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When Nottingham Forest’s Ola Aina smashed in one of the goals of the season against West Ham earlier this month, he did so sporting a unique pair of football boots.
The Nigeria international, a former Chelsea academy player, was wearing the 'Scudetta' by Sokito, a forward-thinking football boot brand that he and Crystal Palace defender Trevoh Chalobah have recently invested around £1 million in.
Fellow Super Eagles Alex Iwobi also sported the boots in the black colourway when he opened the scoring for Fulham on Saturday.
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The football boot space is undoubtedly dominated by Nike, Adidas and Puma, the likes of which offer huge lucrative sponsorship deals to leading players.
But Sokito, set up by former football boot reseller Jake Hardy, are taking a very different approach to proceedings.
"We are structured differently,” he told SPORTbible.
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“We don't pay players. We've never paid a footballer. They buy part of the company and become shareholders.”
The stance is echoed on Sokito’s website, which states that players wear the boots as they “truly believe in the product and the mission”.
The list of footballers involved in the company is stacked to the say the least and includes former Manchester United midfielder and current Watford boss Tom Cleverley, Germany and Wolfsburg’s Felix Nmecha, USA and FC Cincinnati star DeAndre Yedlin, William Troost Ekong of Saudi Pro League side Al Kholood and the Nigeria national team and women's star Jasmyne Spencer, who plays her club football with Angel City in the NWSL.
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Although not all of them wear the boots because of existing boot deals, these passionate players have a great deal of influence, to the point where they are involved in key decisions for designs in a WhatsApp group.
“To have them onboard is amazing,” Hardy added.
“As a brand going into football you have to have players. If we wanted to sign all these players, we wouldn't be able to unless we raised a s***load of money.
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"To have them involved to help grow the business, it's super valuable. They do so much for us.
"We have a WhatsApp group with all the players and all of the designs are voted for by players. Every little thing which goes to market has gone through a panel of more than 40 players. It's amazing and gives us a unique perspective.”
Hardy, who used to work in sales, combined his two passions of shoes and football in creating the brand.
The idea spawned when he was on holiday in Hoi An in Vietnam and tried to get a local market tailor shop to make a pair of football boots but was unsuccessful.
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After heading back home, he went back and forth for about a year with the cottage factory industry and uncovered they were buying all of the big brands' materials that were end of line.
If they were damaged or a certain colourway was being made anymore, they would be intercepting it from landfill.
He would go on to find out that 12.5 million football boots go to landfill every year and slowly but surely, his football boot brand’s key focus would be all about being sustainable and eco-friendly.
They are even encouraging people to recycle their old boots and get £20 off when you buy the Devistas, their first ever product.
Jake explained: "Football is the thing which touches everything and is better at spreading positive messages than anything else. It shouldn't be contributing to the climate crisis; it should be the thing which helps us to fix it.
''We're constantly trying to make football products which have less of an impact on the environment.
"When I was 20/21 and just trying to develop the boot at the start, it wasn't [the mission] because I didn't know how bad the industry was.
"When you look into it, it's quite hard to ignore and it's hard to think of it in any other way. That's become a massive passion of mine. We're doing a lot of studies into football and its interaction with the environment, trying to reduce plastics and air pollution because there's a link between that and performance on the pitch we think.
"We want to make football better for the planet and for future generations.”
Jake handed in his notice at his sales job at the age of 20 and worked on the brand for around a year, managing to raise investment so he could pay himself a wage.
It only ran for so long though and that meant for a period of five months, Jake had to work on Sokito from 6am until midday and then complete a shift at a pub until midnight every day of the week.
The brand managed to launch and eventually developed the cclasy Devista, which took three years and is primarily made from recycled materials like carpet and plastic bottles.
Their second release is the game-changing Scudetta, which was launched by former Watford defender Troost-Ekong when he represented Nigeria and was named Player of the Tournament at the Africa Cup of Nations at the start of the year.
It’s since been worn by his compatriots Aina and Iwowbi, former Aston Villa midfielder Ashley Westwood and one of the most socially conscious footballers around in Hector Bellerin, the former Arsenal right-back now playing for Real Betis.
The completely innovative premium speed boot, priced at £174.99 and available in three colourways, is one of the lightest boots on the market at just 182 grams and is made up of bio-based materials like corn waste, wood fibres, sugarcane, bamboo, castor beans and recycled polyester from plastic bottles.
"You take sustainable material, if it's recycled or bio-based like a plant of some kind,” Hardy said on the process.
“There's ways that you mix it with a virgin plastic. It's pretty difficult to get one hundred per cent sustainable material but you have to mix the two and it's all about how you mix to ensure performance and durability stands up.
"We've done it to a level where we believe it's the most sustainable boot on the market today.
"The industry is developing so fast that it will only get better and better.
"For us, we balance all our decisions with impact on the planet, price and performance. It means we can look at things in a slightly different lens. It's not all about how many can we sell and how much margin, we factor an impact on the planet within there. I think the modern day consumer really appreciates that in a brand."
The brand is growing every month and retail sales are improving to around 300 per cent on year.
They are working with engaged specialised retailers when it comes to premium football products and Hardy says Sokito is in “a very good place”.
Although it is already loaded, Sokito is ready to disrupt the football boots game and compete with major players like Nike, Adidas and Puma in the next five to ten years.
They want their boots to regularly be on show at Sunday League games up and down the country but will not veer away from their principles.
Asked about how they intend to mix it up with the big boys over the next five to ten years, Hardy said: “I think if you're a challenger brand doing the exact same thing as those brands, it's going to be a tough time because why would people change?
"In comparison to those brands, we're completely different. They're big brands which make sports product and football is only one of their departments.
"A lot of is low price point, high volume and doing that sustainably is very difficult until in a few years when materials are in a certain place.
“We do it in a very different way and we will always do it in a different way. We don't ever want to be those brands to be honest, we want to stay in our own lane, but we make football boots which are as good as theirs in terms of what you get for the price.
“We want to be mentioned in the same breath as Nike, Adidas and PUMA for when you go to Sunday League and hope there's a few pairs of Sokito on display each week."
Topics: Adidas, Chelsea, Nike, Nottingham Forest, PUMA, Premier League, Spotlight
Josh Lawless