Is that a soccer jersey? Or music merch? Why not both?

This story was produced by our colleagues at the BBC.

The biggest sports teams are fashion brands in their own right — with people all around the world wearing merch from the likes of the New York Yankees, The Dallas Cowboys or Real Madrid. But how do you tap into that market when your team isn’t even fully pro?

In terms of glitz and glamour, soccer team Maltby Main FC, in the north of England, is about as far from the Super Bowl or the World Series as you could imagine.

Based in the town of Maltby, in South Yorkshire — about 160 miles north of London — the club play their home games in front of around 100 fans. Soccer clubs move up and down leagues depending on success; Maltby Main currently plays in one of the lowest leagues, which isn’t fully professional.

Despite that, their new kit launch has caused an unexpected stir, with demand for their team jerseys coming from around the world. And it’s been a lot for the club’s chairman, Kieron White, to manage.

“I have to sleep with my phone on silent because whenever we launch anything it’s just you can tell what time people are waking up around the world,” he said. “Because at certain times it’ll go off and it’s like, ‘Right, South America’s just getting up because we’re getting loads of orders coming in.’ So it’s been madness. Literally, I can’t wait to go on holiday and see somebody laying around the pool in a Maltby Main shirt.”

So why the sudden interest? It’s because Maltby Main’s matchday kits are now sponsored by Grammy-nominated metal band Bring Me the Horizon. So buy a shirt, and you’re also getting a bit of music merch. Kieron said the response has given a real boost to the team’s finances.

“It’s keeping us going because it does cost quite a lot of money to run a team at this level,” he said.

It came about because Bring Me the Horizon’s drummer Matt Nicholls is from the town. “Maltby’s not a place that has much going on,” he said.

“It’s a mining town, and then obviously like the coal industry’s gone. The pit’s closed. So it was more just like getting the community together and giving them something to be a part of, you know what I mean. That was the aim from the start,” Nicholls said. “It’s good to help them financially, but I think the aim more than anything is just to get people through the gate and to actually get involved.”

“My mum still lives there, all my family’s still there,” he added. “If I’m driving through there and I see one of the shirts, it gets you a little bit, you know what I mean? That’s brilliant, I love it.”

Bring Me the Horizon is far from the only band or musician to do something like this. Ipswich Town, for example — which currently plays against Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal in England’s most famous competition, the Premier League — is sponsored by Ed Sheeran. (It is his local team, after all.) But for a club the size of Maltby Main, the direct impact is much easier to track.

Matt Nicholls said he’s already seen the shirts abroad. “I mean, I’ve played gigs in, like, Malaysia and I’m seeing someone on the front row, he’s got a Maltby Main shirt on,” he added.

Music isn’t often thought of as part of the path to sporting greatness. But for this tiny soccer team, more shirt sales means more cash to spend on players — and that could lead to a climb up the leagues.