“[It’s] a fashion brand disguised as a sports team – or maybe it’s the other way around,” says designer Alan Taylor, founder of Bad Arm Baseball, a new label embracing US baseball culture through a distinctly London subcultural lens. It all began when Taylor joined a Friday night beginners course with the London Mets, which turned into an obsession. He made the team, honed his skills and brought us along for the ride – strapping a GoPro to his helmet and sharing the footage. Now, this passion evolves into Bad Arm Baseball, and the brand’s debut collection: Always Rains in Spring Training.

Embodying not just the game but the community and culture that surrounds it, the collection splices the visual codes of baseball with a punk, skate spirit. Utilising his design background – Taylor founded and ran a much-missed namesake label that showed on the London menswear circuit – garments are cut, collaged and reconstructed, resembling a bootleg cassette mixtape. Vintage baseball tees are illustrated with skate graphics, and a camo jacket is covered in sewn-on patches referencing Donald Judd, LCD Soundsystem and cult 90s skate films. “What Would Jeter Do?” reads a tee, referencing renowned New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, while another graphic reinterprets the iconic Margiela logo.

“There is a mirroring of skate and punk culture and energy in London baseball,” Taylor tells us. “Bad Arm isn’t about being the best. It’s about being real. It’s the kid who skates like shit but shows up every day. The kid who doesn’t need to make the team and wears the jersey with pride.”

Alex James Taylor: Why baseball? When did the sport first come into your life and what was it about the game that resonated with you?
Alan Taylor: I came to baseball late. Six, maybe seven years ago, just watching MLB games and trying to make sense of it all. Like most people here, I was confused at first, too many stats, too many pauses, but that confusion became fascination. And then it became an obsession. Three years ago, I typed ‘London Baseball’ into Google. That’s how I found the London Mets’ Friday night course. You learn everything, throwing, hitting, rules, positions. After that, you try out for a team. I’ve now played competitive baseball for two years, one season with the London Mustangs, one with the Sidewinders.

AJT: What’s your position?
AT: I play catcher. For anyone who doesn’t know, I’m the one behind the batter, in all the gear. The mask, the mitt, the body armour. You call the pitches, control the rhythm of the game, take a beating for the team. It’s brutal and brilliant.

AJT: And then where did the idea for Bad Arm Baseball come from?
AT: It started with videos. I’d post clips of us playing, just raw, GoPro camera attached to my helmet. Most of the comments came from American teenagers telling us how bad we were. Fair enough, they’re right. Their level is different. But there was another side to the comments too. People who were just stoked baseball was being played around the world. It felt like a moment. So instead of hiding from the criticism, we leaned into it.

“You call the pitches, control the rhythm of the game, take a beating for the team. It’s brutal and brilliant.”

AJT: Can you talk us through the name, Bad Arm?
AT: It’s got layers. On one level, it’s self-deprecating. “Bad Arm” as in “not great”, owning the fact that we’re not pro athletes, we’re just out here loving the game. But then there’s the flip. In American slang, or in the way people talk about sports sometimes, “bad” means good. “Oh he’s got a Bad Arm” could mean someone who throws absolute gas. It sits in that space between irony and sincerity, which is where I like to be.

AJT: Sport and fashion have a long history, how did you want these two worlds to echo each other?
AT: Fashion has rules. Sport has rules. But the good stuff, the real stuff, comes when people bend them. I’m not interested in making literal baseball merch, I’m interested in the spaces in between. That moment where the jock turns into a punk. Where the uniform becomes something else.

I called it a mixtape mindset. You take baseball iconography, skate graphics, art world references, bits of 00s nostalgia, and you cut them all together. That’s what builds a personality, identity and community. And baseball is full of mavericks, players who take a split second and turn it into something wild. That energy crosses over with design. It’s instinct. It’s drama. It’s style.

AJT: I know you have a deep enthusiasm for community, creativity and sustainability, how did you set out to create a brand rooted in these values?
AT: Everything is tied to our mantra: We play because we love it*. I’ve been through the old fashion system. Fashion week, showrooms, wholesale, all of it. And honestly, it just didn’t work. Not creatively, not financially. I learned a lot from it, but the biggest lesson was realising what I didn’t want to do again. With Bad Arm, I wanted to rebuild from the ground up, from the grassroots. Strip away the noise and focus on the parts that felt real.

“I’m interested in the spaces in between. That moment where the jock turns into a punk. Where the uniform becomes something else.”

Social media and platforms like Shopify changed the game. I didn’t need permission anymore. I could speak directly to the community, and sell directly to them too. No middlemen. No gatekeepers. That old world of fashion weeks and buyers and schedules, it’s just ego, really. It’s built for systems, not people. I wanted to build for people. For the ones already out there living this life. The ones skating in the rain, playing ball on a Sunday, making stuff without a plan. Sustainability, for us, is about resisting the pressure to constantly produce for the sake of it. It’s slower. More intentional. It’s built around what we actually need, what we actually use, and what we actually love.

And when there’s no budget, no recognition, no plan, when everything around you says to pivot, to compromise, to be more commercial, we stay where we are. Because we love it. That’s the whole thing. That’s the reason we start. And the reason we keep going.

AJT: Tell us about It Always Rains in Spring Training. What was the idea behind this collection?
AT: The title says it all. Spring Training (the period before the season starts when you get back in shape!) is where baseball begins each year, full of promise and potential. But in London, it always rains. That contrast became the mood.

This collection is about London baseball. The idea that America’s biggest sport is a fringe movement here. That contrast between tradition and rebellion. I wanted to clash classic baseball motifs with subcultures I’ve grown up with, skateboarding, art school, 00s blogs. The styling is rough, the campaign is documentary-style, the garments are either cut-and-sewn or reworked by hand. It’s not polished. That’s the point.

AJT: What can we expect from Bad Arm in the future?
AT: More play. More expression. More community. I’m working with baseball clubs across the UK to create events that bring people together, whether you’ve played your whole life or never held a bat. Some stuff I can’t say yet. But it’s coming. And it won’t look like anything else.

AT: Do you have a favourite baseball player?
AT: I wouldn’t say I have favourites in that sense, but there are a couple of players who really embody what Bad Arm is about. Jazz Chisholm and Harrison Bader. Every time they step on the field, it looks like they’re actually enjoying themselves. Playing with joy. Taking it seriously, but not forgetting to have fun.

What I really respect is how they show up off the field. Their style choices are bold, avant-garde, considered. They wear pieces by designers who take risks, who push things forward. And in a sport that’s traditionally very toned-down, very hyper-masculine, that stands out. They remind you that self-expression has a place in baseball too, and that’s exactly the kind of energy we’re building with this brand.

AJT: Can people come and watch you play? When’s your next game?
AT: Yes, 100 percent, at London Mets Club grounds in Finsbury Park, that’s our home field. Come down, bring food, a blanket to lie on and have a beautiful day in the park.

And honestly, if you’re even slightly curious, about the sport, the brand, how it all connects, come down. Say hey. I’d love to see you there. We’ll always take time to talk to anyone who wants to know more, whether you’re deep into baseball or just wandered past and felt something. That’s what this is about, showing up, being present, building it together.

Follow Bad Arm Baseball on Instagram and shop the collection here.