Congolese Team's World Cup Leopard Style Channels History and Pride

“In Congo culture, the spirit of leopard is a spirit of strength,” the designer, Alvin Mak, said of the ensembles that beguiled audiences online.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/15/style/congo-team-leopard-suits-world-cup.html


The designer behind the team’s looks, seen on the player Fiston Mayele, cold-emailed the country’s ministry of sport. Credit...Troy Taormina/Imagn Images, via Reuters

The most charming team outfit we’ve seen thus far at the World Cup did not derive from some Portland sportswear juggernaut with a billion-dollar ad budget. Instead, it was the product of a self-taught 30-year-old whose brand has fewer than 10,000 Instagram followers. Alvin Mak, a Congolese designer in Paris, is the man responsible for the leopard-embellished suits and leopard bags that the Congolese national team wore for its arrival in Houston last week.

The team, which is appearing in its first World Cup since 1974 (a less-than-providential run that most Congolese sports fans would rather wipe from memory) doesn’t play its first match until Wednesday, but it has already made quite an impression. Mak, in an interview on Monday, said he had fielded inquiries about the commanding feline suits from as far as Taiwan. Images of the team, in their beguiling suits, spread broadly online, drawing comments like “when can I purchase those bags” in multiple languages.

“It’s global right now,” said Mak, who was still catching up to all the attention. He was planning to offer the suits and bags for sale on his website this week — but only as a preorder. He hadn’t expected such an outsize response and had no stock on hand. “I’m very honored, not just for myself, but more for my culture,” he said. On Tuesday, he will fly to Houston to watch the team play its opening match against Portugal, which is on Wednesday. It will be his first time in America.


Mak had not anticipated the swell of demand after people saw the suits. He had fielded inquiries from as far as Taiwan.Credit...Maria Lysaker/Imagn Images, via Reuters

Mak’s design draws on the Congolese culture of La Sape, or La Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes, a deeply rooted tradition of raffish Congolese men dressing with zeal, pattern and personality. “In Congo, we have three things,” Mak said. “We have music, we have fashion, and we have sport.” In his words, a sapeur is “an elegant person of Congo who wears clothes extravagantly.” With his home country’s national team returning to the world’s mightiest sporting stage after five decades, he wanted to make sure they didn’t leave behind some of that Sapeur grandeur. Indeed, the team arrived in the United States looking as if they were prepared for a royal wedding or a particularly regal hunting party. In their black ties and feline motif, they looked like a squad to be reckoned with.

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The country last competed in the World Cup in 1974, when it was known as Zaire. Credit...Colorsport/Shutterstock