There's nowhere cooler than Athens. Well, maybe Athens two years ago but that's Instagram for you. And our point still stands. There's a buzz in the city of people doing things differently. They see what's going on in Europe and in the West and they're not falling for a lot of what we do. Athens Kallithea are very much the same.
Since 2022 they have been releasing some of the best kits on the planet. Their partnership with Kappa and, more specifically, the creative direction of Ted Philipakos has saw the club almost become a lifestyle brand. Not everyone has seen them play, but everyone knows who they are.
Last season, with everyone watching and waiting for another kit drop, they took a turn nobody could have guessed. They didn't realise one at all. They wanted to push back on an industry flooded with too many kits. They wanted to highlight the waste.
This season, they're back. The Kappa partnership remains. So too does the creative direction of Philipakos, the man who served as CEO and CBO at Venezia FC during the club’s rise from Serie D to Serie A. And, to make their mark once again, they have arrived via a 16mm dance film soundtracked by a 1963 Greek ballad. It's a sign of the thought and care they put into the whole process and shows their commitment to creating "enduring pieces."
Philipakos has cleverly sidestepped the most difficult aspect of modern kit design: sponsorship. Rather brilliantly, Athens Kallithea carry the ΕΜΣΤ wordmark of the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens. It gives every shirt a seriousness and level of culture that no other football club can match. The partnership, now in its fourth year, remains unique in European football: a museum occupying the most commercially valuable piece of space on a football shirt.
Philipakos told Soccerbible: "The partnership with ΕΜΣΤ has helped break stereotypes or preconceived notions about a football club. It has helped facilitate open-mindedness about our mission and our environment, and it has connected us to new people beyond football’s traditional boundaries.”
And the shirt itself? Philipakos remains unwavering in his belief that it should be Athenian in essence. “When you enter our universe, and you take something tangible like a shirt from that universe, you’re getting a taste of our slice of Athens,” he says. He isn't playing to the masses. He's doing something original. And it's working.
You can shop authentic kits in our football shirt marketplace in the Showboat app or on our website.
