Local girl’s t-shirt design to feature at Albion Rainbow Laces game
After hundreds of local children entered a competition to design a shirt to promote the Rainbow Laces campaign, one girl’s design has been chosen as winner.
We launched a competition asking local kids to send us their most colourful, inclusive, and supportive shirt designs to promote Rainbow Laces and show support to the LGBTQ+ community.
The winner would receive two tickets to our home game against Brentford this December – the club’s designated Rainbow Laces fixture – where they would be able to see their design as a huge centre-circle display.
The shirt will also feature in the players’ pre-match warm up, and it will be worn by Albion mascots Gully and Sally.
We received hundreds of amazing entries from children of all ages, giving our judging panel a very tricky job in deciding the winner.
We had some illustrious guests on our judging panel; Proud Seagulls’ chair Stuart Matthews, Gillian Martin from the Fan Advisory Board, the Albion’s LGBTQ+ staff network chair Paul Callander, and DJ Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim).
After a tough judging process, the panel chose the winning design by Livs, aged 14, from Bognor Regis.
Livs was over the moon to win the competition.
“I’m super excited, it came as such a shock to me,” she told us, “I’ve been a huge Brighton fan since the day I could talk due to my grandad sharing his passion for the club he’s supported since he was little, which makes this experience even more amazing.
“It’s going to feel incredible seeing my shirt design on the pitch at the Brentford game, I can’t wait to share that moment with my grandad and the rest of my family.”
Livs’ amazing design shows a classic blue-and-white Albion shirt at the bottom, which bleeds into a fantastic rainbow-coloured design at the top.
“I really wanted to see if I could incorporate the traditional Brighton blue and white striped shirt into my design,” Livs said.
“I thought that the drips of rainbow colours would represent the merging of the rainbow laces with the Albion. I also added the writing as I wanted to emphasise the point that everyone is equal in sport.
Livs’ design will be featured in our men’s fixture against Brentford next month (December 6).
Mum Vickie says she’s incredibly proud of Livs for her awesome design.
“We were extremely proud when we found out Livs design had been chosen as the overall winner, and to find out there were hundreds of entries makes it even more special,” she said.
“The whole family are proud of Livs achievement.”
Sarah Byrne, who promotes equality, diversity, and inclusion at the Foundation, was delighted to see so many local kids get involved with the competition.
“When we launched this competition we hoped that local kids would get involved, but to have had so many entries has really blown us away.
“We saw so many amazing designs with positive messages, so it’s heartening to know there are so many young people in Sussex who are passionate about supporting the LGBTQ+ community.
“Well done to Livs for her brilliant design, I can’t wait to see it featured at the Brentford game!”
The Rainbow Laces campaign was launched by Stonewall in 2013, and is supported by the Premier League, to show support for LGBTQ+ inclusion in football.