The Building Bloc

One thing I love about how the younger generation interact with sports is their ability to create their own heroes overnight. Yusuf Dikec, Olympic Silver medalist in the shooting with no special equipment, just a lifetime of skill, his hand in his pocket and vibes. Sometimes you can try to curate things till Kingdom come and simplicity leads the way.

Last month, The Valley hosted Different Pathways, a free panel discussion highlighting traditional and unconventional routes into the world of sports. In collaboration with The Building Bloc and Black In Sport, the discussion featured talented panellists Subomi Odanye, Tosin Gbaja, Chaj Arunasalam and Maya Bruney. The Building Bloc's Seyi D. said: "To see so many individuals from the local community come out and hear stories from our panellists was inspiring. We had school children with their parents but we also had university students who were assessing their next steps. "Naturally, many people are confused or overwhelmed when deciding what to do with their lives so being able to shed some light on this was very rewarding. We had so much help from Charlton Athletic Community Trust and Greenwich Borough Council to push this event and it’s amazing to see what can happen when the community comes together.”

We've joined forces with The Building Bloc to host a two-v-two tournament at The Valley on Saturday, July 13th from 12pm (BST). The event will take place in the club’s brand-new, state-of-the-art football cage located in our West Stand car park. There will be prizes to be won on the day - with everyone welcome to come down and support.

Listen, WINGSTOP UK (Lemon Pepper Holdings Ltd) are cooking rn. If you know Westfield Stratford, you know it's notorious reputation around teenagers asking strangers mad questions. So to announce their Westfield Stratford opening dates they made a simple but effective video playing on the stereotype of the area. You can just see in the comments it instantly connected to the target audience, in 20 seconds they showed they understand the culture of London in a very specific way. Show the people you want to target you know them. I don't wanna keep posting about Wingstop, but if they keep it up, they're gonna force my hand 😂

Truly humbled by the response we've had to the Different Pathways event this Saturday. 150 registrations so far and a wide mixture with people from schools, university students, graduates and those looking to switch careers. If you haven't yet registered you can do so here - https://lnkd.in/eXkSHMic Looking forward to seeing some of you and hearing from our great panellists! As always thank you to Charlton Athletic Football Club for hosting this event and Black In Sport for partnering with us.

Eberechi Eze for Burberry. Burberry have done well recently, using football to boost their profile within different audiences. This alongside the career day Eze's foundation hosted in collaboration with the luxury brand shows you don't need to lead with the product, you can start with the talent, their story and let the product authentically feature in the activation.

WINGSTOP UK (Lemon Pepper Holdings Ltd) have been on a tear recently. They've clocked it, if you want to be the brand that the younger generation resonate with you have to occupy the spaces they care about and affiliate yourself with the individuals they respect. In the past 6 weeks they've; 1. Activated at Recessland - A festival at Dreamland Margate hosted by Recess 2. Announced a collaboration with OlaOluSlawn 3. Hosted a pop up at a Top Baller event - the biggest 1v1 football competition online currently. The fact they've got queues outside every opening shouldn't surprise you they've been doing the groundwork and are reaping the rewards.

Introducing Different Pathways An event hosted by Charlton Athletic Football Club, Black In Sport & The Building Bloc to help showcase the different ways to begin and build a career within the world of sports. This event is open to all, whether you’re considering you’re career options and want to learn, you’re looking to pivot into sports or you’re already in the industry and want to network, come join us at The Valley on the 15th of June. Register for your free ticket here: https://lnkd.in/efc_zvig

Adidas are fighting back in the boot war 👀 Off the back of the #MerkyFC Headquarters adidas and Stormzy have released the #MerkyFC Predator. A new spin on the iconic boot that had loads of guys thinking we we're gonna be the next Messi 😂 I'm all about partnerships/activations that make sense and capitalising of moments, taking a football boot that was top 2 in South London and putting the stamp of the biggest artist in South London on it. I guarantee you this current range of Predator boots becomes one of the staples for the younger generation just like it was for us.