Exploring the Rise of Football Culture on Roblox

How Roblox is Shaping the Future of Football Culture

Reading time: 2-3 Minutes

With the start of the new Premier League season, the MetaMerch team have taken a deep dive into how football clubs and kit manufacturers have embraced Roblox UGC and how this relationship has developed. From the first official launch with Barcelona in 2019 to incredible “Roblox First” strategies that point toward the future of marketing official kits moving forward.

In 2019 FC Barcelona became the first football club to launch an official product on the Roblox platform. This is in the dark ages, a pre layered clothing activation, the items were full kit limited edition avatar bundles featuring the forthcoming 2019/20  Barca home kit. Two versions were available for free for a limited time.

The launch was accompanied by a video put out by both Roblox and FC Barcelona the FC Barcelona: Elite Playmaker as of August 1, 2020, it has been purchased 4,447,752 times and favourited 88,064 times. At the same time, Liverpool FC launched a collection of classic clothing skins featuring some of their most iconic players at the time. The items were free through the Roblox Marketplace and done in collaboration with Roblox. The potential was there. A tertiary search of the Roblox platform would reveal a huge amount of unofficial UGC skins for every team from Arsenal to Leicester City even then but it wasn’t until layered clothing was launched did we see the next big step in Official kits.

Puma and Nike were the first kit manufacturer to launch official kits into Roblox. Nike launched a collection of 13 kits from international teams that were free to claim for a limited time in their Nikeworld activation. Puma, as part of a huge roll out with Manchester City FC, launched into the 2022/23 season with kits to accompany City’s Blue Moon Experience with a cross over event with the Puma Land of Games activation. At the time it was a significant move, not only home shirt, but the away, 3rd, goalkeeper, and Esports shirts all came out over the first half of the season. We also saw for the first time a “Roblox First” launch of the third kit, a first! Perhaps a sign of things to come?

Puma, in the same season, ran a cross platform activation with 4 of their biggest club: Manchester City, AC Milan, Borussia Dortmund, and Olympique de Marseille. Not only did they have all 4 home shirts on the Roblox platform available through game play in Puma World of Games, they also had an activation in Rocket League. Manchester City continued to roll out their latest kits on Roblox through their Blue Moon Experience. For the 2023/24 season, the kits featured for the first time the names of every single player for both mens and women’s teams. A massive UGC undertaking, cementing Puma and Manchester City at the forefront of official Football club Roblox UGC. They launched an Esports kit on Roblox as well.

And then…here come Adidas! Adidas entered the Roblox UGC space in late 2023 but their first official kit was with Ajax in 2024. In March they released a package of UGC launching not only the 3 official kits from the 2023/24 shirts but also a collection of official merchandise from training kits to vintage style pieces. But Adidas didn’t just dip their toe into the space, they dived in. They put out the Mexico and Argentina home and away kits for the Copa America in June before the launch of the Manchester United home kit and 2024/25 Ajax third kit in August. However, the one that drew my attention was the launch of Al-Nassr 24/25 Home Jersey on Roblox. Yep, Roblox first home shirt launch! The Al-Nassr away kit and the instant classic Manchester United 3rd kit just dropped on Roblox too. You can feel the landscape shifting.

Football Kit Culture Take-Aways

So, how do you get your kits on Roblox? MetaMerch is a UGC tool that offers a low cost solution to create UGC easily, without the steep learning curve or building a 3D team, and the ability to manufacture layered clothing at scale. Meet your fans where they are, develop new fans, create an event for your club in the Metaverse! Speak to one of our team today, set up a meeting here.

With football being a sport at the forefront of blurring of the lines between sport, fashion and lifestyle we can only see the digital goods revolution becoming a bigger part of how clubs market and launch their releases through Roblox. The MetaMerch tool can help you bring official football kits to Roblox with a low cost, efficient tool that can help you scale!