For Brewerytown soccer lifestyle brand Live Breathe Futbol, patience paid off via deal with MLS and Dick’s Sporting Goods

Ebun Olaloye originally had the vision in 2013.

That vision was to make Live Breathe Futbol, the Brewerytown-based soccer lifestyle brand he co-founded, more accessible to casual soccer fans — and frankly to people looking to wear apparel that wasn’t strictly athletic wear.

He took his idea to Major League Soccer — more specifically to the Union. In both instances, it was shot down, mainly over fear of ruffling feathers with Adidas, the official, and, at that time, the only apparel supplier for MLS.

It took 10 years, but this month, Olaloye and LBF announced not only a limited deal with Dick’s Sporting Goods, but, at long last, a licensing deal to create MLS apparel.

“Yeah, man, it’s been a long process, but I think the industry had to evolve,” Olaloye told The Inquirer on the eve of his MLS deal in July. “When we started, you know, there weren’t many soccer lifestyle brands, but now I think consumers want that, and there’s a demand for more than the typical stuff you get from the team and league sites. So yeah, it has been a struggle, but I think it was obvious that the industry finally realized that soccer fans want more options than what’s currently out there.”

Earlier this year, when Philly signature supplier Lapstone and Hammer collaborated with the Union to produce a limited edition line for the club, its owner, Brian Nadav, also described the process was having what he felt were unnecessary hurdles.

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“I don’t want to talk bad about anybody because I appreciate and really am honored at this opportunity,” Nadav said in October 2022. “But the league should learn from this as they continue to bubble up into the space of being considered a major sports entity. We pitched them this whole concept back in February. They had it on their desk. I was like, ‘I need four months for production,’ which means we need to be in gear by June-July, starting to move. Believe it or not, we didn’t get final approval from the MLS until September.”

Nevertheless, the removal of MLS’ reluctance to open the door to other creators has been exactly what a shop like LBF patiently waited for, creating a line of Union shirts, hoodies, and hats that will be sold at select Dick’s Sporting Goods locations — and, according to Olaloye, inside the Union’s official team store at Subaru Park.

Also, the LBF team will make its second series of signature apparel for Sporting Kansas City, the MLS club for which LBF was able to get its first taste of creating a line in 2017. Like the Union collection, the creation for Kansas City also is sold exclusively at select Dick’s Sporting Goods retailers in that market. LBF’s licensing with MLS includes just those two teams for now, but, according to Olaloye, it could grow across even more of MLS’ 29 teams in the future.

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“Major League Soccer just makes sense for us,” said Olaloye, 32. “We’ve worked with Sporting [Kansas City] in the past, and it’s a fun opportunity to create for them, but we’ve always wanted to work with the Union. The desire to work with them as our local team was always there, but we never quite had the right situation. But now with the MLS license starting as a local license, and there’s still the opportunity to expand to more teams in the future … it just kind of feels like the right time and the right step to take the evolution of our brand.”

It’s also an ideal time for this Philly creator to stake its claim on the soccer lifestyle market, given the wave of attention soccer in North America will have in just three years’ time with the FIFA World Cup headed to the States, including matches set to take place at Lincoln Financial Field. LBF has had its hands in the overseas market with a distribution hub in London, but a deep dive domestically at the right time admittedly could be a game changer.

“That’s the reason why we’re making these moves right now because I think three years is the right amount of time to build up these relationships,” Olaloye said. “We’ve been telling our story for 10 years now, and what better way to gain exposure than to have the world’s biggest sporting event here? I just think more and more people are embracing soccer, and I think they’re going to want a brand that speaks directly to them and for them. And LBF has that track record in a way that I don’t think many other brands are able to say that they do.”

The bulk of what LBF has done, from ideation to conceptualizing, has happened inside the same Brewerytown loft — one that Olaloye doesn’t plan to leave anytime soon. Having his company based in the same town where he first learned graphic design at Temple and one he’s called home since emigrating from Lagos, Nigeria, is important to him.

“Philly has so much character and history, I think that a lot of great stories come out of Philadelphia, including ours,” Olaloye saod. “We could have easily moved to New York or [Los Angeles], but it’s like you just become one of many. A bunch of other brands have told that story. But being from Philadelphia, it’s like, yeah, we’re born in Philadelphia, we’ve grown in Philadelphia. I’d love to see us thrive in Philadelphia as a global brand.”