Studs Up

A lot of different football products are coming across my door lately from toys to t-shirts to football boots. I always make sure to warm them that whatever I say about their product will be completely honest. If I think it’s shit, I’ll say it’s shit.

I have no interest in pushing something onto you guys that you’ll ultimately find out is crap and then come and burn my house down or force me to eat fleas.

That said, the latest package that landed at my door is from Ruffneck Wear, a company that produces custom football scarves for virtually any team, event or purpose. While the company is based in the US they’ll ship just about anywhere. They have product for a number of different clubs around the world but the really interesting part of their business is the custom scarf work. They can do fairly small runs so you can get scarves designed and produced for your Sunday league team, corporate events, or for displays of extreme vanity (“TIM IS THE F***ING BUSINESS!”).

They sent me two scarves to check out – Barcelona and Spurs – both arrived with a nice little leaflet promoting more of Ruffneck’s gear as well as their partner Who Are Ya designs. One thing I liked immediately about the designs is that they’re double-sided, which I don’t see that often in football scarves. The Spurs scarf had “We are Tottenham” on one side and “Come on you lilywhites” on the other while the Barca scarf had “Mes Que Un Club” and “BARCA”.

Quality-wise, both felt comfortable and I didn’t get the “itch” that some of my cheaper (i.e. crap) scarves are so generous with. I haven’t had a chance to wash either of them so I can’t really say how they hold up afterwards.

Overall, I think Ruffneck are putting out a good product but the fact that they offer you the opportunity to create your own custom scarves is a big differentiators for me. I would hope that official supporters clubs and Sunday league teams would be all over this.

Unboxing photos below (click to enlarge) and find out more at RuffneckWear.com.