Deportivo Buenas Vibras

They are the recent champions of “Rum, Beer and Football,” one of NYC’s up-and-coming pickup leagues. While they’ve recently stepped up to play in leagues around New York, their story of blending good vibes, creativity, and art from both the east and west coast goes all the way back to 2018. This week, we caught up with Sebastian Ramirez and Diego Mendoza to chat about the inception of Deportivo Buenas Vibras, the inspiration behind their first-ever kit, and their plans for the future.

Sebas, how did Deportivo Buenas Vibras get started? How did it all come to be?

Basically, we started back in 2018. We just got a couple of our friends to keep playing together outside of leagues and also have a crack at just making our own pieces of merch. It wasn't to start a clothing brand or anything like that, but we did want to have pieces to commemorate our time playing together. 

This is now our third year, and we've been growing and meeting new people. We started doing pickup games through the end of the pandemic, and now we’re doing it monthly as well as playing in leagues. 

So Diego, how did you get involved with Deportivo Buenas Vibras?

I met Sebas in late 2018 in LA. I feel like we crossed paths at the right time and right place -- it helped set the tone for DBV. We met in LA, but this man is just strictly Brooklyn. When you mesh New York and LA, you get the best of everything. So we crossed paths and just started collaborating on this together. 

You mention combining the best of both coasts. Sebas, how did that play into the logo and the branding of DBV?

I've always been a graffiti enthusiast, and Diego is as well, so that kind of helped us click together. We just kept messing around and finally came up with some designs we were happy with. 

But for our crest, I wanted to represent Coney Island, and I wanted to represent the beaches that I got to see over in LA. I wanted to embody summer, the beach, and New York all into one. Through a couple of conversations with Diego -- and a lot of random sketches that I would send him -- we mushed it all into one. 

As a graphic designer, what was your role with the crest, Diego? What specific details did you choose to include?

Sebas and I worked really closely to make sure everything we wanted to be about was represented on the crest. The waves are supposed to indicate both the coasts in the east and the west, and we have the sunset in the middle to represent good vibes that come from beach areas -- Coney Island or Venice Beach -- and then other subtle details. The bridges near the top of the crest show our both coasts coming together and standing strong. You always see the east coast and west coast portrayed as like a rivalry thing. But for me, it’s funny to see because I think we cultivate so much beautiful stuff together instead. 

I also wanted to make sure we were both super stoked and excited about this design because, at the end of the day, Sebas was going to be out there on the field, rocking it with the team, and I want them to feel proud about it. As an artist, it was cool to be in that position to make decisions that aesthetically and functionally serve a team. 

That connection between art and soccer is always so special. 

I have this conversation with a lot of other people, and I’m sure I mentioned it to Diego about how professional soccer teams have all this money, but the brands just feed them templates. Then you end up with teams that look exactly alike. That's why I wanted to do this project with Diego. I wanted to make a jersey that we'd never really seen for the most part. Typically, when you go to a soccer store -- at least here in New York -- they're only going to give you a little template, and you can't really customize much besides the name, your numbers, and the crest. You can’t really mess with the actual jersey. And I wanted to be able to put our identity directly on the fabric too.

So how did the inspiration for your colors and the jersey design come about?

I decided to include a gradient to flow from the bottom -- which was a nod to the ‘vibras’ in our name. The orange is for the sunset tones in both coasts to provide that paradise feel. The green was supposed to really capture the parks that you see in the city and adding that with the black tones and the white tones also gave it this asphalt feel. So all the colors were intentionally used to represent both coasts. 

What other details did you include in the jersey?

That font really came from the research itself, tapping into the history of our cities. Back in the ‘80s, there were a lot of gangs in New York City and LA. And they would have jackets with their names and a number. It’s crazy that even within that, you still found community at the end of the day. That’s where the inspiration for the font design came from and combining it with the research I’d done into graffiti culture. 

So you guys partnered with Icarus FC to be the provider for the kit. How was that last part of making this jersey a reality?

It was an excellent experience, man. I would do it again. Overall, it was a dope process to create it. They were super easy to work with. They were very cooperative, and their response time was good. I want to give them props because they really did all that during a pandemic too. 

Beyond the jersey and the crest, it seems like you’ve created a great community of people to get together and just play. What are you guys up to now, and what was this first season like with the jersey?

The first season with the kits was rough on the field between getting acclimated to new teammates and the pace of the league, but off the field, we got a lot of love from friends and opponents about what we created. Building from the first season's support, I decided to let the jersey live on for a second season as we were the only club that did not alter their threads.

Now with a first season in the books, we were much better prepared mentally and physically to compete. With only three returning players (as the league rotated rosters), we started off strong and persevered through some early Sunday mornings of being short players to finish on top of the table on the last day and last game of the season. I’m happy to say that the whole team wore the jersey with style and pride, and it was an amazing feeling to be able to lift the trophy after a summer-long group effort. To top it all off, the players, Daniela, Derek, Cedric, Kevin, Yahni, Bill, Fabrice, and Max, were all down for the cause. There was no friction, and everyone brought good footy and vibes to the table, which is exactly what we’re about.

What plans do you have for DBV for the future? 

We are currently working on finding an indoor location to continue our pickup sessions free of cost to our friends and the community we are building. Keeping the momentum alive through the winter months will be our top priority, but looking into the Spring, we will be defending our title in the Rum Beer Football League on Sunday mornings.

On weekday’s we will be hosting more pick up with the location TBD. Off the field, we don’t have anything lined up yet, but a new kit in the Spring? New merch or events for the upcoming World Cup? It’s all on the table, so stay tuned to find out!