To help launch the campaign, Levi’s tapped Daniel Buezo and Weleh Dennis—co-founders of the LA streetwear outfit Kids of Immigrants—to model the gear in a series of still photographs and an accompanying short film. The pair founded their brand a decade ago, Buezo says, to honor the stories of first-generation immigrants like them: Buezo’s parents hail from Honduras, while Dennis’s are from Liberia. The chance to represent the nation’s rich tapestry—not to mention a U.S. soccer roster that will feature players of Nigerian, Surinamese, Brazilian, and Ghanaian descent, among others—while collaborating with an important American heritage brand like Levi’s was too good to pass up.
“We’ve always been in these spaces, but never maybe represented in this form,” Buezo says, referring to his fellow first-generation Americans. “Kids of Immigrants represent so much of the culture behind soccer. Immigrants represent so much of a culture behind soccer. When you look at these teams and the countries they’re representing—but their backgrounds being from different places—that’s the beauty of the sport.”
The United States will be co-hosting the tournament alongside Mexico and Canada, including games at the Bay Area stadium that bears the Levi’s name. While he describes himself as someone who always watches the World Cup, then forgets about it for the next three years, the magnitude of the event is not lost on Buezo. “For me, the World Cup is a moment that creates an equal playing field for all these countries to come together,” he says. “I feel like that’s what Kids of Immigrants represents, too.”
Of course, in today’s climate—with ICE raids continuing across the country—the word “immigrant” has become increasingly politicized. But for Buezo, wearing the term proudly in 2026 is more important than ever—especially when given a platform as major as this U.S. Soccer and Levi’s campaign. “I’m really happy that when you think of these American heritage brands,” he says, “who they represent, and what they represent, it is all of us.”