Frazer MacRobert used to love collecting obscure football tops - now he has ended up designing strips in Southeast Asia.
The incredible journey has seen the Rutherglen native go from five a side games in Scotland to watching the Cambodian national team take to the field in kits he created.
The 32 year old moved to the kingdom in 2017, after being offered a job in marketing there by a friend.
Frazer had already taken his love of football, and of kit designs, into a hobby where he designed custom strips for his Scottish business, and he continued that when he moved to the capital Phnom Penh, creating designs for his friend's company.
Fast forward a few years and the former Stonelaw High pupil was watching as Cambodia's national team donned his garb when defeating East Timor 2-1 in a friendly earlier this month.
"The whole experience has been surreal," admits Frazer, who will move back to Scotland in July," he told Lanarkshire Live.
"I’ve felt so proud of what I’ve achieved alongside Varaman and the Garment Factory team.
"I think my biggest delight came from the kits selling out within a few hours, a testament to the success of the design and the power of weaving narrative into my work.
"I’m already excited to visit Cambodia again and hopefully see a sea of national football tops being worn."
Before moving to Cambodia, Frazer worked with various Scottish nightclubs through his Neverland business, which led to him designing his first custom shirt to promote it, and he continued his love of football when he moved to Asia.
That then led to a lucky break, and a job opportunity.
"Cambodia is home to a lot of the major garment factories responsible for football shirts globally, and it wasn’t long before I played in a game against someone high in the chain at the leading factory responsible for many EPL teams and brands such as Nike and Adidas," he explains.
"During COVID-19, the production chain was in flux and it was often difficult to source materials in a timely fashion—and I believe this is why the factory then approached me with a job opportunity. They were looking for me to be a middle man between them and local clients.
"I was to be responsible for taking the client visions for sports kits, and turning them into digital mockups and print-ready files that they could approve before the factory would start the printing process."
However his very first day in this role saw a different challenge offered to him - one which was too exciting to refuse.
"The founder of a new Khmer sportswear brand had approached the garment factory to print the Cambodian National Football team kits. They’d worked with a couple of other designers already but hadn’t been able to get their ideas properly represented.
"I was extremely lucky to be in the right place at the right time, with the right network.
" I’d actually just completed a project with Berwick Rangers Football Club (BRFC) a few months before—launching their Community Foundation crest. It was a great case study to present in my meeting at the garment factory to seal the deal and show I was capable of the job."
Then came the next part of the challenge - designing a kit that would suitably represent the country. For that, Frazer drew on his belief in "human-centric design", a philosophy that puts the customer, or fan, at the heart of the process.
Frazer's strip concepts therefore featured a blue digital camouflage look for the home kit, representing how the national team's players were 'fighting' to defend their country on the pitch, while the away designs featured details of the Angkor Wat temple in it, the religious landmark which features on the Cambodian flag.
The reaction was hugely positive, much to Frazer's delight.
"I guess there was always a niggle in the back of my mind as to how the Cambodian population would react to the design, and I wasn’t going to be the one on stage explaining the design to them personally—but Varaman absolutely aced the presentation and won the fanbase on board with such a good narrative."
Now he's hoping to continue working with football kit designs after he returns back to Scotland this summer, whether with local teams or further afield.
However a part of him will always remain back in Cambodia.
"Securing an international football team contract so early into my football-design career was incredibly humbling," he smiles.
"I was so proud to earn such an amazing opportunity."
Further details on Frazer's work can be found here.
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