We’re on side.