Danish sports brand launches giant rainbow jersey to promote acceptance of Russian LGBT community during World Cup
hummel will also sell rainbow jerseys and all donations will go to the Russian LGBT Sport Federation
By Steve Brown
Danish sports brand, hummel, is launching a giant rainbow jersey to promote tolerance and acceptance for the Russian LGBT community during the World Cup.
Ahead of Denmark’s match against Australia today, hummel are set to sell the rainbow jerseys in Germany, England and their country to raise money for the Russian LGBT Sport Federation – an organisation working to unite the Russian LGBT community through sports.
At the moment, a giant 13-meter-tall rainbow jersey has been raised at Aarhus harbour ahead of their match today and the idea is to bring the brand’s mantra, ‘Change the world through sport’, to like following the gay propaganda law in Russia.
The installation is made from 120 special designed football shirts with their mantra written in Russian.
Ulrik Feldskov Juul, head of communications for hummel, said: “hummel has a history of actively promoting tolerance through sports.
“We have been engaged in promoting LGBT rights in Germany and Denmark for some time.
“Naturally, we wanted to include this message in this summer’s activities. We have full respect for the work the LGBT Sport Federation do.
“Which is why we support the Diversity House in Moscow, where we among others provide campaign materials and jerseys for the LGBT football tournament Football for All.”
The giant rainbow jersey was originally supposed to decorate a central location in Moscow however local experts said the message was too controversial, so hummel decided to move the installation to Aarhus.
“Sexual minority rights is a sensitive issue in Russia and we have been very careful not to step on any toes.
“However, in the end we had to come to terms with the fact that we were at risk of doing more harm than good.
“Besides that, our Russian event agency also had some concerns about the task at hand.
“Therefore, we have decided to concentrate our local activities to Diversity House and at the same time send a Danish message of accept and tolerance,” Ulrik added.
The installation took up to 48 hours to complete and required a Danish ice hockey rink in order to stitch together the various coloured shirts.
”It has been quite demanding to move the event.
“Therefore, we are now turning up our ambitions to sell the rainbow jerseys and hopefully, we can send a clear message and a large check to the LGBT organization in Russia,” says Ulrik.
hummel will also be selling rainbow-designed jerseys and all proceeds will be going directly to the Russian LGBT Sport Federation.