[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":297},["ShallowReactive",2],{"post-\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-away-kit-we-couldnt-afford":3,"more-\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-away-kit-we-couldnt-afford":81},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"body":7,"category":64,"cover":65,"coverAlt":65,"date":66,"description":67,"extension":68,"featured":69,"meta":70,"navigation":71,"path":72,"readingTime":73,"seo":74,"stem":75,"tags":76,"__hash__":80},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-away-kit-we-couldnt-afford.md","The away kit we couldn't afford","The Omerpley Studio",{"type":8,"value":9,"toc":57},"minimark",[10,14,17,22,25,28,34,38,46,54],[11,12,13],"p",{},"There's a specific ache reserved for the away kit.",[11,15,16],{},"The home shirt you probably got, eventually — a birthday, a good school report, a nan who caved. But the away kit? The away kit lived in the club shop window and the catalogue and the dreams of everyone who couldn't quite justify a second shirt in one season.",[18,19,21],"h2",{"id":20},"why-away-kits-hit-harder","Why away kits hit harder",[11,23,24],{},"Home kits are obligations. They have to look like the club — the same colours, the same crest, decade after decade. Designers can't really play.",[11,26,27],{},"Away kits are where the fun happens. They're the club on holiday: the wild gradients, the teal that made no sense, the halved thing that shouldn't have worked. Freed from tradition, they became the shirts we actually remember.",[29,30,31],"blockquote",{},[11,32,33],{},"The home kit is who you are. The away kit is who you wanted to be.",[18,35,37],{"id":36},"the-reissue-instinct","The reissue instinct",[11,39,40,41,45],{},"So when we started Omerpley, the away kit was always going to be the reference point. Not a copy — you can't reissue someone else's crest, and we wouldn't want to. But the ",[42,43,44],"em",{},"feeling",": the stripes, the boldness, the sense that a shirt could be a bit of a laugh and still mean everything.",[11,47,48,49,53],{},"Our ",[50,51,52],"strong",{},"'92 Reissue Away Tee"," is exactly that. Striped navy and red on cream, cut as a tee so you can wear it to the pub and not just the match. It's a tribute to every away kit that lived in a window we walked past on the way home.",[11,55,56],{},"We couldn't afford them then. We can make them now.",{"title":58,"searchDepth":59,"depth":59,"links":60},"",3,[61,63],{"id":20,"depth":62,"text":21},2,{"id":36,"depth":62,"text":37},"Culture",null,"2026-05-27","On the strange power of the shirts we never owned — and why the away kit always hit harder than the home one.","md",false,{},true,"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-away-kit-we-couldnt-afford","3 min read",{"title":5,"description":67},"blog\u002Fthe-away-kit-we-couldnt-afford",[77,78,79],"kits","nostalgia","culture","X_lzX97ehdpRDTt1xmqWE-IbRqLIpDkTWlY3vaI7UF0",[82,210],{"id":83,"title":84,"author":6,"body":85,"category":197,"cover":65,"coverAlt":65,"date":198,"description":199,"extension":68,"featured":71,"meta":200,"navigation":71,"path":201,"readingTime":202,"seo":203,"stem":204,"tags":205,"__hash__":209},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fse25.md","SE25: how a postcode became a collection",{"type":8,"value":86,"toc":191},[87,90,96,100,103,109,114,118,121,143,146,150,153,181,185,188],[11,88,89],{},"Every label needs a starting point. Ours is a postcode.",[11,91,92,95],{},[50,93,94],{},"SE25"," is South Norwood — a slice of South London with a football history longer than most of the clubs that get all the shirts. It's where the shoebox of old programmes lived, where the first sketches got drawn on the back of a takeaway menu, and where the name of our first collection was never really in doubt.",[18,97,99],{"id":98},"the-badge","The badge",[11,101,102],{},"The heart of the collection is the roundel. If you grew up on terrace culture — or on scooters, or on the northern soul that ran alongside it — you already know the shape. A mod target. Cream, brick red, terrace navy. Three colours that have been telling you which end to stand in for sixty years.",[11,104,105,106,108],{},"We stripped it back until it was just the good part: a clean ring, a cream field, and ",[50,107,94],{}," set in the kind of bold condensed type you'd find stitched onto the back of an old shirt.",[29,110,111],{},[11,112,113],{},"Football before it was content. Cotton before it was fast fashion.",[18,115,117],{"id":116},"the-colourway","The colourway",[11,119,120],{},"Three colours, no compromise:",[122,123,124,131,137],"ul",{},[125,126,127,130],"li",{},[50,128,129],{},"Cream"," — the paper of an old programme, the away shirt that yellowed in a drawer.",[125,132,133,136],{},[50,134,135],{},"Brick red"," — kit red, the shade that photographs badly under floodlights and looks perfect anyway.",[125,138,139,142],{},[50,140,141],{},"Terrace