Fantasy Soccer Academy is a non-profit organization that seeks to empower young people through soccer. Their main goal is to give access and training to young players so that they can either discover their talent in soccer and make a living out of it or help them keep going to school and make a future out of it. Through the FSA Soccer for Education, they aim to raise funds to keep the program running.
HISTORY WITH TGE:
In the year 2019, TGE funded the T-shirts project at FSA. These included covering the cost of labor, branding, fabric, ads, and promotion, packaging, and delivery. Armed with the above, the program was able to generate income by selling branded T-shirts through friends and other soccer teams. This enabled the Academy to grow significantly since this stream of income was reliable. The branded t-shirts sell both on-site and online.
With this new stream of income and the capacity to brand their own t-shirts and soccer uniforms, FSA was able to grow to a position of hosting an annual soccer event dubbed Dimba Konnect - Swahili slang for soccer uniting people. At the first event held in Nov 2019, the first sales stand was displayed, and a total of 60 T-shirts were sold at a retail price of Ksh 700 per unit. This was a great opening sale on a retail stand.
At the height of the Covid-19 Pandemic, FSA was able to host the annual event and attracted a total of 11 teams. This was a great turnout given the uncertainties of the times, and all funds that were raised in this event went directly to FSA’s educational Programme. In total, 200 T-shirts sold out in this event. Other branded sports gear were also sold, including hoods, tracksuits, and soccer uniforms. 5 students were supported with school supplies when schools re-opened.
Despite the great start of the project, a number of challenges were observed, including:
- Covid- 19 Pandemic
- Problems sourcing T-shirts that met client’s specifications
- Unreliable suppliers of the ready-made T-shirt
- Lack of Enough branding machines- Screen printing and Embroidery machines
THE SOLUTION:
To counter the mentioned challenges and scale up operations, TGE has reviewed phase 2 of the project for a total of 845,000 KSH (6,000 USD) including:
- Embroidery Machine
- 4 Color Station Screen Printing Machine
- Set of 20 Colors
The impact will be measured quarterly.
FUTURE DREAMS:
They hope to purchase additional equipment later, including:
- Flatlock machine
- Industrial overlock machine
- Industrial Straight machine
- Industrial tracksuit machine
- Industrial cloth cutting machine.