Ashleigh Lewis (Leoni) went to America on a 4 year scholarship in 2015. Her experience was quite challenging. She went from being surrounded by constant support and family to feeling isolated and alone, due to being over 4,000 miles away from home. She experienced racism and struggled to adapt to the American style. As a result, she chose not to continue playing football once returning home. She felt traumatised, discouraged, and unmotivated. She was then approached to join IMPACT FC and everything changed. Leoni regained her confidence and it has led to many opportunities such as being the face of a Nike London campaign! We were lucky enough to meet Leoni at the Last Stand event at Villa Park which led to us reaching out to Leoni and giving her the opportunity to design a shirt to truly represent HER.
Our Inspiration
Leoni provided us with plenty of inspiration for her shirt design. Leoni wanted to use the Bull Skull to link into the tattoo on her shin, she also wanted the shirt to represent her heritage. This is why we featured the Jamaican and Nigerian flags on the front of the shirt to represent Leoni’s family members in these nations. Leoni wanted to further represent the people in her life who inspired her to continue her footballing journey. We placed the names of the people who showed Leoni love within the heart, people who gave Leoni strength within the muscle fibres on the sleeve and a special mention to Charlotte by the Impact badge to represent who brough Leoni back to football after her tough time in America.
What we Created
The Final Product
We think it’s fair to say Leoni LOVED her custom shirt. We’re so proud to be able to showcase not only our state of the art technology but also our creativity by pushing the boundaries of what a custom football shirt should look like.