Some Football Threads: Exploring transition design towards more socially and environmentally sustainable production and consumption of football kit within Aotearoa, New Zealand

Football kit (i.e. the clothing worn when playing football) occupies a vital role in the football industry. It enables play, coaching, fan support and generates income for clubs through its sales or ability to be used as advertisement space. Unfortunately, the production and consumption of such kit is damaging to human and more-than-humans within the footballing landscape and wider environment. Such damage occurs through production processes resulting in, for example, high carbon emissions and poor workers’ rights, as well as high rates of consumption generating high levels of waste. This research aimed to understand how actors and stakeholders in the football sporting landscape within Aotearoa New Zealand might transition towards more socially and environmentally sustainable football kit production and consumption. Specifically, it sought to achieve this aim in three ways: through understanding current production and consumption patterns, re-imagining alternatives, and investigating in actions and strategies for change. To carry out the research, I engaged in a multimethodological approach to transition design informed by Participatory Action Research (PAR) and scholar-activism. First, I interviewed various people in the football and/ or textile industry. Second, I engaged grassroots players in workshops using creative methods to reimagine football kit and generate actions for change. Third, participants and I put some actions into practice. Overall, this research illustrates how negative social and environmental impacts are created and sustained through local-global commodity chains associated with football kit and how these relations and impacts perpetuate historical geopolitical, gendered and racialised inequities. Adopting a transition design approach informed my PAR and scholar-activism, also identified collective strategies to improve social and environmental standards associated with materiality, transparency and relationality in the future production and consumption of football kit.