Ruffneck helps scarf West Seattle Soccer Club

WEST SEATTLE, Wash.—Former West Seattle Soccer Club President Bill Fry knew a little something was “missing.”

Fry has seen West Seattle Soccer Club continue to grow its numbers, but when it came to visually spreading the word there was an article of clothing missing from around everyone’s neck. So Fry decided to “Scarf West Seattle” much like the Sounders of Major League Soccer have done over recent years.

“We were definitely following the Sounders FC example. They’ve not only made scarves cool in Seattle, but a soccer fan match essential,” Fry tells goalWA.net. “We learned that Ruffneck was the official scarf producer for the Sounders FC and MLS and loved their story and local (Seattle) connection. Credit also goes to our friend Frank MacDonald and a goalWA.net Scarves Across Washington article for providing the final impetus to create a WSSC scarf.”

WSSC at the Sounders!

Scarves Across Washington is a collection of photos of club scarves in action as fans wear and raise them. Submit your club scarf photo to us at goalWA@gmail.com.

“We started by looking at the hundreds of designs posted on the Ruffneck website,” Fry says of the effort to be scarfed, “and picking our favorite scarves from MLS, EPL and others. Ruffneck provides a custom scarf order template on their website that asks all the basic questions to begin the design process. We uploaded an image file of our club badge, identified our club colors, shared our basic design ideas and message, and pushed the send button. The Ruffneck art team responded with full-color mock-ups of 10 different scarf designs. The WSSC board selected their favorites from the group and asked our Facebook friends to vote for theirs.”

The arrival of the final product was a cool moment. “As soon as we took the scarves out of the box we knew we had picked a winner. The scarves looked absolutely fantastic!” remembers Fry.

West Seattle Soccer Club suddenly had raised its profile among its own, and now had given them the chance to take the club colors around the globe.

WSSC in Sweden!

“Our membership has responded enthusiastically! Our initial order sold out before the scarves arrived in West Seattle. Our players and supporters are having fun wearing their scarves on match day and showing them off in our community and wherever they travel,” beams Fry.

“Our primary goal was to foster pride and a strong sense of community in our membership, not to raise money. We wanted the scarves to be affordable to all and perceived as another added value to our WSSC membership.”

Since then West Seattle Soccer Club has integrated their scarves in successful new ways.

“We added an option to pre-order scarves during registration for the fall season and distributed and sold scarves during our annual team picture days. We’ll offer them for sale again when we register players for our Champions League Spring Season in February. We’ve also chosen to gift scarves as a thank you to past and current leadership and key contributors to our programs.”

WSSC in New York!

West Seattle Soccer Club is growing. “We’re in the middle of another record-breaking season with over 1,800 players and 325 volunteer coaches participating on 177 teams,” reports Fry. “We love watching our kids play (even more than our beloved Sounders FC), so this is the best time of the year and we are enjoying it to the fullest.”

Now that the club has colors to raise, they feel just a bit closer to the soccer culture Seattle is becoming famous for. Seattle company Ruffneck Scarves helped them get there.

“We can’t say enough good things about our experience with Ruffneck,” Fry declares. “They absolutely exceeded our expectations in every way from our initial contact to the delivery of our scarves. Thank you Ruffneck and Scarves UP West Seattle!”

Photos courtesy of West Seattle Soccer Club Facebook Page.

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www.RuffneckWear.com is a proud sponsor of http://www.goalWA.net and a true community partner in bringing local soccer news to our community. Do you have a Ruffneck Scarves story to tell? Contact us at goalWA@gmail.com.

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