We’re very proud to present to you: Mathare Youth Sports Association, or MYSA. They are our new friends in Mathare Valley, just outside Nairobi in Kenya, Africa.

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Mathare Valley is referred to as one of the largest and poorest slums in Africa, and MYSA is working to change that. Using team sports, MYSA engages the youth living in Mathare to clean up their neighbourhoods, in leadership programs and to educate about HIV and AIDS. In short, MYSA is a self-help organization that makes a difference. They engage 20 000 young Kenyans, and football (soccer for you Americans) is the most popular sport.

We have started a collaboration with MYSA: we support the organization with 1 Euro for every pair Björn Borg Kids underwear we sell. We also provide “A kids world“, the blog where the kids and staff involved in MYSA can share unedited stories from their everyday life and talk about the work they do.

We chose MYSA because we have common roots in our love for sports, because we believe in companies taking social responsibility, and because we believe that empowering people is the best way to help. To us this is a long term commitment, and we hope that you read the stories on “A Kids World”. We also hope that our Kids products become as popular as our underwear for grown-ups, as that means more funds for MYSA.

We’d also like to send a special thanks to Social Initiative for helping us with the quality assurance of our collaboration.

Today I got an e-mail that made me well up a bit, and wanted to share it with you guys:

Dear Bjorn Borg,
Let me first start off by saying thank you. Thank you so much!
Maybe about two months ago I got an email from Bjorn Borg asking me to answer some simple questions and enter to win some underwear. So I did. I’ve never won anything in my life but I always am up to give it a go. A few weeks later I got the email saying that I had won…some how I thought someone was playing a joke on me. But who would take the time to tell you that you had won some underpants when you hadn’t? I waited and waited and didn’t really expect the underpants to come. One day they came!! This day that they came was a horrible day for me. A few days prior I had surgery to remove a tumor in my bladder and the day I came home from the hospital there they were. I had really won! It was a great surprise. There were so many different bright colors! I know this is too much information but, all my other under wear are thongs, and I came home from the hospital with, and still have a catheter. My Bjorn Borgs are the only underpants I own that I am able to wear now. Thank you for helping me feel pretty and attractive despite the scars and catheter.
THANK YOU!!!!!

To the person who wrote this: Thank you for sharing it with us. The whole office sends our best and hope that you recover quickly!

This morning we (we being Micke, Rocky and Gustav) started talking about great commercials and of course started talking about Jonathan Glazer. It started with the brilliant Sony Bravia ad with color explosions, which all of us liked more than the bouncy balls Bravia ad.

When you’re speaking about Jonathan Glazer and commercials, it’s impossible not to talk about the fab Levi’s commercial “Odyssey”. All of us remember the first time we saw it. It was a “ooh, I’ve got goosebumps” moment.

Jonathan has also directed lots of great music videos. Radiohead’s “Street Spirit” is beautiful. As are UNKLE’s “Rabbit in your headlights” …

… and The Dead Weather’s “Treat me like your mother”

None of us have seen his movie “Birth” with Nicole Kidman, but we’re going to. Especially since The Guardian named it one of the ten most underrated movies of the last decade. Seeing that one of my favourite movies, Spirited Away, is also on that list, I’m thinking it’s a good list to trust.

What’s your favourite Jonathan Glazer thing?

Preparing big time for next week’s film session. Together with film maker Emil Klang, we’re doing an arty interpretation on our new girly collection Love All as seen here. Will be so much fun!

In between, I can’t resist Charlotte Gainsbourg on the tennis court…  And as to this tennis video here, neither could our fans. It was awarded not too long ago by FWA, the Favourite Website Award!

In a couple of days I’m off to the Alps to celebrate Christmas with my extended family. So as it’s my last day in the office I thought I’d give you a pressie. Giorni Vacanzieri (Fare Soldi remix) by the gritty and rough Ex-Otago boys, as Drollgirl might have described them.

But while I’m away, you will get to acquaint yourselves with my colleagues a bit better. Especially my gem Ida, art director here at Björn Borg, will treat you to lots of eyecandy over the next couple of weeks.

Happy Christmas and best wishes for the New Year - see you all again in January!

And Psst, if you enjoyed this video make sure you also watch our Close Up with Ex-Otago here, produced together with VBS.tv.