Sports Banger: Lifestyles of the Poor, Rich & Famous

Thames & Hudson, 2023, Hardcover, 312 pages, 32.5 × 25 cm

Contributions by Jeremy Deller, Anastasiia Fedorova, Nathalie Khan

Sports Banger is a genre-defying, boundary-breaking fashion collective run by Jonny Banger, who interrogates British pop culture, fashion, class and politics through the subversion and (mis)appropriation of branding. Sports Banger: Lifestyles of the Poor, Rich and Famous tells the story of the first ten years of the irreverent brand, from its foundation in 2013 to the present day. It charts the rise of the brand from an underground bootlegging operation to an all-inclusive, internationally recognized DIY fashion house, record label and socially conscious satirist in the mould of a modern-day Hogarth.

In a layout created by the Sports Banger studio, the book’s images reflect the anarchic story: photographs of studio ephemera, couture pieces, community projects, protests and fashion shows feature alongside one off pieces produced for Skepta, 2 Chainz, Samantha Morton, David Hoyle and more. The book contains a full t-shirt archive of iconic Sports Banger bootleg t-shirts. Re-appropriated Nike, NHS and Adidas logos rub shoulders with images of defaced government letters, raves, food banks and official collaborations with Tommy Hilfiger and Slazenger. The book is an of-our-times hybrid of political comment, DIY fashion and proud class consciousness.