The World Cup has begun and like the rest of the blogosphere, EMERGE can't escape football fever. Rather than discussing the beautiful soccer balls commemorating each of the thirty-two nations competing made by German designers Bora-Herke like everyone else, EMERGE wants to take a look at how a couple of street wear brands have made their love of football relevant to the hip-hop hipsters that follow their work.

NYC and Sao Paolo-based design collective Nossa and tee shirt shop/blog Cartel Goods, both known for cool-kid staples like graphic tees flipping hip-hop imagery into design-conscious fashion statements have teamed up to produce a Brazilian themed shirt (the Nossa dudes are also DJs and champions of Baile Funk, the official soundtrack of the favelas) that makes a sly nod to Midnight Marauders, the classic third album by A Tribe Called Quest, riffing on the album's cover art with a large graphic made up of disembodied headshots of famous footballers, most of which will be unrecognizable to your average consumer of coolio tee shirts since soccer remains the province of immigrants and suburban teens for the most part here in the States.

Nevertheless, the "Soccer Marauders" shirt is a witty way in which two inventive little companies are celebrating the beautiful game without straying very far from their foundations.

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