All The Smoke

As an avid soccer player and fan, I naturally had a desire to work with my local professional soccer team, Detroit City FC (DCFC). I had been going to their games since I was a little kid and had even found myself playing in their adult leagues and coaching their youth teams over the years.

Little did I know that what would start as a cold-call email to their CEO to express interest in collaborating on a project would turn into one of the most successful partnerships in DCFC history.

These custom 1/100 jerseys were a collaborative effort between myself and Makayla Rybak, founder of Detroit Is Not Dead. Her and I created these to commemorate my partnership with DCFC. We dropped these at the All The Smoke game and nearly sold-out that night.

Our social media push consisted of a stragtegic mix of teasers, reels, carousels, stills, and of course the video above. It generated a huge buzz across all three companies and their communities. The 'fire' emoji has never been used so much before with how many comments, reactions and shares it got used in from our fans.

The All The Smoke game was derived from a triple entendre: referencing DCFC's ultra's identity with smoke bombs, DogHouse's identity as a cannabis company, and the the energy and 'beef' that comes with a high-intensity sporting atmosphere.

My goal? To elevate an already incredible environment to new heights.

If you have not been to a DCFC match, well first, you need to change that immediately, but their games have pioneered the European style community and engagement from the fans with the game. At a DCFC game you should expect smoke bombs, coordinated chants, drumming, lots and lots of cursing and alcohol consumption. It is fandom on a level we are not accustomed to in traditional American sports.

To make this game particularly special, I aimed to do things that had never been done before. We were already the first ever cannabis sponsor with the club and I wanted to add to that, so at the game, we unveiled the first ever tifo at a women's indoor match, marking us the first company to ever work with the club's ultras, The Northern Guard.