With Arsenal and Manchester United in town, hosting a bottomless English brunch pre-game in the City of Angels was a no-brainer to sign off an unforgettable tour in style.
Just like your club during pre-season or your favourite musician, we’ve been on tour, our inaugural “On A Plate” Creative Soccer Culture Tour in partnership with adidas, since March. From art, photography and film to product design, music, and architecture, this was our first opportunity to dive into the intersections of football and creativity, the world we’ve dubbed “Creative Soccer Culture”, and galvanise the global community IRL through a series of bespoke activations.
Smashing our goal to connect and platform people doing cool things in Creative Soccer circles on the North American leg, we also spotlighted adidas’ newest drops during and either side of the 2024 Copa America tournament. Starting with intimate dinners and illuminating panels when we kicked off in Miami in March, and hit Los Angeles in April and New York in June, then we put on a massive block party with an Argentine barbecue in Miami earlier this month to coincide with the Argentina vs Columbia final. The incredible attention to detail in every set design – bodega, pop-up barber shop, barrio block party with low-riders and original tifos – was central to our vision. And guests took off with adidas jerseys, custom plates, and other one-of-a-kind mementoes often designed by Inspector Nuggs.
But all good things must come to an end and we returned to Los Angeles for the final tour stop last weekend. Going full circle to bring some English charm stateside, we invited 40 people to a super chill bottomless football brunch with a SoccerBible spin, and the Arsenal vs Manchester United friendly at the SoFi stadium as dessert. The original greasy spoon menu idea was elevated with canapés, bougie bacon butties, fish and chips, and a scotch egg starter, washed down with mimosas and bellini cocktails.
This time, the elaborate set at 8500 Melrose Avenue spanned a jam-packed newsstand, a physical mood wall showcasing adidas’ new archive collection, and a locker room decked out with Manchester United and Arsenal gear, with trinkets we bought off eBay scattered around. Think 1970s and 1980s Manchester United and Arsenal game programmes, amazing merch catalogues, and we presented the ticket we found for Ian Wright’s Arsenal debut against Leicester in the 1991/92 League Cup to the legend himself in person.
Actor Raff Law, Pleasures founder Alex James, and Olympic bronze medallist footballer Lauren Sesselmann were among the other guests who broke bread with us. We stencilled each name onto toast, shrink-wrapped and framed each one for extra gravitas, then sent them out as striking invites beforehand. Aurielle Sayeh Rounsaville spun tracks as guests arrived, then we had a harpist, Nailah Hunter, to accompany the food, and another DJ set to get everyone pumped for the match.
Seven special vintage cars were lined up outside so the group could cruise to the game. Car enthusiasts or not, few swerved the chance to get a picture in or beside one. The 96 Cadillac limo covered in stars and stripes and the red 69 Buick convertible had the wow factor. Arsenal beat Manchester United 2-1 to lift Gooners’ spirits and it was a really nice day from top to bottom.
That’s all folks from the North American leg of our inaugural “ON A PLATE” Creative Soccer Culture Tour. We hope you enjoyed the ride. We’re refocusing SoccerBible’s contribution to football culture throughout 2024 and the future of SoccerBible is about unleashing the creative power of our community. Want to come to the next phase? Stay tuned. Your invite won’t get lost in the mail.
Event photography Niko Delgado
