A career that has moved from professional hair products to football boots, player representation and the attempted return of a historic Los Angeles football club might appear difficult to connect. For Scott “Matchmaker” Michaels, however, the projects share a clear foundation. He looks for assets, demand and opportunities that may have been overlooked, then tries to connect the people and resources needed to make them commercially relevant. Hairbond, Stylo Matchmakers and the Los Angeles Aztecs each represent a different stage of that approach.
The origins of that philosophy can be traced back to a hairdressing chair in Lancashire.
Michaels, who is originally from Morecambe, worked as a stylist before running The Cutting Room in Lancaster. Working with professional styling products on a daily basis gave him a direct window into customer behaviour. After seeing the result of a haircut, clients would often ask which product had been used.
Rather than treating those questions as ordinary salon conversation, Michaels viewed them as evidence of demand. If customers were sufficiently interested in the product to ask about it, there could be an opportunity to develop that interest into a business.
Hairbond followed in 2008.
Creating Hairbond From Professional Demand
Michaels built Hairbond around hairdressers and barbers rather than making supermarket distribution the starting point. The idea was to establish trust among professionals first, allowing the product itself to generate credibility before wider consumer advertising attempted to create demand.
The wider market was moving in a favourable direction. Men’s grooming was becoming more sophisticated, with consumers increasingly choosing products beyond traditional supermarket gels. By 2025, Euromonitor valued the wider UK men’s grooming market, including fragrances, shaving and toiletries, at £2.3 billion, following 6% value growth over the previous year. Hair styling is one component of that larger market, but Hairbond had entered the sector almost two decades earlier as clays, waxes, pomades and professional styling products gained ground.
Hairbond says it has sold millions of products internationally. Its growth has extended well beyond its Lancashire beginnings, including more than a decade of distribution in the Netherlands and sales into the United States.
Sport played a significant role in building awareness.
Professional footballers and other athletes used Hairbond, while the brand established a strong relationship with football culture. England cricketer Jimmy Anderson became an ambassador, and footballers and professional stylists helped introduce the products to dressing rooms, barbershops and entertainment environments.
Michaels has consistently separated attention from actual product performance. Celebrity can make a product visible, but repeat customers ultimately need to believe the product works.
That principle remains central as Hairbond prepares its first major styling-product expansion in five years.
Three products, Drifter Professional Hair Crème, Forger Putty and Vector Hair Gum, were developed over roughly two years. Rather than simply repackaging one concept three times, Hairbond created each product for a specific styling requirement.
Drifter is intended for softer control, movement and natural texture, including longer and curlier hair. Forger offers greater hold, matte texture and structure without the excessively dry appearance associated with some modern clays. Vector is designed for glide, separation and natural shine, particularly for longer or more polished styles.
The formulations are paraben-free and sulphate-free, with a UK supplier responsible for filling and final production. Hairbond can therefore make those specific formulation claims, while broader statements about complete British manufacturing would need to be supported across the full supply chain.
Product development also involves challenges that are rarely visible to consumers.
Independent companies cannot always maintain established formulas indefinitely. Ingredients can become unavailable, suppliers can alter their operations and minimum production quantities can change. Hairbond has previously been required to reformulate or replace products when key raw materials disappeared rather than compromising the original formula while retaining its name.
That is a reminder that building a brand over many years involves more than launching products. It requires constant decisions around performance, sourcing, production and commercial viability.
Bringing Stylo Matchmakers Back
By 2017, Michaels was applying the same way of thinking to football heritage.
The modern game had become increasingly global and commercially powerful, yet many established British sporting names had faded away while a relatively small number of multinational manufacturers dominated the football equipment market.
Stylo Matchmakers was one of the names that stood out.
Its history included associations with some of football’s biggest names, among them Pelé, George Best, Kevin Keegan, Billy Bremner, Bobby Moore and Denis Law.
The George Best connection was particularly strong.
Best became an icon across football, fashion, nightlife and celebrity at a time when the modern concept of athlete-led personal branding was still in its infancy. Stylo’s relationship with him was genuine rather than retrospective. He wore its boots and appeared in its advertising.
Then the brand disappeared from the mainstream.
Michaels saw a question worth asking. Why should a British football name connected with players of that stature no longer have a place in the market?
He became involved in the return of Stylo Matchmakers in 2017.
The project could have focused on retro apparel and nostalgia. Instead, Michaels chose to return the company to its original football category by developing football boots.
Doing that required the less glamorous side of brand revival: factories, samples, tooling, soleplates, materials, packaging, trademarks, inventory and distribution.
The Heirship range reflected different ideas about the modern football boot. The Heirship Seventeen used microfibre, the Sixty Eight used leather while deliberately referencing the George Best period, and the Seventy Four moved towards a softer premium-leather design.
The pricing was initially positioned well below the upper end of the modern elite boot market.
The Heirship Seventeen launched at £129, the Seventy Four at £109 and the Sixty Eight at £99. Stylo later shifted the range to a £59 direct-to-consumer price. Premium boots from the biggest manufacturers can now cost more than £200.
Michaels says the revival attracted professional footballers again and generated sales of more than 10,000 pairs.
