LOS ANGELES — Ray Rose is expanding on what it means to call football – the soccer version – "the beautiful game."
Rose is bringing his Korean heritage to the forefront of soccer culture through his brand, RRose From Concrete. Double R is not a typo.
The RRose From Concrete booth at ComplexCon in Los Angeles the weekend of Oct. 3 and 4 showcased a collection of 1-of-1 colorful soccer jerseys, including ones for Brazil legend Ronaldinho, France icon Zinedine Zidane and Les Bleus current superstar Kylian Mbappé.
"I'm a huge fan of soccer and the culture," Rose told USA TODAY Sports, noting that the wording on these kits "looks a little bit different."
The designer creates custom jerseys and writes player names in Hangul characters used in the Korean
language. He wants to highlight diversity beyond the Latin alphabet, which is used in sports worldwide and represents many languages, including English, Spanish and French.
"We don't even think twice about it," he said. "And I get it. It's a business. It's a universal language. But I want to be a reminder of how beautiful the Korean language is."
The brand was founded around 2022 and has been at ComplexCon since 2023. Its Coreano Hermano kit, which unites Korean and Mexican cultures, has been featured by soccer influencer Megan Reyes, and Rose has been a guest on football culture podcast Urban Pitch.
RRose From Concrete partnered with House of Heroes to design merchandise for the Legends match between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. There, Rose gifted custom jerseys to legends like Rafael Márquez and Marcelo. The brand also sold out a collection at El Tráfico between the Los Angeles Galaxy and LAFC.
RRose From Concrete embraces much more than soccer as influences. For this year's ComplexCon, RRose From Concrete had an exclusive long sleeve T-shirt with Tupac's poem "The Rose That Grew From Concrete" written on the back in Korean. The West Coast rap legend "was a big inspiration for me," Rose said.
Rose said that he appreciates Korean icons like pop group BTS and South Korea national team captain Son Heung-min, who he says is "one of my favorite players."
"They're huge, huge importance to our culture," he said. "They're doing the right thing for all of us, putting us on the map and we respect them a lot."
The brand's name is a tribute to his mother, Rose, who raised the designer and his sister on her own as an immigrant. Besides "rose" being the name of a flower, the word also is the past tense of "rise." So the brand is meant to empower and uplift just as his mother did.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: RRose From Concrete brand weaves Korean heritage with soccer culture
