Hackney Wick FC have launched their new kit, which “symbolises a united front against knife crime”, according to the club.
Nike has lent support to the club’s campaign against youth violence and gang crime by sponsoring the new home and away strips.
“If you wear them you are saying you are against knife crime and united in the face of it,” a spokesperson at Hackney Wick FC said.
SNE, a rapper from Hackney, has also championed the kit.
Sporting the new home strip, the rapper said: “[The level of knife crime] is crazy but you know, you’ve just got to keep going and keep trying to put positive things into the community, and hopefully one day – you never know – it might change.”
The new Hackney Wick FC home and away kits are produced by Nike Global, and they will be available to pre-order from the club’s website at the end of March.
Hackney Wick FC have worked with Nike before, playing a ‘United Against Knife Crime’ match last March, with kits supplied by the American sportswear giant.
Bobby Kasanga, founder and chairman of Hackney Wick FC, is at the heart of the club’s efforts to prevent local youths from turning to crime, and he was honoured at Britain’s Pride of Sport Awards in December, receiving recognition for his work with youngsters.
Bobby has also been afforded platforms such as CNN to talk about his mission to combat knife crime in London, and how his efforts are borne from his own criminal background.
Bobby spent eight years in and out of prison as the result of a youth that involved armed robbery and mobile phone theft, but the conception of Hackney Wick FC in 2016 marked the start of an attempt to save young people in Hackney from gang crime and violence.
Speaking this week, Bobby said: “We’ve now got over 170 kids on our books, so what are these 170 kids doing if they’re not coming to our football club?
“They might want to come to us as a way of just escaping their families, because some of them might have issues, but also escaping the gangs,” says Bobby.