That result provided a useful lesson.
A famous name can make people curious.
Only a product can turn that curiosity into a sale.
Learning How Value Gets Unlocked
Michaels’ football career eventually expanded into player representation and transfers.
He became an FA-registered football intermediary, working with players, clubs, agents and potential transfer opportunities.
He says that at one point he held mandates covering more than $100 million of football talent, alongside club-side mandates involving Boavista and Central Coast Mariners.
The experience gave him a different understanding of what value actually means in football.
From the outside, supporters see the conclusion of a deal. A player signs, photographs are released, the transfer fee becomes known and the transaction appears complete.
The process behind that moment can involve months of negotiations between agents, recruitment departments, managers, owners and families. Budgets, work permits, competing clubs and timing can all determine whether a deal happens.
Having a talented player does not necessarily create a transaction.
Nor does having a club that needs a player.
The deal becomes possible when enough of the individual requirements line up.
That is the idea behind the “Matchmaker” identity.
Michaels began to recognise the same dynamic beyond transfers. Something can possess genuine value but remain commercially dormant because the relevant people, rights, funding or opportunities have not been connected.
Players demonstrated the principle.
Brands demonstrated it too.
Historic football clubs could potentially provide another application.
The Next Test: Los Angeles Aztecs
The Los Angeles Aztecs are now the largest test of that philosophy.
The original NASL club featured both Johan Cruyff and George Best, providing an unusual connection between Michaels’ work reviving Stylo and his current ambitions in California.
It is important, however, to distinguish the ambition from the current reality.
The project is not yet an operating professional football club.
The Wefunder campaign currently shows $8,850 towards a $50,000 target. The proposed investment structure uses future equity with a $2 million valuation cap, while the first $100,000 is offered on early-bird terms at a $1.5 million cap. The campaign identifies a first event in 2027 and sets out a longer-term ambition of achieving $5 million in annual revenue.
The figures make the project easier to understand, but they also highlight its early stage.
There is currently no publicly committed final professional league pathway for the Aztecs. Raising money does not secure a league place. Holding a historic trademark does not provide a stadium. A connection to a famous former player does not automatically establish contemporary supporter demand.
Los Angeles is already home to significant football infrastructure.
MLS has 30 clubs, including LA Galaxy and LAFC. MLS NEXT Pro also has 30 teams in 2026, while USL is developing its own professional structure through USL Premier.
Professional football also comes with regulatory requirements. U.S. Soccer certifies professional leagues using standards that include ownership capability, stadium arrangements, market coverage, staffing and financial viability. Its policy framework requires men’s outdoor professional leagues to have at least eight certified professional teams.
The history of the Aztecs can help create a starting point, but it cannot replace the infrastructure needed to operate a modern club.
That is where the project’s central opportunity and challenge meet.
Heritage can potentially reduce the cost of building an identity from scratch. A new sports property has to establish awareness, mythology and emotional connection. A historic property may already have some of those foundations.
But heritage only has commercial value if people still care about it.
That is the bet Michaels is making.
One Idea Connecting Several Businesses
It is easy to look at Michaels’ career and see a series of unrelated ventures.
Hair styling.
Football boots.
Player mandates.
Dormant sporting intellectual property.
Crowdfunding.
Football ownership.
Writing.
ScottMatchmaker.co.uk now provides a central platform for these areas, bringing together his work across football, brands, ownership and business ideas.
The underlying philosophy connects them.
Hairbond began with an observation about unmet customer demand.
Stylo showed that a forgotten sporting name could still have commercial relevance.
Football agency demonstrated that value often depends on bringing the right parties together.
The Los Angeles Aztecs are an attempt to take that philosophy into a much larger and more complex asset.
There is an important distinction between the Hairbond story and the heritage projects.
Hairbond was created.
It was not something Michaels found sitting dormant.
That distinction creates two versions of the same entrepreneurial approach.
The first is finding something valuable that others have stopped noticing.
The second is seeing potential in something that does not yet exist in its desired form and attempting to build it.
Neither is straightforward.
Dormant brands may have disappeared for good reasons. Negotiations can fail. Consumers may not respond to heritage. Ambitious ventures can remain ideas rather than become businesses.
That makes evidence particularly important.
Hairbond has almost two decades of trading history and says its products have sold in the millions. Stylo brought a dormant football name back into manufacturing and sold more than 10,000 pairs of boots. The Los Angeles Aztecs are at a considerably earlier stage, with the biggest milestones still ahead.
The story is therefore not one of guaranteed success. It is a progression from identifying demand, to reviving an overlooked asset, to attempting to create a new sporting proposition around historic value.
From a hairdressing career in Lancashire to football boots associated with George Best and a developing project in Los Angeles, Michaels continues to return to the same underlying question:
What opportunities are being overlooked because the existing system has not recognised, connected or developed their value?
That is the idea behind “Matchmaker.”
Identify the value.
Understand its potential.
Bring the right pieces together.
Then see whether it can become something real.
More on Scott “Matchmaker” Michaels, his businesses, football projects and writing can be found at ScottMatchmaker.co.uk.
