Copenhagen 2007 Nike Tshirt Unveiled
Posted on 02/07/2007
Frank Clifforth, a player with the Danish Homeless World Cup team, has won the opportunity to have his artwork become the central design of the limited edition Nike T-shirt to commemorate the Copenhagen 2007 Homeless World Cup. It will be exclusively available at the tournament, in Town Hall Square, from 29 July – 4 August 2007.
Each year the Homeless World Cup holds a design competition with founding international partner, Nike, to discover talented artists amongst people who are currently homeless and excluded. The winner sees their design turned into 5,000 t-shirts sold at the tournament.
This year Frank Clifforth, a player from the Danish Homeless World Cup national team, was selected with his drawing of a cartoon character made from a soccer ball.
According
to Frank his design is a great expression of his current situation:
”Right now I’m working on how to let go. I have to learn to put on the
red nose and go and find the fun. I was never allowed to just enjoy
being a child”, Frank explains. ”I played soccer as a child, and I was
good at it. But it wasn’t fun for me to play, because my Dad pushed me
too hard – he never listened to me. Now I play soccer, because I think
it’s fun.”
Frank was homeless for 7 years with no regular
place to stay. Since he was selected for the Danish Homeless World Cup
national team he has moved into his own apartment in Fredericia, is
beginning to train as a psychotherapist and currently works in a centre
for drug and alcohol abuse.
Mel Young, co-founder and president, Homeless World Cup, warmly congratulated Frank on his success: “This is yet another demonstration that people who are currently homeless should not be excluded, that everyone has a positive contribution to make, a talent to share. The Homeless World Cup will continue to find additional opportunities for social inclusion around the international football tournament. It is becoming a special privilege to win the design competition linked to the limited edition Nike T-shirt.”
Frank’s design is applauded by the Nike apparel design team. “Bob Gill, a gifted designer, illustrator, filmmaker and teacher once said: There is no such thing as ‘good design’ or ‘bad design’. The design is good if it does what you want it to do. It’s bad if it doesn’t. Frank’s drawing of a football player was a beautiful and honest expression of the joy that football gives to the spectator and participants”, says Rosey Cortazzi, Apparel Team Nike.
Eva Kjer Hansen, Minister of Social Affairs, hosts of the Copenhagen 2007 Homeless World Cup 2007 also commended Frank’s achievements: “It is both a smart and simple shirt, she said. “To play soccer or other kinds of sport awakens the child in most of us, and I think that is clear in this T-shirt. The Homeless World Cup is about people, and this is made clear too. I look forward to seeing the T-shirt in action, when the ball gets rolling this summer.”
Frank is convinced that the Homeless World Cup will be a great experience: ”It will be crazy! For me it’s not just about the games and about winning – that is the former Frank. I’m really excited about meeting the other players, talking with them and hearing their stories. And then it will be fun to see hundreds of people running around with my drawing on their stomach!”
The limited edition Nike Homeless World Cup T-shirt will be available in red and white in all adult sizes for 150 Kroner and for kids sizes 100 Kroner at the tournament from 29 July – 4 August 2007.
