New Albion Sports
With a focus on function and quality, a brand new label and editorial hub driven by a genuine passion for sports
Born out of a group email chain dedicated to the NBA (which is 30,000 emails deep, so far) is the new label and sports website, New Albion. Created by four friends—Marc Hendrick, Alex Vitlin, Felix Chan and James Wright—who are located across LA, Hong Kong and Sydney, the company’s core values are based on the founders’ genuine enthusiasm for sport, quality and authenticity.
“The first thing that prompted the discussion was our collective desire to do something sports-focused in our varying fields,” Hendrick tells CH. While their respective fields are varied—Chan is a co-founder of clothing line Vanishing Elephant, Vitlin has a strong editorial background, Wright works in strategy and marketing, and Hendrick is a graphic designer and illustrator and co-founder of Das Monk—the team decided to create a company that blended their individual expertise. “The thinking evolved into how we could roll our strengths (clothing and graphic design, editing, writing and marketing) into a sports content project with a clothing line,” Hendrick explains. “We started to look at what would make us different from others and we kept coming back to quality. We want to create and curate content that’s timeless and clothing that is focused on quality fabrics and contemporary classic design.” Like so many brands, New Albion was created to fill a void that the founders themselves wished could be filled—so they did it themselves.
With a focus on quality materials, innovative fabrics and techniques, New Albion apparel blends traditional, classic sports-style gear with very contemporary aspects. “We want our apparel to be thought-out, with a focus on detailing. We want the person that buys our clothes to feel like they’re actually buying something special and not something that other brands churn out in the thousands,” Hendrick says.
Functionality is at the forefront of all New Albion designs and, for this debut collection, the team has been working with a technology that essentially coats fibers of any textile—making it water- and stain-resistant. Next season (dropping in August) will be a larger collection, featuring more high-tech fabrics and details. “We also have a number of collaborations—some clothing, some art, some other—that we’ll be releasing over the next couple of months. Our first collaboration is with Prize Pins—which is being released next week,” Hendrick says.
Not satisfied with being only a clothing line, New Albion is also an editorial hub for sports-focused content around the world—from essays to illustrations, photography and video—again, with a focus on high-quality output. Hendrick says, “Our content is largely about original, timeless and quality stuff. We want someone to be able to read or view something we’ve done a month or a year after it drops, enjoy the experience, and still get value out of it. We think the stories behind sport—when handled correctly—can be extremely compelling, which is a huge part of our reason to be.”
New Albion apparel is available online now, with prices starting at $60.
Studio images by Ben Sullivan, outdoor image by Glenn Eugen Ellingsen, Parasol Solutions
