James Greenfield: Elevens

As the World Cup approaches it’s only natural that obscure, needless football memorabilia pops up. But one project that’s bucking the trend is Elevens, set up by London based designer James Greenfield. We caught up with him to find out more about a certain fantasy football you can wear on your chest. There’s also the chance to win one, all the details below…

So, graphic design meets fashion, via football. Tell us more…

As a designer and an avid football fan I have a frustration with the design of replica strips and football merchandise in general. I never really see any I like and as such end up just going to the game in every day wear. I wanted to create some shirts which could be worn to show allegiance, but be more than that. No matter the sport, statistics are always a fascinating part of it, and this got the inner geek in me excited. This was then coupled with the pub discussion taken to the next level, which online football forums have a become. As a
frequenter of these places I had noticed the best XI threads appear again and again. These two thoughts added together plus six months of work here and there and Elevens was created.

How many versions of the England team did you have to go through to get to the two you settled on?

Lots. These shirts are all about opinion and that to me is the kernel of the idea. I don’t want everyone to agree on them as there is no fun in that. If I was wearing one in a pub I like the idea that someone might come up and disagree and a discussion is started. I researched fans and pundits elevens on the internet and went back to previous World Cups. I then read a lot of footballers Wikipedias, I must have read going on 1000 of them in research for this project and in the process learnt a lot. I then tried to put the Elevens out on various forums with mixed success. Some thought it was an attempt at obscure viral marketing which was a shame as I missed out on their input. The main thing was for me to gauge just how good players I have never seen were. For example I asked around for those who had seen Duncan Edwards play and those that had said he was one of, if not the best player they had ever seen. I had to trust these instincts and opinions over just stats. I like the idea of the Elevens being tweaked on future shirts, for example Manchester United mark II would have Scholes or Keane on, I have had a lot of emails requesting that which then berate me for getting it ‘wrong’.

Who’s starting up front for England’s first game of this year’s World Cup?

Rooney, injury permitting, is a shoe in. Alongside? Me I would start Defoe to run at the USA and break them up but I am a Spurs fan (cue boos). Previously I was in the Heskey camp but he has had a pretty unspectacular season for The Villa. I belong to the ‘Play those in form’ school of thought when it comes to internationals.

Who will England beat in the final?

If we got that far it couldn’t be anyone else but Germany probably. (Quick check of the confusing FIFA site makes me think that is possible based on them winning their group)

Best bit of World Cup trivia?

The winners of the 2006 World Cup, Italy were presented with 45 medals. There’s only 23 players in a World Cup Squad.

Elevens are available from gradiate.co.uk and if there’s anyone who wants their team to have an Elevens, e-mail James (elevens@gradiate.co.uk) the relevant players in order with dates they played – the more obscure the better. You can also follow them on Twitter, @ElevensXI.

Win an Elevens T-shirt of your choice

You have until 3pm on Saturday to tweet the description of the best goal you’ve ever witnessed including @itsnicethat and #elevens at the end. That leaves 118 characters to let your imagination run wild…

The winner will be chosen by James and contacted on Monday morning.