Angel City has upcycled an old tifo into a one-of-a-kind line of merch
A little over a year ago, Angel City FC took to the wing for the first time as an NWSL club as the expansion franchise kicked off its inaugural season in the top tier of U.S. women’s soccer.
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Some 22,000 fans were in attendance as Angel City, backed by a plethora of celebrity co-owners such as Natalie Portman, Eva Longoria, Jessica Chastain and Serena Williams, welcomed visitors the North Carolina Courage to BMO Stadium for the opening game of the 2022 NWSL campaign.
Amid a bustling atmosphere, a giant tifo was unfurled in the crowd to mark the occasion. The enormous pink-and-blue banner depicted an angel rising high above the Los Angeles cityscape with the words “Un Nuevo Amanecer” (“A New Dawn”) etched on a scroll across the top.
The custom banner was the first-ever displayed at an Angel City league game, and now fans of the club can literally own a physical piece of history.
A new merchandise collection contains a bucket hat, a bag and a windbreaker jacket, which all feature genuine material swatches taken from the New Dawn tifo and recycled into apparel in what is conceptually believed to be a world first.
All produced by the Suay Sew Shop in Los Angeles, the hat and bag are largely fabricated from pink material, while the jacket has strips of mottled pink, grey and dusky blue tifo canvas incorporated onto the sleeves.
The original artwork was designed by Sofía Román, an Angel City fan and member of the official Pandemonium supporters’ group, and it’s intended to herald a new dawn for women’s football in LA, as well as the love and energy the supporters have for their team.
“Designing the tifo, I thought that it would live for that one moment in the stadium,” said Román. “But now, to see it get a new life, and to see people actually wearing something that I helped put together, it means the world to me.”
Angel City have also announced that 10% of all profits raised by the collection will be donated to a local charity, the Downtown Women’s Center in LA that focuses on promoting sustainable fashion while also attempting to break the cycle of homelessness by offering employment to women.