{"id":402803,"date":"2024-06-13T23:14:19","date_gmt":"2024-06-13T23:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=402803"},"modified":"2024-06-14T04:08:08","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T04:08:08","slug":"joke-turned-into-clothing-brand-launch-for-two-afl-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=402803","title":{"rendered":"'Joke' turned into clothing brand launch for two AFL stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Essendon<\/a> skipper Zach Merrett<\/a> and defender Jayden Laverde, life outside of football seemed like a distant future concern.<\/p>\n

That was until just over 12 months ago, when a "joke" conversation led to a venture way beyond their dreams.<\/p>\n

The pair have utilised their footballing platform to launch their own clothing brand, DRYP, in hopes of creating an empire away from the four walls of the Hangar and their premiership hopes.<\/p>\n

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It proves that the footballing landscape is evolving, with players allowed a freedom like no other. The tunnel-vision that an AFL career is all-consuming is very quickly fading from the modern game.\ufeff<\/p>\n

How it all came about was simple.<\/p>\n

\"Merrett<\/p>\n

A conversation with some of their teammates after a loss back in 2023, spurred the pair to think about what they could delve into, when they inevitably hang up the boots.<\/p>\n

But instead of dreading the day that no professional footballer – or athlete – wants to see arrive, Merrett and Laverde took destiny into their own hands and started DRYP, with no more knowledge than the clothes in their own wardrobes.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"It was just … talking life after footy. We were just sitting in the cafe at the club and we were just joking around, might have had a loss the week before, \ufeffand we're like 'what are we all doing now?', having a joke around with the boys," Laverde told Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n

"One of the boys said he wants to be a plumber, one of the other boys said he has no clue what he's doing after footy.<\/p>\n

\"Duursma<\/p>\n

"And we were like 'maybe we'll just start a clothing brand or something'. One thing led to another and we just started doing researc\ufeffh.<\/p>\n

"It really started from just a joke around. Now we're here 12, 14 months later."<\/p>\n

And while football, and more importantly, Essendon's success, is still their first priority, Merrett admits it's nice to prepare early for life away from the game.<\/p>\n

"We're both similar in that respect that we're old school and footy is priority number one, always, basically," Merrett said.<\/p>\n

\"Footy<\/p>\n

"The landscape's definitely shifted, with guys going to weddings in season and having family commitments which I respect, but I'm probably still in the camp of, especially in season, that footy is always number one\ufeff.<\/p>\n

"We were clear when we started this (DRYP), that footy is clearly \ufeffnumber one still and hopefully DRYP will be close second."<\/p>\n

Merrett is right in noting that players have been taking a week off here and there this season, notably Melbourne's Ed Langdon to attend his sister's wedding, Geelong Oisin Mullin to travel overseas for his sister's wedding and Magpie Oleg Markov who took a week off for his brother in law's wedding.<\/p>\n

How the players harness their freedom and priorities, however, is something Merrett and Laverde are capitalising on\ufeff with their clothing brand.<\/p>\n

\"Jayden<\/p>\n

"I think every player has passion points and hobbies they have outside of footy that they find gets their mind off the pressures of being an elite athlete," he said.<\/p>\n

"The benefit of still playing, allows us time to build DRYP slowly and do it properly and not … go too fast.<\/p>\n

"Which is a luxury, to be able to do it at our own pace."<\/p>\n

And as the Bombers continue to fly, it's no surprise the club has totally backed in Merrett and Laverde's side hustle, if it keeps them motivated to continue to perform.<\/p>\n

\"Laverde<\/p>\n

As for their teammates, the pair admit they didn't draw too much inspiration from anyone.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"There's not too many fashionistas," Laverde said.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffThey're keen to get some merchandise and keen to help us out. By all reports, the boys are pretty happy with how it's looking, so thank you, boys."<\/p>\n

DRYP officially launched on Friday, with the brand boasting a range of fashionable, unisex streetwear, including hoodies and t-shirts.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Essendon skipper Zach Merrett and defender Jayden Laverde, life outside of football seemed like a distant future concern. That was until just over 12 […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":402805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402803"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=402803"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":402811,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402803\/revisions\/402811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/402805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=402803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=402803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=402803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}