Essegi

Essegi is an enigma signed with two esses. The name spells out the initials S and G in Italian, the logo interlaces them into a monogram, and from there the brand hides: no public corporate history, no documented honours, only surviving shirts that speak on its behalf. They speak of an Italian teamwear house active in the 1990s and 2000s, with a clientele in the dilettante football of the country's north east, and with ambitions that crossed borders. And here comes the curious part: two of the most eloquent documents on Essegi live in this very archive. One is the official Pozzuolo del Friuli shirt, proof of its work in the 2001/02 Serie D; the other is the ghost shirt of Yeovil Town, the complete sample with which the brand bid for the Glovers' contract on their Football League debut, a tender it lost to Paulas Benara. A brand official history does not record, which nonetheless left behind a Friulian certificate and an English ghost. There are multinationals with duller archives.