FC Rocquancourt: a new Home shirt packed with history and style for France’s ‘freshest’ amateur club

Imagine a day on the streets of Bologna, with a photographer taking shots of a girl wearing a retro-look football shirt – a shirt that is unique not only in style and design, but also for the ideas and project it represents. Bologna provided the set for the photo shoot, but the shirt came straight from Normandy, where FC Rocquancourt has given its sporting image a thorough makeover.

The story of this French club, which plays in the Calvados region’s ‘Départemental 4’ series, is one of renewal, sporting challenge, and friendship between a group of young people who are passionate not only about football but about fashion, communication and, above all, their origins. The tale began in September 2023 with the presentation of a new Away kit entitled ‘Renaissance’. With it, the small Normandy club attracted coverage not just from the French media but from press and social media channels all over Europe. Such broad interest was awakened by a courageous and innovative communication campaign which, instead of losing its attraction over time, has recently found new impetus with the launch of a Home shirt.

FC Rocquancourt’s new Home shirt: ‘Tous Unis’

The tremendous media coverage attracted by the Renaissance Away shirt generated high expectations for the launch of the Home version. And those expectations have now been satisfied in full. The new jersey, entitled ‘Tous unis’, was unveiled by FC Rocquancourt with a campaign based on photos and videos highlighting the sense of unity between the people who have made and continue to make the club what it is. The fully customised design is characterised by a dominant Bordeaux with details in a lighter and brighter shade of red. The tone-on-tone graphic pattern that covers the entire garment depicts a maple leaf, a particularly significant symbol in the history of FC Rocquancourt. Maple leaves also recur on the upper front of the shirt, embroidered in gold to further enhance the aesthetic impact of this kit. The new Home shirt aims at producing the same emotional impact and image that the Away kit generated. But to understand the reasoning behind the concepts and designs of the club’s new kits, we need to rewind to a few months ago.

A new project and a new vision

FC Rocquancourt was reborn only a few months ago thanks to the commitment, vision and entrepreneurial spirit of a group of ex-players, after many years during which the club was only able to field a youth team. It was then decided to put together a new first team to represent the town and Calvados region with pride. FCR was not just reformed, however, but revolutionised in its image too. The club has since acquired a strong identity and used new media channels to communicate it and to get as many people as possible involved. The level of the game is not important. Passion for sport can be communicated in the same way whether you play on a small field in the provinces or at the Stade de France, and this campaign has demonstrated this most impressively.

New logo, old symbols

The club’s rebirth starts with a new logo, designed to be more incisive and above all rich in the symbols with which the people of Rocquancourt identify. The logo therefore establishes a close bond between club and community. It was inspired by an old postcard from the 1930s showing a miner sitting in front of a coal mine. This was a period during which many Italians emigrated to this part of France to work in the coal industry, and many FC Rocquancourt players have Italian origins. That same miner and mine now feature in the club’s new logo along with rolling lines symbolising the fields around the town and a maple leaf representing Rocquancourt’s close ties with Canada. During the Second World War, Canadian troops undertook their first major mission in Rocquancourt, and this historic moment is remembered in the new logo.

The Renaissance

After the logo came a unique and truly special kit. The club first presented its Away 23-24 shirt, named the ‘Renaissance’ shirt as it represented the club’s rebirth: a new team, new prospects, new logo, but a return to the club’s original colours. The starting point was a Themis shirt in red and white, with a retro style reminiscent of that worn by Nordic teams in the ’90s. This was used to build a narration and a look that is totally unique. The logo of the main sponsor, a winery from nearby Caen, appears in the centre of the chest and enriches the shirt’s graphics, making it particularly iconic. The winery also provided the set for the photo shoot used in the kit’s launch campaign which, as we said above, effectively put Rocquancourt on the map for major national and international media channels. The ‘Renaissance’ shirt has proved an incredible success, with orders from 12 different countries and an unprecedented payback in image for an amateur team, thanks to the club’s ability to adopt a high-level approach to communication and – something that cannot be ignored – earn essential revenue for the future sustainability.

There are many ways to become your own hero

Become your own hero defines Macron’s approach to sport, and the concept can be expressed in many different ways. One of these is exemplified by the determination of the players and managers of FC Rocquancourt to inject new energy into their club with a new awareness of history. The club has used the contributions of everybody involved to maximum effect, challenged itself to do better, worked towards a shared objective and come up with practical ideas. One such idea has now been turned into a shirt that shares and conveys a story of passion and people in a small Normandy town, with its boulangerie, town hall and – as often happens – football field alongside.