Yinka Ilori Reimagines Tottenham Hotspur Away Shirt with Nike

British-Nigerian designer Yinka Ilori has teamed up with Nike to create a customised version of Tottenham Hotspur's colourful away shirt. The Premier League kit now carries his graphics on both the front and the back.

The shirt's original pattern features, in the club's words, "never-before-seen visuals inspired by never-before-seen destinations". Ilori built on that base rather than replacing it. He calls the result a piece about place.

What did Ilori change on the shirt?

On the front, in the position usually reserved for the sponsor logo, Ilori designed a circular motif. It combines the football club's initials, THFC, with an abbreviation for London and the postcode for Tottenham: LDN17. The lettering is bright orange on a white background.

On the rear, he created a graphic in his signature playful style around the letters COYS, which stands for Come On You Spurs. Encircling those letters are the words "I know I am, I'm sure I am", while the phrase "We are Tottenham wherever we go" wraps around the whole graphic.

All of the lettering uses Ilori's custom typeface. Type foundry British Standard Type designed the font family for the designer in 2024.

Why football, and why Tottenham?

Ilori grew up in north London, where the Populous-designed Tottenham Hotspur stadium is located. According to the designer, the collaboration aims to demonstrate the power of football to unite people.

"This project is a celebration of belonging and the power of football to bring people together," Ilori said.

"For me, football is about the wider culture and the incredible sense of unity that comes from standing on the terraces, chanting alongside thousands of others," he continued.

He explained his intention to balance heritage with feeling: "I wanted the design to honour Tottenham Hotspur's heritage while capturing that collective joy and spirit. The 'Never Far From Home' message really resonated with me, reflecting how football has the power to make you feel at home, wherever you are."

Where does this sit in Ilori's recent work?

The shirt is the latest design from a designer working at speed across disciplines. Recent collaborators include household-goods brand Brabantia and champagne house Veuve Clicquot. Ilori also created a homeware and furniture collection for the department store Dunelm.

What does this change for the designer? It extends his practice into Premier League merchandise, a mass-market stage of a different order from furniture and homeware, and one where his lettering, his chants and his postcode motif will reach a stadium-sized audience.

The Tottenham Hotspur collaboration signals that major football clubs continue to hand creative control of kit imagery to artists with a distinct graphic voice. For Ilori, a north Londoner, the project lands closest to home.