Adapt launches Protest Gear, a football scarf-inspired collection emblazoned with activist slogans

Climate change design duo Adapt has launched a new scarf collection called Protest Gear, taking the aesthetic of football scarves and using it to champion and call action to various causes. Working with six external designers as well as creating two scarves themselves, Adapt’s Richard Ashton and Josie Tucker hope to channel passion akin to that of football supporters towards urgent issues facing our society. In a launch video, Tucker says they “saw a similarity between football fans and protest crowds, in the fact that there’s so much energy and it’s all people gathered together for one cause”.

The designs feature satirical and powerful slogans in bold type emblazoned across the colourful scarves, such as Ashton’s own design “Plant or Die” and Tucker’s that says “Clean Up Your Act”. In the video she explains that the phrase is what teachers say to school children, and “because of school kids being the primary voice of climate activism, I thought it was a funny thing to say to the government and damaging corporations”.

Joycelyn Longden’s design says “Wake Up World”; she comments that her scarf slogan “adequately gets across the frustration that a lot of us in the space feel with the world”. Longden is a climate researcher who runs Climate in Colour.

Fashion designer and founder of Dot+Above, Begoña Toledo’s scarf is a comedic play on words, stating “Beehave” to “fight for the bees,” she says. “I think a lot of people don’t realise how important pollinators are for our planet, and for our own survival.”

Artist Carolina Lindberg has created a scarf saying “Human Change,” hoping to spread the message that humans are responsible for climate change; while knitwear designer Mia Rodney’s design states strongly “I Will Not Be Silent” in response to the murder of George Floyd and support of the Black Lives Matter protests.

Emily Sear, head of design at Fashion Revolution, designed a scarf that says “Not Cool” – something she says looks “very sweet and innocent” while simultaneously “a little snarky” and playing on government inaction over global warming. Digital artist Anke Sondi’s message “I Care, Do You?” says the scarf is “not only a sign of solidarity for the movement, but also a sign of solidarity within the movement itself”.

Tucker and Ashton have also created two made-to-order scarves to raise funds for climate NGO, Client Earth, reading “Climate Justice” and “Fuck Your CO2”. The pieces will be made using a cutting-edge digital knitting machine called Kniterate, conducted by UK-based sustainable manufacturer EcoKnitware, using traceable cashmere and wool blend yarns, with a waste-free process.

The campaign was shot by Henry Dean with DOP Donny Johnson at Dulwich Hamlets football club.