THE SWOOSH MEETS
THE SACRED
Nike × Chivas · SU26 Kit Launch
The swoosh had touched Chivas exactly once: a 1997 deal that lasted less than a season. Twenty-nine years later, Nike returned as exclusive sponsor of a 120-year-old club that fields only Mexican players, with more than 40 million faithful across two countries. I led concept and art direction as Creative Director at Industry, Nike’s embedded agency. The brief said product launch. The risk was stamping a global logo on the one thing those fans hold sacred.
Sacred vs. Swoosh
Chivas refuses to sign foreign players, a vow kept for 120 years. The shirt isn’t bought into; it’s inherited. Nike’s kit reveals had settled into one global template: black studio, athlete, product. I threw it out and built everything on one word. Sagrado. The kit as a relic, not a product.
Two Kits, One Vow
The home kit honors the origin: five stripes rooted in club DNA, a navy polo collar, typography developed with Chivas’ own designers. The away kit is the signal of what follows, bone white, lit in blood red, made to travel from Guadalajara to the diaspora stands of Los Angeles and Chicago. Home: el origen se honra. Away: la señal de lo que sigue.
Sacred Noise
The art direction borrowed from devotion, not sportswear: halos, votive light, painted skies in the colors of the crest, faces half-consumed by atmosphere. I built the language in Midjourney in days, then shot the finals the traditional way: a one-day window inside Akron, days before the squad left for World Cup camp.
The Goats Got There First
Nike didn’t announce the partnership. The goats did. On July 1, the herd that gives the club its name appeared grazing above Estadio Akron, a swoosh cut into the grass behind them. No product, no headline, two words: Futuro Sagrado.
An Act of Faith
Seventeen days passed between announcement and reveal. They weren’t silent. An altar rose at the Monumento a la Revolución, the new shirt inside like a relic, before a single official image existed. Fans could make the pilgrimage, or pledge to buy the jersey sight unseen. Believers, made literal.
