NPLH Studio

Photographer Kaitlin Marold grew up wanting to be a Police officer, seeing it as an opportunity to connect with and help her local community. A stop watch and one second kept that dream from turning into a reality and sent her down a path that would not only open up the game she loves but lead her to the top of the Rockefeller Centre and a shoot with USWNT's Emma Hayes. It's been a quick climb but...

Ed Cowburn is Founder and Design Director of Acid FC , the brand with football undertones rooted in creative culture. You're joining the conversation after some off the record catching up to learn of Ed's pathway from studying Law and Accounting and a career in insurance to designing this seasons kits for his beloved Leeds United . It's quite the leap with Lance Armstrong and David Bellion playing...

Zack Goldman is Co-Founder of the wonderful Where is Football platform and founder of Tiger 11 , the agency working with football's most creative teams, leagues and brands to build their sporting, marketing, and operational strategies. Needless to say we don't really talk about any of that in great detail. Instead, Zack share's his learnings from a career that started at Oxford United in England a...

Sam Robles left Brazil for the United States as a teenager and went on to become one of the finest photographers in the world. How? Falling in love with a camera at his friends house and chance meetings with an established photographer had something to do with it. But not everything... Sam's journey highlights the rewards of hustle, risk taking and seizing opportunities when you see them. A little...

Artist, Emily Marrocco began painting just before the pandemic which, looking at her work, is both incredible and encouraging for anyone thinking about picking something up for the first time. Emily shares the realities of living with ADHD, how it impacts her art and the work in progress of flipping the diagnosis on its head to see it as a super power to be harnessed. Initially drawn to landscapes...

Ali Williams is arguably one of the busiest folks in showbiz. FootballCo's Brand Strategist walks us through a career taking in NWSL's Gotham FC, San Diego Wave and Angel City as well Adidas and MLS. But not before we meet her dog, Fester. Yes, that's him in the background not a motorbike passing by her apartment. Growing up in football-loving Portland, it was perhaps inevitable the game would pla...

Pablo Bayona Sapag is Editor-in-Chief and co-Founder of CLUBELEVEN , the digital media publication connecting football fans across North America. Born in Peru to a Peruvian father and Chilean mother he was destined to be passionate about something. Unsurprisingly that was football. Pablo shares his love of storytelling, the opportunistic origins of CLUBELEVEN, formed with brother Gabriel, and how...

Killian Page is a Boston born, San Francisco based Director, Photographer and Producer. If you're not familiar with the name, don't worry he hadn't heard of me either. But you will have seen his work with San Francisco City FC. Killian details his childhood discovery and love of photography before sports and all the other things that go with being a teen temporarily re routed his path until re-arm...

Pete Hoppins has a career path to pique your interest. After studying fashion in Northumbria UK, he found himself in London designing for Box Fresh. Wanting a change, he shouted "I'm a designer, get me out of here" and headed to Amsterdam for a role at Nike. They packed him off to Portland, Oregon where he'd eventually become Design Director for the sporting behemoth. Then he sacked it all off to...

Aaron Durand is the Sports Marketing Manager at Avery Dennison and arguably the nicest guy in showbiz. He explains the role Avery Dennison plays within football and beyond (spoiler alert - they're everywhere) and gives a fascinating insight into how they can and will change the way the game is watched. We also rewind through career stints at Twitter, Adidas and youth counselling, and chat dogs, fa...

If you know Virginia Dream and Vermont Green you’ll know the work of Casey Peckio; the US designers fingerprints are on the output of both clubs, not least Virginia. Their 2024 jersey release (you know the one) had all of our eyelashes fluttering in their direction and Casey shares details on the process behind it, why he works with clubs like these, how they push him as a creative and what this p...

As co-founder of Atoot , the grassroots non-profit using football to empower young girls of rural Nepal, Sarah Van Vooren is doing what I’d call God’s work. And the good news is she’s not the only one!  Sarah shares the origins and mission of Atoot along with the impact it and other organisations like it has on the individuals involved and the communities they are a part of.  For good measure, she...

