Footy with Friends × The Barb Shop
Look Good.
Feel Good.
Play Good.
01 — Why Barb and Footy?
There’s a moment I’ve watched happen over and over at Footy. Someone shows up to their first game a little unsure, hanging at the edge of the group and not quite sure they belong. A few weeks later, they’re calling for the ball, laughing mid-sprint, and hugging teammates after a goal. Somewhere along the way, they stopped performing and started playing.
That’s what it looks like when someone gets to be fully themselves. For a lot of queer women and nonbinary folks, two of the places we first learn to do that are our hair and our bodies in motion. A short cut can be a declaration. A game can be the first time your body feels like it’s yours. Both are about expression and taking up space on your own terms. So when Footy and Barb started talking, the partnership made itself.
02 — Look Good: Made for You
Getting the cut is one thing. Waking up the next morning and figuring out how to style it? That’s another.
If you’ve ever stood in a beauty aisle looking for something that works for short hair and come up empty, Sheena, Barb’s founder, knows that feeling. For years, Sheena asked barbers not to go too short, scared of what people would see. After finally making the chop, Sheena realized nothing on the shelf was made for people like Sheena. So Sheena made it.
Barb started with a single product, its Soft Clay Pomade, and grew into the first beauty brand for people who express their identity through short hair. Today the lineup includes the pomade, a Go-To Styling Cream and a Texturizing Sea Salt Spray, each available in an original scent or fragrance free. It’s LGBTQ+ owned and operated, and it’s built on a simple idea: Your hair is never just hair. It’s how you show the world who you are.
03 — Feel Good: Finding Your People
Barb’s customers call themselves Barbs. It’s a name, an identity and a reminder that you’re part of something bigger. At Footy, we know that feeling well.
Many of us were told where we belonged in sports, or that we didn’t belong at all. Maybe you quit a team as a teenager because the locker room never felt safe. Maybe you never joined one. Footy with Friends started because I wanted a different answer.
The idea was simple: give queer women and nonbinary folks a place to find real connection and actual friendship, with soccer as the way in. The ball was never the point. It was just the easiest way to get people on the same field.
Today we’re the largest soccer community for queer women and nb folks in the tri-state area. More than the numbers, it’s what happens on the field: people cheering each other by name, newcomers pulled into the huddle, and a lot of folks feeling seen in a sports space for the first time.
Barb also does more than sell product. Every year, Barb donates gender-affirming haircuts to community members who need a little help feeling like themselves. A pomade can only do so much. What really changes lives is people showing up for each other, and that’s the Footy philosophy too.
04 — Play Good: Better Together
Here’s what I believe: when you feel like yourself, you play better. You’re looser, braver and more present. You stop second-guessing and start going for it. Confidence isn’t a soccer skill, but it might be the most important thing you bring to the pitch. And sometimes it starts in the mirror before kickoff.
That’s why Footy is teaming up with Barb. As part of the partnership, the Footy community gets 20% off all Barb products with code FOOTY20 at thebarbshop.com.
So grab your pomade, lace up your boots and come as you are. You’re a Barb, you’re a Footy friend, and you’re never alone out there.
See you on the pitch.
— DK, Founder, Footy with Friends