T-shirts celebrating Leicester City’s meteoric rise to the Premier League have been designed by a De Montfort University (DMU) fashion graduate.
Abbie Tacey, who studied fashion, textile design and screen printing, started gaining vital work experience with the Foxes’ retail arm under the pioneering DMU Graduate Champions scheme, which sees the university offer recent graduates the chance to take up paid internships with leading UK businesses.
The Foxes were so impressed that Abbie is now working for them as a freelancer, producing designs for all of the City Megastore’s clothing ranges, including childrenswear and the highly popular lifestyle range called Fox and Crop.
But the icing on the cake for Abbie’s career so far has been producing the T-shirt which celebrates Leicester City winning the Sky Bet Championship. The clever design uses the names of City’s players to create the shape of the championship trophy.
More than 2,000 T-shirts were stocked at the City Megastore at the weekend and they sold like hot cakes as City started their Premier League promotion party at their final game of the season, against Doncaster Rovers. The game was a 32,000 sell-out.
Foxes fan Abbie, who hails from Coalville, in North West Leicestershire, said: “I am incredibly proud of the T-shirt. The hard work – the research and designing – has really paid off.
“When you are a university student you produce a lot of designs but you never see the process right through to selling the product. To see something out there on the shelves that people are going to wear makes me feel so happy.
“I am loving my time at Leicester City. To think that I am now doing work for a Premier League club all seems a bit surreal. I am just really, really lucky to have an opportunity with a fantastic club who are incredibly supportive.”
Matt Payne, head of retail and licensing at Leicester City, said: “Abbie started as an intern under DMU Graduate Champions and she just got the idea of what it means to work here straight away in terms of bringing high street fashion into a football club environment. She is great to have around, very professional and a great designer.”
Abbie added: “I have told my friends all about the DMU Graduate Champions and told them to sign up for it when they graduate this summer. I would recommend it to anyone. If it wasn’t for DMU I wouldn’t be here now.”
DMU has enjoyed a brilliant partnership with Leicester City during the club’s Championship-winning season which has added to the student experience.
The two famous Leicester institutions work together to offer work placements for students as well as hugely popular match ticket offers, while staff from DMU’s International Centre for Sports History and Culture have worked with City to help celebrate the club’s heritage.
The DMU student football teams have enjoyed tours of the stadium and meeting famous players from the past while journalism students from DMU have gained experience reporting on matches from the press box.
The Championship winners' T-shirts are on sale now at the City Megastore at King Power Stadium. For more details go to www.lcfcdirect.com
More information about the DMU Graduate Champions internships is available here
Posted on Friday 2 May 2014