Uyi Omorogbe and Gabriel Ruja Want Us to Play Ophsides
The founders behind one of New York’s most exciting emerging brands talk about building soccer culture in America, the state of football fashion and what it means to be “Ophsides.”
The offside rule is one of the most infamous rules in soccer’s long history. Constantly evolving with the times and always a contentious topic on a match day, it has become the ultimate litmus test to weed out “true” soccer fans and those simply there for the big events. In New York City, Uyi Omorogbe and Gabriel Ruja are redefining what it means to be offsides, and they want you all to join in on the fun.
Ophsides started as a two-man creative agency, reflecting the duo’s personalities and on-pitch past. Today, it is one of the most exciting brands to come out of the city in recent years. Becoming friends in their teenage years and bonding over a shared love of the game, Omorogbe and Ruja stand at the intersection of soccer and fashion, bridging that gap in a way many have tried and failed to do. Their designs are made for function and style, rejecting the tired aesthetics of football nostalgia and replica kits and carving out a new, inherently American aesthetic around the sport.
The concept of building the culture is at the heart of the duo’s work. Ophsides is grassroots by nature, existing in clothing, accessories and at your local park in two small squares. Manifesting as a game, a streetwear label and a way of life, Omorogbe and Ruja are creating something special in the city that never sleeps, and this is a brand you’ll want to keep on your radar.
We spoke to the creative duo about the origins of Ophsides, what it means to exist outside the bounds of the sport and how they are using fashion to build the soccer culture America has been looking for. Keep scrolling to read the full conversation.
How did you two get together to create the brand?
Omorogbe: Ruja and I actually met each other when we were 16 in an elite boarding school for soccer called Shattuck-St. Mary’s. And so we’ve been like best friends since we were 16, and then after separating for college, we met back up again in New York. I was living in New York for a while and Ruja moved from New Mexico. We were working together kind of lightly, but then we started working together more and more and we wanted to come up with a name that sort of defined our relationship.
Ruja: Yeah, it actually started as a name, because we would do projects together – even though we didn’t work together all the time, we would do singular projects together. So we were like, “Oh, we should just call ourselves something.” That’s how the concept of the name came about – pretty much naming our creative duo. Even if there was a project that I was doing alone, I could say “Creative Direction by Ophsides” and vice versa, just to start getting people acclimated to that idea.
Let’s focus on the name for a minute: Where did the inspiration come from to change the spelling of “offsides,” and what does that represent?
Omorogbe: I’m not sure what the previous names that we thought of were, but it needed to be something that represents us. Obviously, we met each other through playing soccer, and then Ruja said the word “offsides.” I knew that was it, cause we are offsides. We’re outside the bounds of the game and we’ve always been outsiders. And then we had our computer and we typed in “offsides,” but that name was already taken. We had to figure out a way to keep the name because it represents us so much, so we changed it from “FF” to “PH.”
Ruja: Even if you spell it with a “PH,” that’s kind of fire. Also, it just fits into the whole idea of being offsides. Of course we would spell it in an unorthodox way. I think it’s funny – I feel like you’re on to something when other people don’t really get it. We were telling a few friends, and they were like, “I don’t know, man. That’s not really cool.” That, for me, felt like we were doing something right.
Soccer in America is still growing into itself, but New York is at the forefront of that shift. How does the city play a role in your designs and the evolution of the brand?
Ruja: I think it comes to one central question: What is football culture in America? Before the World Cup, there was none. We, growing up playing footy our entire lives, were always attached to that community, but we realized there wasn’t a culture – meaning that, if you didn’t grow up playing it, how would you get into it? With that being the central question, we then began thinking, “How do we create something that’s more accessible?” We invented the game Ophsides, which is beautiful because it kind of democratizes the game in the fact that even people who have been playing soccer their entire lives play the game, and it’s a little more difficult. Someone who hasn’t played as much can still compete because it’s just three touches.
I think creating that game allowed us to create something that could attract people from all aspects of the game, meaning players that have grown up playing and people that are just interested and want to get into it. From there, it was just creating design informed by that culture that we were creating. We were doing both of these things in tandem – creating the game and designing clothing. It was a beautiful process of going back and forth, living this lifestyle, going out and playing every day while we’re wearing the clothes. It was about finding that balance of what American football culture will look like in New York, where you have to be able to play at the drop of a hat, but also look cool and tasteful at the same time. We had to find materials that communicated that – that was how we went about design.
I feel like people are attempting to do that, but aren’t as equipped as we are because either people have come from the game and don’t have a design background, or they have a design background, but don’t understand that culture. We come from both worlds. I grew up playing this game my entire life, and I’m a stylist, a creative director and a photographer. I’m able to actually communicate something that will resonate with someone who actually plays the game.
Omorogbe: The game and the designs inform one another, and the culture that’s being built, and New York is the perfect place to build that culture because it is a melting pot of identities – it’s a melting pot of immigrants who are attracted to the game naturally. And so, the fact that this is the place that we’re doing it lends itself very well to the culture of this city.
How did being “out of formation” socially and culturally shape the foundational ethos of the brand?