navy"," — the deep blue of a scarf held above your head in the rain.",[11,144,145],{},"Everything in Drop 001 is built from that palette. Nothing shouts. It's meant to look like it's already lived a season.",[18,147,149],{"id":148},"whats-in-it","What's in it",[11,151,152],{},"The collection is deliberately small — a capsule you could pack in a holdall:",[154,155,156,163,169,175],"ol",{},[125,157,158,159,162],{},"The ",[50,160,161],{},"SE25 Terrace Tee",", cream cotton with the sash.",[125,164,165,166,168],{},"A ",[50,167,52],{},", striped, for the kits nobody could afford.",[125,170,158,171,174],{},[50,172,173],{},"Mod Roundel Cap",", six panels of navy and an embroidered target.",[125,176,165,177,180],{},[50,178,179],{},"Matchday Bar Scarf",", brick red and cream, made to be held aloft.",[18,182,184],{"id":183},"why-so-few","Why so few?",[11,186,187],{},"Because that's the point. We print in small numbers, on heavyweight cotton, and when a piece is gone it's usually gone for good. No restocks chasing a trend, no warehouse of dead stock. Just enough for the people who'll actually wear it.",[11,189,190],{},"Drop 001 is live on Etsy now. If the SE25 badge means something to you, you already know what to do.",{"title":58,"searchDepth":59,"depth":59,"links":192},[193,194,195,196],{"id":98,"depth":62,"text":99},{"id":116,"depth":62,"text":117},{"id":148,"depth":62,"text":149},{"id":183,"depth":62,"text":184},"Drops","2026-06-18","The story behind Drop 001 — the mod-target badge, the colourway, and why we named our first collection after a corner of South London.",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fse25","4 min read",{"title":84,"description":199},"blog\u002Fse25",[206,207,208],"se25","drop-001","story","uw3_Kp4xANxnQqwcy6eGlS2mBGG8yvbo_5AYdJPmXBI",{"id":211,"title":212,"author":6,"body":213,"category":285,"cover":65,"coverAlt":65,"date":286,"description":287,"extension":68,"featured":69,"meta":288,"navigation":71,"path":289,"readingTime":73,"seo":290,"stem":291,"tags":292,"__hash__":296},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fwhy-heavyweight-cotton.md","Why we only print on heavyweight cotton",{"type":8,"value":214,"toc":280},[215,218,221,225,232,235,255,259,262,267,270,274,277],[11,216,217],{},"You can feel the difference before you can name it.",[11,219,220],{},"Pick up a cheap tee and a good one and your hands know instantly. One is a disposable print surface. The other is a garment. We only make the second kind.",[18,222,224],{"id":223},"what-heavyweight-actually-means","What \"heavyweight\" actually means",[11,226,227,228,231],{},"Cotton is measured in grams per square metre — gsm. Fast-fashion tees hover around 140–160gsm: thin, translucent under a bright light, quick to lose their shape. We print on ",[50,229,230],{},"240gsm"," cotton. It's denser, it drapes properly, and it holds a print without the design cracking off after a few washes.",[11,233,234],{},"Heavier fabric does three things:",[122,236,237,243,249],{},[125,238,239,242],{},[50,240,241],{},"Lasts."," It survives the wash cycle that kills thin tees.",[125,244,245,248],{},[50,246,247],{},"Ages well."," It fades like a good shirt should, not like a mistake.",[125,250,251,254],{},[50,252,253],{},"Feels like something."," You notice it every time you put it on.",[18,256,258],{"id":257},"the-case-against-the-throwaway-shirt","The case against the throwaway shirt",[11,260,261],{},"The football shirt industry has a fast-fashion problem. New kits every season, sometimes three a year, most of them destined for a drawer or a landfill. We're not interested in adding to that pile.",[29,263,264],{},[11,265,266],{},"Make less, make it heavier, make it last.",[11,268,269],{},"A small drop on proper cotton is a quieter thing. It asks you to buy one piece and keep it for years, not six pieces and forget them. That's better for you, better for us, and a lot better for the planet the game is played on.",[18,271,273],{"id":272},"how-it-shows-up-in-the-collection","How it shows up in the collection",[11,275,276],{},"Every Omerpley tee — the Terrace Tee, the Reissue Away, the Half & Half — is printed on the same heavyweight base. Pre-shrunk, so it fits the same after the first wash as it did out of the packet. Built to be worn in, not worn out.",[11,278,279],{},"That's the whole philosophy, really. Fewer things. Better things. Kept for longer.",{"title":58,"searchDepth":59,"depth":59,"links":281},[282,283,284],{"id":223,"depth":62,"text":224},{"id":257,"depth":62,"text":258},{"id":272,"depth":62,"text":273},"Craft","2026-04-09","A short, opinionated case for the 240gsm tee — and against the throwaway shirt that falls apart before the season ends.",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhy-heavyweight-cotton",{"title":212,"description":287},"blog\u002Fwhy-heavyweight-cotton",[293,294,295],"craft","cotton","quality","NZ-J3xXfvmP2XbUbxl0zbXFl_H_d_Q5MD7jcHNxCxqk",1783436531859]