Modern Studies audio manual mixed by Kit Lawrence and Photograph by Brian Sweeney
Modern Studies audio manual mixed by Kit Lawrence and Photograph by Brian Sweeney
Edition five of the Brecon jacket manufactured in 180z (520 gram) Canvas weave Ventile
This quality has the feel of classic cotton Duck fabric and is extremely substantial
UK produced custom made L24 Ventile seam tape,Lampo black oxidised zips and Italian cotton storm cuff rib
The jacket features large distinctive half bellows front lower pockets (left has a small inside pocket) and curved half bellows chest pocket.
Gunmetal studs,custom made shock cord adjusters and ends.
Fabric 100% Cotton
Manufactured in Portugal.
Cleaning instructions: Hand wash to ensure long standing weather protection and natural ageing. Dry cleaning is not advisable with relation to our custom made seam tape.
Photography: Arved Colvin-Smith Model: Theo Gillard
Available from the Six Eight Seven Six website 18-10-16 and the following stockists:
ITK Brotherhood Riga/Latvia, Le Fix Copenhagen/Denmark, Flykicks Oslo/Norway and Sweet & Tender Helsingborg/Sweden.
A graphic with its roots and reference in the tumultuous era of late 60’s Paris.
The representation of revolt against ruling powers when their methods become autocratic and unyielding as opposed to the current era we live in where too many times the frustrations of our situations turn the populace against each other.
Limited production release date 5-7-2016
Sometimes you get told a story that resonates with you so deeply that the meaning of the tale totally overwhelms the details.
As a result the unluckiest player I can think of is a player whose name I don’t now know and a player I’d seriously doubt anyone here will be able to identify or recall having seen. So, much so that I now wonder if he ever really existed at all.
His story was told to me by a great but sadly now little remembered football man called Tony Collins best known as Don Revie’s chief scout for Leeds and England, a man that was left in place to smooth the waters for Brian Clough at Elland Road and later became a key confidante for Sir Alex when he first went to Old Trafford.
Tony, who’d overseen a fantastic roster of star player transfers at Elland Road thanks largely to the great Scottish scout John Barr, regularly watched the forgotten player in question as an Arsenal youth teamer in the early 1970s until Don Revie became England boss in 1974 and he switched his attention to looking at international players and England’s opponents.
The scout describes seeing a modern-looking, I assume Gascoigne like midfielder with the world at his feet. A boy, possibly a Scot, perhaps with the surname Dick, though I can find no record of any player fitting the bill.
Collins went off to work for England, a role where he watched the likes of a young Maradona and many of the stars of the late 70s and 80s emerging abroad. For a whole year he saw nothing at all within the key youth tournaments and in international games to alter his impression that this Arsenal player really was the coming man, the future. The only proviso being that he would maintain the previous trajectory of his development. Then the world would be his oyster.
After a year had passed Tony Collins found himself in London and he jumped at the chance to see how his great white hope was shaping up as fate and the fixture list magically aligned.
Nearly 40 years on, he told the story back in the moment, recalling his anticipation for seeing a two footed player with effortless pinpoint passing short and long, a shot like a lazer, the ability to glide past opponents with a change of pace or a dropped shoulder and the mental strength to read and control games like an international number 10.
But, even before he’d reached his seat Collins knew something was wrong.
In the cruellest joke of biology imaginable the player’s genetic inheritance meant that the robust, athletic physique of all previous viewings was now clearly augmented by a giant backside out of all proportion to the player’s height and build. The effect was like transposing a racing thoroughbred into the body of a pantomime horse.
If the warm-up had sent alarm bells ringing the opening exchanges confirmed the worst. By his telling Tony Collins barely lasted 20 minutes at the game. Clearly, for this poor soul, the mind was willing but the flesh was unable to bend to its will. A formerly deadly, arced long pass evaded everyone and fizzled out tamely beyond the touchline, twice the player was pinched in possession by challenges he’d have barely registered a year before. Finally, he played a short pass into midfield in the centre circle and moved to receive his return from a teammate. But once where he’d have effortlessly glided into a position to regain possession, he now waddled two or three steps and crashed to the ground, banging the turf in despair in an act of symbolism every seasoned watcher in the near empty ground immediately understood. There was to be no happy ending, no thrilling fulfilment of potential for this player who had lost the ability to run and could no longer get about the park as he’d done without thinking just a few months before. Whether true or not, my sense is that the player left the action inconsolable minutes later. Never to be seen again.
The tragedy of the story, for anyone that watches football seriously, is not confined to those names and dates I can no longer recall but rather that it is a story played out every season at all levels of the game.
As such it is a story that is depressingly familiar and framed by small details. Would Eddie Gray really have been world class as predicted had he not picked up that injury that never healed? What really happened to Sonny Pike and all those lower league journeymen who appeared to have had it all to play for just a decade ago?
The likes of Platini, Ballack and even Abou Diaby are are really not so unlucky in the scheme of things. The players you have to feel for are the players who for whatever reason are never quite good enough – often through no fault of their own.
Concept and text: Greg Gordon
Greg is a Football scout and journalist based in Glasgow. A long term the supporter of 6876 he was the first person to feature the brand in a national newspaper
Photography: Brian Sweeney
Edition four of the Brecon jacket manufactured in 210 gram Olive L24 Ripstop Ventile
Custom made in the UK Ventile seam tape,Lampo zips and Italian cotton storm cuff rib
The jacket features large distinctive half bellows front lower pockets (left has a small inside pocket) and curved half bellows chest pocket.
Antique brass studs,shock cord adjusters and ends.
Fabric 100% Cotton manufactured in Portugal.
Cleaning instructions: Hand wash to ensure long standing weather protection and natural ageing. Dry cleaning is not advisable with relation to our custom made seam tape.
Photography: Arved Colvin-Smith
Model: Theo Gillard
An animation of stills taken from the project Tothland by Donald Milne.
Butterburn Court and Bucklemaker Court at the Top Of The Hilltown Dundee 1971-2013.
Music: Zen and the art of jollification “schadenfreude” from Sleeping Gypsy.
Season three of our collaboration with The Fourness features reinterpretations of two classic items from the Six Eight Seven Six archive.
The Haden jacket first produced in 2006
Details: Two horizontal chest pockets with angled flaps and zip openings which are counterbalanced with lower side seam pockets.
Zip out hood feature with cord and adjusters.
Manufactured in Japan 95% Cotton 5 % Polyurethane available in Navy & Beige.
The Work trouser first produced in 1998.
The style has a loose shape with elasticated double waist tab, front pocket tabs and back pocket tab featuring a military support panel.
The Fourness have reproduced the signature 6876 button of this era.
Manufactured in Japan 100% Cotton available in Khaki & Navy
The second instalment of our collaboration with Clarks Originals works with the same two styles the Desert Trek and iconic Desert boot.
This release features a pebble textured premium leather and additional leather laces.
These styles will be available on the Six Eight Seven Six webstore from 9am on the 26th of February 2016.
20th Anniversary T-shirt
Original Collection: 2002
Artwork donated by Stephen Yeo
Source: Bologna Italy 1969
T-shirt: Good Measure.
100% Cotton knitted and Made in England utilising 300 gram heavy weight jersey based on American collegiate wear and developed for this project by Good Measure for Six Eight Seven Six
Trims: Italian sourced rib and Lampo zips.
Details: The garment incorporates stud fastening lower front pockets with two concealed front generic access chest pockets and distinctive partial zip storm guard.
Manufactured: London
Subject: Daniel Mason / Something Else
Photography: Leon Chew
Location: The Brunswick Centre