Combining the dual passions of gaming and premium jersey design, new startup business Dyenamik are looking to make an impact with a full Street Fighter collection, which features bespoke designs for 10 legacy characters.
While the origin of jersey culture is firmly established in football, the appetite for it has seen the appeal of shirts expand beyond their traditional role as sportswear, blurring the lines between sport, streetwear, festival fashion, and even competitive gaming. And it’s in the latter that our attention is drawn here, with startup business Dyenamik launching a fully licensed Street Fighter jersey collection, which features 13 bespoke designs.
For those not in the know (which rock have you been hiding under for the last 30+ years?) Street Fighter is a hugely popular game franchise that boasts incredible longevity, iconic characters, a rich art history, and a multi-generational appeal, with game releases spanning four decades. It all combines to make Street Fighter an iconic bit of Pop Culture that's ripe for a homage-fuelled jersey collection.
So, for the Street Fighter Character Collection, which is available to support now on kickstarter, Dyenamik focused on 10 characters from a roster of over 100 playable fighters. They also created two retro jerseys for long-time fans who have followed the franchise since the start, as well as an SF6 jersey dedicated to the new art style of the most recent game.The full collection also comes with a collectors edition box.
To find out more about the whole project, we touched base with Dyenamik founders, Mike Cope and Andrew Cadywould.
Tell us about how this project started - how and when did it manifest itself?
Andrew: We were in the process of launching our ‘team jerseys’ product with two other IPs when the opportunity arose to explore a collaboration with Capcom and Street Fighter. The SF team really bought into what we were trying to achieve with the product and felt it would be a refreshing addition to the merchandise and apparel they had been used to. We are both fighting game fans and always knew we wanted to create jerseys for games like Street Fighter.
Through our internal creative process, we took this project in a slightly different direction and focused on the characters, whereas we had previously been developing jerseys to represent the games as our teams. Early design explorations for a select few characters were enough to get the Street Fighter teams hooked and almost a year of product development and content creation for the campaign followed.
We define CSC as being all about the relationship between football and a wide range of creative passions. Whats your take on it all?
Mike: We love that definition and it's great that there are so many ways, not just to consume the sport, but also to be involved in it outside of our tribal interests in our own favourite clubs. Particularly in football shirt design, we are seeing worlds collide with a lot more collaborations that cross disciplines and have paved the way for a Street Fighter football shirt to not seem that weird. We’ve seen footballers in games and I’m sure we will see a lot more gaming in football.
Why football jerseys, and where does the crossover between football and gaming come from for you personally?
Andrew: We believe the passion and dedication fans have for a particular game, franchise or character is on par with the devotion seen towards our favourite sports teams.
Jerseys have moved beyond their traditional role as sportswear, now blurring the lines between sport, streetwear, festival fashion, and competitive gaming, especially with the massive rise of esports. These jerseys provide the perfect canvas for creating standalone works of art that pay tribute to the games and characters they represent, and we hope they will further solidify a community of passionate Street Fighter fans.
Mike: we also feel like jerseys are the best way to create community and express yourself. We all know how we feel when we see a stranger wearing the shirt of the team we support – it’s an instant feeling of knowing that you have something in common with someone, and we hope these jerseys will further solidify a community of passionate street fighter fans.
How did you pick out the 10 Street Fighter Characters that you did?
Andrew: With a focus on the end product, we ultimately selected characters that we felt would inspire great designs. Fuelled by childhood nostalgia, we were drawn to the characters of Street Fighter II – many of which have featured again and again throughout the history of the franchise. We had to sense-check the popularity of these characters through forums and polls which provided great insight directly from our audience and inspired some changes to the shortlist.
Talk to us about the process of translating those fictional characters into club jersey designs?
Mike: Inspiration for the collection came from many different places. Some of the jerseys, like Chun-Li or Cammy are more obviously inspired by outfit designs, while others focus on signature moves or general themes, like Guile’s US military influence. It was important to us that each jersey felt like an original art work and not a cosplay t-shirt.
We had four decades worth of Street Fighter titles to draw inspiration from, but our biggest challenge was to design something that would be universally accepted as the perfect badge and jersey by a multi-generational audience that have different experiences of the franchise.
Which is your favourite design and why?
Andrew: The answer changes day by day, but I’ve always loved the Akuma design. It suits my personal taste but I also feel like we nailed the details on that one. The Kanji pattern from his special attack, the badge typography inspired by his hair, the rope pattern trim on the collar and cuffs. All of it feels undeniably Akuma and looks great
Mike: My favourite tops are the two retro jerseys. Mainly dedicated to Street Fighter II, they take me back to simpler times when button bashing on my Sega Mega Drive was the height of life. I love the old-school Capcom and Street Fighter logos and also the fact they have multiple characters on them.
Which was the most challenging and why?
Andrew: The Ken jersey and badge were challenging because, as iconic a character as he is, his most recognisable character designs offer little in the way of inspiration. The Ryu Hadouken jersey design came instantly and it put a bit of pressure on the Ken design to be as good, but have its own unique identity.
Assuming this project is the success that it deserves to be, can you tell us anything about what’s next in the pipeline?
Mike: We've been laying the foundations for further collaborations with this product format and we have very high hopes for its potential. We want to continue to diversify having already seen success with fantasy RPG series ‘The Witcher’ and the futuristic sc-fi game ‘Cyberpunk 2077’. Some of our favourite games have made it on to the shortlist so there will be many passion projects down the line and we’ll also be looking to build on existing partnerships with further jersey launches.
Head to kickstarter now to help support the Dyenamic x Street Fighter project.
