Text Zein Karam
AFCON is steadily approaching and the excitement is starting to build. The tournament stands as one of the most uniting forces in Pan-Africanism, where everyone from within the continent finds themselves being pulled into the same emotional current and whirlwind of excitement. Its the kind of excitement that has neighbourhoods rearranging schedules and living rooms turn into arenas. Chaos in all its glory. Yet, with each passing year, the same uniforms are donned by AFCON disciples: a lucky jersey or a vintage team T, with little to no wiggle room.
Enter Precious Trust (PT), founded by Algerian designer and skater Wathek Allal, who weaves cultural pride into every aspect of his work. For this year’s AFCON, PT has taken on the challenge of dressing some of the continents finest, launching a capsule collection that channels six nations competing in this years tournament. Six tracksuits, six campaigns, six locations. To build it out, PT has teamed up with five brands, each one representing a country in its own colourful, rhythmic register: Andy Wahloo for Morocco, Voodoo Club for Nigeria, PotPlantClub for South Africa, Suleiman Variations for Somalia, and SN3 Studio for Sudan. Algeria, naturally, sits with PT.
The collections messaging is a celebration of the spirit of a unified Africa, but more over understanding the continental legacy held. Each collaboration taps into a different cultural register and reminds us how these ideas move between cities and communities. The pieces each carry their own visual language, small references you may only catch if you grew up with them. From the colours to the textures, to the campaign images themselves, embodying the unique swagger from each country.
It nods to the broader history as well, speaking to the decades in which football functioned as a soft engine for continental solidarity, a gravitational force binding fans from Abuja to Algiers, Khartoum to Johannesburg. PT continues to do what it does best: nourish and cultivate community.