DiDi Haračić is the goalkeeper for NWSL side Angel City. With a job like that it’d be easy to wrap up the intro there. But DiDi lives somewhat of a double life – when she’s not stopping shots, she’s taking them. Off pitch, DiDi finds peace (and therapy) through her lens, the ocean and often a combination of the two.  We talk about both her photographic and football journeys, their similarities and...

Aside from being an incredibly handsome man, Tarek Pertew is CEO and co-founder of NYC Footy , the co-ed league initially formed 'for fun' back in 2010.  Fourteen years on, Footy has not only consolidated itself in the city, but has grown into the largest amateur league in the United States whilst only existing inside the boundaries of the Big Apple. For now, at least! Tarek discusses the off-pitc...

Mack Mansfield is President and CEO of USL newcomers Brooklyn Football Club and Executive Director of Two Bridges Football Club, a non-profit dedicated to enriching New York’s inner-city youth through a first-class soccer environment, intense academic preparation, and leadership development. But before that, he was a young player with a dream of becoming professional and that dream took him to Ger...

Enjoying the podcast? Support the show with caffeine here . Jordan Jesolva is one third of Neighborhood Sports Club , the creative collective using football, fashion and art to build community for the people of Oakland, California.  That’s pretty cool, but we don’t really talk about that. Instead, Jordan shares the origins of her football love story, that playing professionally was the only option...

Enjoying the podcast? Support the show with caffeine here . This week I’m joined by This Fan Girl founder Amy Drucquer. And occasionally her coffee machine. Amy charts her journey from childhood match days with her dad and the sense of belonging that came with those, to the wilderness years of early adulthood when football stadiums no longer felt like home.  Knowing this wasn’t a feeling unique to...

Dylan Autran is one third of creative Collective Neighborhood Sports Club . A childhood desire to carve a career as a player saw him collect a few stamps on his passport via France, Finland and Norway. It was in the latter where the early seeds of NSC were sewn and a flight home to California, to turn out for hometown club Oakland Roots, would open the doors back to a childhood when football wasn’...

This was an easy one for me. I asked Nikita Taparia how one comes to live a dual life as a mechanical engineer and prolific photographer in the NWSL. She did the rest. From early exposure as a child, taking photos of friends and its role in her studies, Nikita details how the medium, a love of geometry and a helping hand from Geography would open up the game to her in a way she’d never imagined -...

Max Ornstil is a former pro athlete turned entrepreneur and creative from Oakland, California.  He shares the challenges of transitioning from a life with a very clear path and identity, to one without either as one third of the creative collective Neighborhood Sports Club.   Falling in love with the game aged five, Max lived out his boyhood dream in exchange for a number of sacrifices along the w...

Paul Desbaillets is a Canadian entrepreneur, media personality and founder of the charity GOAL .  Our first conversation came in the midst of the pandemic, when his podcast, The 1st Half was in its embryonic stages.  Picking up four years later, the show, his businesses and the charity continue to thrive and it only took about 4 minutes of this call to understand why. Paul details how life in hosp...

Andrea Vílchez is a Florida-based photographer at the beginning of what promises to be an exciting career. Still four months from graduation at the time of recording, Andrea already boasts a portfolio of work from the NWSL, WNBA and MLS, not to mention the Grand Prize Award of Club Eleven’s North American Soccer Photograph of the Year contest – congratulations!  She shares her family's journey fro...

Daniel Sandison is best known in the football space for founding seminal indie magazine MUNDIAL, way back in 2014.  We spoke at the very beginning this year about the early days of the publication, how it evolved from a spare-time project to an internationally recognised brand over the following decade, and adjusting to life after the mag.  But there’s plenty more to his story than the successes o...

Jacqui McAssey is founder of GIRLFANS , the photo zine pushing for increased female fan visibility, as well as a leading voice on female representation through campaigns with Nike, Liverpool and COPA90.    As well as the progress made during 10 years of GIRLFANS, we discuss the early influence of Liverpool’s victory parades during the 80s, the importance of play in formative years and activism thr...

Nathen McVittie is a Creative Strategist across the sports, gaming, music and entertainment spaces. In the football landscape his fingerprints can be found on the work of well-known brands such as FIFA, MLS, Nike and Adidas, along with leading clubs such as Chelsea, Liverpool and Man City. He’s also co-founder and Creative Director of Where is Football – one of the most respected independent outle...