Omorogbe: Us being outside the bounds of the game is the core principle of the brand. It’s so indicative of why he and I are such good friends, because our stories are authentically that, and that’s what we lived. I grew up as the only Black kid in my high school. He grew up as the only Black mixed kid in a predominantly Mexican community. It’s always been difficult to be yourself in those types of environments, struggling with self-identity and understanding yourself. Soccer has been one of those things that helped us gain that identity. It was a beautiful tie between how we actually grew up, how difficult it is to be yourself, and understanding that it’s a shared experience.
It was through our friendship that we found more comfort in being ourselves, more confidence in being ourselves in the sense that it’s hard to be yourself if you have to be yourself alone. I think that’s ultimately what this brand is. It’s a beacon, not only for the sport, not only for American football culture, but it goes deeper than that. We’re focused on reclamation of identity or amplification of identity. That’s how the brand’s really been informed by our relationship and living outside the bounds of the game. It’s your superpower; it’s not a detriment.
Oph Tape allows people to mark out a field anywhere and on any surface. How does the idea of “playing anywhere” mirror your journey as brand founders?
Omorogbe: Everything that we create is so viscerally attached to the idea of being offsides; it reinforces the world that we’re building. The Oph Tape is a tool that allows you to, yes, build not just our game – it allows you to build really anything. Right now it looks like it’s just one game; I’m sure there’ll be other games that people come up with using it. It’s a tool of creation. What I love about it is that it summons a third space for football anywhere. It’s almost a calling card or a beacon to those who are offsides. So for example, we’ll go out in the Lower East Side or in Times Square, Washington Square Park, and we’ll put two squares on the ground and start playing our game. And then amongst everybody else who’s walking in that park, you’ll have some curious people, and they’ll approach and say, “What is this game? Can I play?”
What’s beautiful is that when we get to know these people, you realize that they’re offsides. So it’s a reflection of our journey because we’ve always been offsides, and we’re basically saying, “Who wants to join the team?” That’s something that you’ll find in a lot of the stuff that we do and a lot of stuff that we create. The tape is a signifier that you’re part of our community. It’s also, at the same time, an invitation to find a family and also to find yourself.
Ruja: Another thing that we always say is that the tape allows you to be offsides because you play in places where you’re not supposed to. Our whole thesis for the brand is that if you are offsides, you will attract other people that are offsides. So it’s pretty much just that in a game form.
We’re officially in post-World Cup America. How did the tournament change the way you navigate the brand’s presence? Did it change your thought process going forward?
Omorogbe: I think the World Cup for us, and for the country as a whole, did two things: One, it brought a ton of eyeballs into the sport, and people came from all over the world and were able to see the level of culture that exists around the game for the first time in this generation. But with those eyeballs also came the realization of, “Well, what is American soccer? What is American football culture in general?” We didn’t want to step into that moment and create a product or create things that reference the past.
We know we could make a Brazil jersey rendition that looks like Ophsides, and people would probably want to buy that just because it’s popular and trending. We were saying, “Okay, well, while we have all these eyeballs, and while we have people asking this question, how about we provide them with the answer?” The future of American football is Ophsides. Those are the two biggest things that the World Cup did. I think the people who are authentically pursuing that answer are the ones who will ultimately define American football culture in the future.
Ruja: Essentially, our direction stayed the same. Because of the fact that we grew up in this culture, we realized that there was no real framework for what American football was, because it was all referencing Europe, Brazil and Latin America. I think our direction stayed true, and with the World Cup coming and going, it provided a great contrast, because what most brands that were trying to profit off of the game did was either reference nostalgia directly or pull from some cultural generator that was not tied to the game.
It might bring a lot of eyes immediately, but it’s not going to last because that demographic or audience isn’t primed towards the game. It doesn’t make sense. So it’s like, “Oh cool, we saw this, but now what?” They forget. Referencing nostalgia directly, it’s great, but that doesn’t create new lovers of the game, because they have no attachment to that nostalgia. Our goal has stayed the same since when we started: we need to create something new that represents American football culture. It was a great contrast given what all the other bigger brands were doing.
Where do you want to see Ophsides in five years?
Omorogbe: In five years, the goal is for Ophsides to be the primary cultural football institution in America. That’s really what our vision is. At a deeper level than that, it’s less about business. It’s more about asking “Are we impacting people and helping them?” Our relationship with each other really transformed our lives in a very serious way. It’s allowed us to be more confident in ourselves, and also just be more successful and happy.
One of our biggest goals is to extend the love that we have for each other into a community, where that just gets passed on to the next person and the next person. The goal is to be a brand that inspires kids to want to be themselves, because we have a vision that there’s going to be a kid who grew up in New York City, or any city, who was drawn to play Ophsides. Plays Ophsides, lives Ophsides, gets on the pitch, and plays in a way that no one has ever seen before. That kid should be an icon of American football. And I think that if that kid comes from the culture that we create, then we know that we’ve done something really meaningful, because that kid’s going to inspire the next. That’s our vision in the next five years. You think football in America, you think of Ophsides. That’s where culture’s being built.
Ruja: To add to that, what does that look like on the creative side? I think creating a space where we can move past just clothing, where we get into film – which is something that we both enjoy making – furniture, architecture, and have it all be centered around championing people that are offsides and allowing them to have a voice.
