- Client:
- Stockport County FC / GROFU
- Campaign:
- 2026/27 Home Kit
- Creative & Production:
- GROFU
- Services:
- Creative concept · Direction · Production · Editing · VFX · AI-assisted production · Sound design
- Turnaround:
- Approx. 10 days
The Brief.
As an official sponsor of Stockport County, GROFU had the opportunity to play a central role in launching the club’s new home kit.
We wanted to create a campaign that gave the shirt a launch of its own, capturing the character of Stockport County and the connection between the club, its supporters and the town. It also gave us the chance to bring the GROFU partnership to life through an idea supporters could genuinely engage with.
Community sits at the heart of County, with support often passed through families and across generations. That relationship became an important part of the brief, creating an opportunity to celebrate the new kit while telling a bigger story around what wearing the shirt means.
One sponsorship. Three kits. Three completely different creative opportunities.
After launching Stockport County’s home kit, we had no interest in doing the same thing twice. Each shirt needed an identity of its own, with the creative shaped around the kit rather than squeezed into a campaign formula.
And the away kit gave us a very different canvas.
Black with raised silver detailing, it was darker, sharper and bolder than the home shirt. We wanted a film that carried that same energy.
Our idea focused on the work nobody sees. The extra hours. The empty training ground. Being first there and last to leave. One young footballer, one ball and a floodlit pitch long after everyone else had gone home.
A simple story about drive and dedication gave us the perfect setting for the shirt. Black disappearing into the night. Silver details catching under the floodlights. Every frame built to make the kit hit.
This wasn’t going to be a traditional football kit reveal.
We wanted it to feel like a sportswear campaign.
The Challenge.
Getting the idea on screen came with an unusual production problem though: the star of the film couldn’t actually be seen in public.
At the time of filming, the new home shirt was still under embargo. One photo taken by a passer-by and posted online could have revealed the design before Stockport County’s official launch. We needed the movement and physical presence of someone wearing the shirt, without exposing the new design in public.
Our solution was a hybrid production workflow combining live action, VFX and AI-assisted techniques.
We filmed a performer wearing a green morph suit and the previous season’s Stockport County shirt. It gave us a genuine human performance to build around, capturing real movement, weight and interaction with the environment, alongside a physical reference for the camera.
In post-production, traditional VFX and AI-assisted workflows allowed us to replace the reference shirt with the new home kit and create the illusion of the shirt making its way through Stockport completely by itself.
AI played a very specific role in the process. The concept, performance, locations, cinematography, edit, sound and storytelling were all shaped around a live-action production. AI gave us another tool to solve a complex production problem and pull off an idea that would otherwise have been incredibly difficult, all while keeping the new shirt safely under wraps.
That’s where we see the real creative potential of AI. It can expand what’s possible on screen and give ambitious ideas another route into production.
And then there was the clock.
Everything had to work around Stockport County’s official kit announcement, leaving a narrow window between production, receiving the final kit assets and releasing the finished film.
Shooting, post-production, VFX, AI processing, sound design and final delivery were completed in around 10 days, ready for the film to go live immediately after the club’s official reveal.
The Result.
A distinctive take on the traditional kit launch gave GROFU a chance to celebrate our partnership with Stockport County in a way that felt playful, unexpected and rooted in the community around the club.
It captured exactly what we set out to create: a simple human story, shaped by a strong creative idea and made possible through the right mix of filmmaking, VFX and emerging technology.
The technology might be new, but the story is timeless. A local club. A family. A new shirt. Another generation of County fans ready to wear it.
The complete digital growth Partner.
- Brand Identity
- Web Design & Build
- Video & Photography
- Content Creation
- SEO & PPC
- Social Campaigns
Connect with us.
Proud partner of Stockport County FC.
GroFu are the club’s official kit sleeve sponsor for the 2026/27 season.