The most exclusive football club

In order to become successful against the three major sports in America, football had necessarily to find alternative paths. One of these, the most traveled one, is fashion. There are many projects, born especially in New York (and we’ll see why), that combine football and fashion in the most various ways. One of the most interesting is the Tens Club. As the name suggests, the tens club is available only with a newsletter subscription (here) and the tenth day of every month releases a new collection that can be bought online if members of the club. It’s Lucas Shanks’ idea, the 10s team’s "Captain". We catch with him to talk about this project’s genesis and football’s diffusion in New York and all the country.

How has the TensClub project born?

I have always been fascinated with the number 10 and the footballers who wore it. It has this gravity to it, this quiet confidence, and a certain level of expectation that no other number in any other sport has. What I wanted to do was organize a community around the qualities that make a great number 10 on the field—vision, creativity, and playmaking ability—but apply them as a lifestyle, as a creative and stylistic ethos. On those pillars, Tens Club was born.

Why did you chose to bet on the newsletter, a format that’s strongly coming back on top? How do you chose your topics?

We chose to create a newsletter, and specifically a newsletter only on the 10th of every month, because it de-prioritized the need to be constantly engaged and involved in conversation at all times. A newsletter on the 10th of every month is exclusive, and it allows us to create quality projects. That way we’re leading the conversation about football, style and culture—not responding to it. In that sense, it’s very much a number 10 approach.

As far as topics go, sometimes the we’ll have an idea for a football-inspired shirt or jacket design and it will inform the concept and content of the newsletter. Other times, we’ll stumble into an incredible story or relic of football history that will lend itself to a design and we’ll curate the newsletter content around that. Earlier newsletters focused on specific players who wore the number 10 throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s. More recently, we’ve done newsletters that are a bit more abstract. It’s a really flexible format and we believe it’s something people look forward to, not just consume passively.

How would you judge new yorkers’s affection to football?

Football has a long way to go in America. But in New York, it hasn’t just arrived, it’s top of mind. Leagues like the Cosmopolitan Soccer League and the Bowery Premier League are filled with talented players from all over the world who are not only plugged into the game as players and spectators, they’re out creating clubs, brands and media in the football world as well. Downtown, you can find as many TVs showing EPL games on weekend afternoons as college football or the NFL. New Yorkers have an affection to football unlike the rest of the country because New York isn’t like America—we’re worldly as hell and we love the world’s game. I have to remind myself I live in a bubble sometimes, but that means there’s still tremendous potential for the sport in this country. America will get there, eventually.

 
Which will be, in your opinion, new season’s football trend?

It’s hard to say, because the world of football is free-flowing, much like the game itself. It’s not linear, which makes it hard to predict. The most beautiful part of the beautiful game is that it’s style and culture draws from such a long line of history and from so many places all around the world. The inspiration is endless. However, I think we’re going to see a lot more of what we saw the other day with Juventus—a move toward pared down, chic, minimalist style. That’s always been the Tens Club aesthetic because it’s only natural—football is perfect when it’s simple. It only gets unsightly when you try and complicate it.

Can you explain us the meaning of “the number 10 shirt transcends sidelines, into life and into culture”?

On the field, there’s an expectation that the player wearing the number 10 is the fearless leader, the unselfish playmaker. When that player leaves the field, nothing changes. Tens Club celebrates these same qualities that make a great footballer, but as it pertains to how you dress, how you spend your time, and what you stand for. It’s the same playmaker, just on the other side of the sidelines.