I've always seen football apparel as fashion. The problem was, nobody else in Melbourne did.

It goes back a long way. At five or six I was cutting up my own clothes to make them look different and drawing my own designs on plain t-shirts. Then football took over, the way it does. I played, I coached, I volunteered at Brunswick City, the club I grew up at.

The fashion never left. I just didn't have anywhere to put it.

A plain blue shirt

Brunswick City's kit was plain blue. Off the rack, sponsors pressed on. It did the job, and that was all it did. It was a uniform. Nothing about it said Brunswick, and nothing about it made a player stand a little taller when he pulled it on.

Look at the professional game and every kit has an identity. Look at grassroots football and you get a catalogue template with a different badge on it. Our clubs aren't less than. The kid running out on a Saturday morning cares about his shirt as much as any pro. Maybe more.

That plain blue shirt was the biggest opportunity I'd ever seen. Bring design, fashion and style into a piece every player is proud to wear. The love I have for fashion, in the game I love.

So in 2018 I designed Brunswick's first ARMADURA kit.

Body armour

I called it ARMADURA. Body armour. Because that's what a kit is when you understand what it does. You put it on and you're part of something bigger than you: a club, its history, the people who built it.

Football in this country was built by the communities who came here and started clubs. Those clubs carry real history. Their kit should carry it too.

That's the point

In our third year at Brunswick City, someone came up to me about our windbreaker. "This is something I can wear out," they said.

I said, "That's the point."

That was the moment I knew it was working. People weren't treating our gear as a uniform any more. They were treating it as something they wanted to be seen in.

The question isn't will it work as a kit. The question is will someone want to wear this on a Tuesday.

Then the clubs came

By year two, other clubs were coming to us. Northcote City stood out. They saw the level of design and the fabrics we were using and wanted the same for their club.

We've kitted 35+ clubs over the years. Every one starts the same way: their story, their colours, their history. We still come to the ground and size every player. We still treat every kit like it matters, because to the people wearing it, it does.

No Vanilla

No Vanilla is not settling for a uniform. Not settling for what everyone else wears. It's owning your identity and expressing it on the pitch, in the stands and on the streets.

Because it's more than just a shirt. We arm the passionate with pride.

So NO VANILLA.

Nick, Founder