06 December 2023 , 08:00
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Wednesday marks Rainbow Laces Day, but 10 years ago there was no sign of the success the campaign would become.
On a Monday morning in September 2013, a special delivery was made to all 20 Premier League clubs, the 72 EFL teams and the 42 sides in the Scottish Professional Football League. Inside the boxes that landed at their door without warning were enough Rainbow Laces for their entire squads.
This was how the campaign was born, as a movement designed to surprise the clubs into showing support for the LGBT+ community. A decade on and Rainbow Laces is now officially backed by the Premier League and seen in a raft of other sports. But some at Stonewall, the charity behind the deliveries, were worried that the Right Behind Gay Footballers campaign would not land.
Richard Lane was head of communications for Stonewall at the time and has now revealed that intense conversations were had about whether to go through with the campaign at all.
Speaking exclusively to Mirror Football, he said: "Some of the people at Paddy Power had this idea, approached Stonewall to ask if it was something they wanted to work with them on. It went through a huge amount of internal debate.
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"Stonewall back in the day was quite a small c conservative organisation, this was quite different tactics and ways of working. After multiple debates we signed up, then spent a couple of months working through the creative, the straplines, the tactics, the guerilla approach.
Arsenal, including future boss Mikel Arteta, put their full backing behind the campaign (David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)"We ended up then dropping a load of rainbow laces on every Premier League club's doorstep one morning. We decided to go for the method of surprise for the first year. I think there had been initial conversations with a few clubs, but most clubs had a box land on their doorstep.
"We spent quite a lot of time talking about whether that was the right approach or not. But the view had been that we and many other great charities had been trying to raise the issue of homophobia in sport with clubs for a long time and really not got very far. So creating a bit of a stir felt like the right way to go."
The delivery caught the Premier League clubs by surprise, with some throwing their backing behind the campaign and others unhappy at the lack of notice. But Lane insists that it achieved its goals despite that mixed response.
"I can honestly say it was the maddest week of my career ever. It caused a real mixture of responses. I'd like to stress that in all the comms we put out and sent out with the laces, we made it very clear that it was entirely a matter of choice for players," he added.
The Premier League are now an official partner for Rainbow Laces (Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images)"We know players have a lot of superstitions about lucky boots, lucky laces. There was no view that if you didn't wear the laces that this would in any way indicate that you were not supportive of tackling homophobia in sport.
"We had a really common response of 'we should have had notice' or 'we would have supported this if we'd have had notice'. The idea was that we dropped it on the Monday, for them to wear at the game on the Saturday.
"So we quickly knocked up a cheeky infographic of how to tie your shoelaces in 30 seconds. It was a mixed reaction, but the reality is a good campaign starts discussion and debate, whether that's everyone agreeing with you, or not."
One of the unexpected consequences was the immediate demand from grassroots players to buy their own laces. But it is exactly that interest that Lane credits for the reason the campaign is now celebrating its 10th anniversary.
"After the first year, it was really clear it was going to have legs. The amount of publicity and interest it got was fantastic. Also, just the amount of grassroots interest it had," he said.
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"We ordered some Rainbow Laces to sell as a fundraising opportunity for Stonewall and they sold out in minutes. The phone was ringing off the hook with every gay LGBT+ sports team you could find in the country wanting to get these Rainbow Laces. The demand was insane.
"It hadn't been an angle we expected or thought about at the start. We thought we'd hand out some Rainbow Laces to people who weren't top-flight footballers. But to see the demand from grassroots sports was incredible. For me it was a whirlwind of a week. It's amazing to see it still going and spreading into other sports."