I’m perched on a leather armchair in a swanky private suite in the Bulgari Hotel in London — a glass of champagne in one hand and an Italian pastry in the other. But the fizz and food are not why I’m here. I’m here for the official unveiling of the new kit of FC Como Women football team, created in collaboration with Nike. The event marks the first time that Nike has partnered with an independent women’s Serie A football club (the highest league in Italy) and I am one of only ten people getting my very own shirt. The experience was organised by Mercury 13, an investment company that recently took over ownership of FC Como Women.
My FC Como shirt awaits me in the next room. After being unboxed by a white-gloved associate, it’s tailored to my specifications and embroidered with my initials. Then I’m sent on my way: I can expect my shirt to be hand-delivered to my house, where I’m told I can also scan it to unlock a personalised microsite with season-long access to all FC Como home matches. Mercury 13 is positioning itself as a female-centric football brand built specifically with an eye to collaborations with luxury companies.
The kit marks the first time that Nike has partnered with an independent women’s Serie A football club
LEX LAWLESS
It’s a space already well trodden in men’s football. Armani’s association with Napoli, Gucci’s partnership with Jack Grealish, and Louis Vuitton sponsoring Real Madrid all indicate that there is an appetite for these types of partnerships — but Mercury 13 sees an opportunity to take this approach into the women’s game. According to Holly Millward, a founding partner at TTB Sports (a global marketing and sports investment group), who has worked with LA’s female Angel City Football Club, this is a canny move.
“Traditional luxury fashion brands are capitalising on the growth of women’s football to attract their own audiences and sell more to their audiences … You’ve got star-power athletes like Leah Williamson and Lucy Bronze who all have the likes of Calvin Klein, Gucci and other luxury global brands that are seeing the opportunity of that association. It is a perfect example of where sports and fashion are colliding.”
Victoire Cogevina Reynal at this years Woman’s Cup
BRUNO RATTAZZI
Mercury 13 was co-founded in 2023 by the Argentinian-Greek Victoire Cogevina Reynal and the Venezuelan Mario Malavé. They have pledged £100 million to buy women’s top league football clubs. The idea for the investment consortium was Cogevina’s. A fashion-loving football fan who grew up going to Argentinian stadiums, Cogevina — who is now based in London — started her career in fashion working at Condé Nast and Swarovski. She later pivoted into football businesses, including an agency that helped Latin American football players enter the American league and a tech company that built an online football community. Malavé is a tech entrepreneur and former VP of Yahoo Sports. “If you think of big fashion brands, most of them never really saw football as an arena for them. They operated in different ecosystems,” Cogevina says. “We are building a brand that is meant to sit right at the intersection.”
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Como Women was the perfect starting point — not only has it been promoted to Italy’s top women’s league since its opening in 2020 — but its location on the shores of Lake Como lends itself to glamour. “To us, it’s a vehicle to get in front of those audiences,” Cogevina says. “If you like the finer things in life, Lake Como is on your vision board.”
FC Como Women’s 2025/26 home and away kits
They aren’t the only ones making the connection. Kynisca, led by the South Korean-American businesswoman Michele Kang, is another company with a similar agenda. Having bought its first female club (Washington Spirit) in 2022, Kynisca’s empire is growing. It now also owns London City Lionesses and OL Lyonnes (and has secured them various sponsors such as Nike, Adidas and Emirates).
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All of which comes in the wake of fans parading London’s streets roaring with delight after the Lionesses won the Euros a few weekends ago (12.2 million people tuned in live to witness the final, making it this year’s most-watched television moment). Meanwhile, Italian fans celebrated their team’s first Women’s Euros semi-final in 28 years (watched by four million viewers in Italy alone). “People are finally seeing that women can pack out stadiums and can play a sport that for a hundred years men have been dominating, to the same level,” Cogevina says. For Mercury 13, FC Como is just the beginning. Soon they plan to come for England then Spain. Their goal is to bring luxury to women’s football, one European club at a time.
A limited number of bespoke 25/26 FC Como jerseys will be available from August 13 at comowomen.it and in the Nike Store in Milan and Arresse
