It started with two ambitious football people, a piece of paper, and a question: Could Lay’s packaging be given a second life as a place to play football?
In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the world, in effect, shut down, Adam Warner, then Senior Director of Global Sports Marketing at Lay’s, and a colleague began sketching out an idea that seemed ambitious, if not slightly insane.
Five years later, that ambition has become reality - perhaps more than Warner or anyone at Lay’s might have imagined. The starry-eyed scribbles on a piece of paper have now materialized into something more tangible. It has a name, a brand, a tagline, a series of activations, and tangible results, too. Lay’s RePlay, once just an idea, has blossomed into 13 pitches in 12 countries across five continents.
RePlay is built around the idea of giving Lay’s packaging a second life as part of football infrastructure. Used Lay’s packaging is collected and processed into material that is incorporated into the pitch surface, giving the packaging a second life while creating new spaces for communities to play.
“The pitch gives us a place to start. The impact comes from what happens on it and around it every day,” Warner said.
Lay'sEach RePlay pitch is paired with programming designed around the needs of its community. Young people are not simply showing up to play matches; they are taking part in programs that use football to develop confidence, teamwork, leadership, inclusion and life skills.
“I think we feel confident we've exceeded the expectations. We had some directional goals in terms of the number of countries we wanted to launch this into, the number of community members we wanted to impact,” Warner said.
It certainly goes without saying that this thing was by no means easy. Ideas are good, but they take time. Those involved had to create, pitch, sell, and then execute - in whatever capacity that might look like.
“Turning the idea into a working pitch required technical expertise, creative problem-solving and partners who could deliver the concept in different communities around the world,” Warner said.
And then there are larger questions: impact, legacy, sustainability.
“The challenge was bringing together the right partners to make the program meaningful, practical and lasting in each community,” Warner said.
In the context of where this program was founded, the impact is pretty remarkable. The campaign was originally set for launch in 2020, then pushed back one year. Doing anything during the COVID-19 pandemic was difficult. The program was developed during an exceptionally difficult period. Launching a global initiative during the pandemic required persistence, flexibility, and a willingness to keep adapting.
“We were persistent. We had a lot of belief in the idea, and we had a lot of belief in the impact this idea would have. I think we all had to be agile and nimble and innovative,” Warner said.
The sustainability ambition is central to the program. By collecting and processing used Lay’s packaging for reuse in football pitches, RePlay gives the material a second life while creating a lasting community asset.
That connection between circularity and access to football is what makes the program distinctive. The goal is not only to reuse packaging, but to turn that effort into places where young people can play, build confidence and connect.
Budapest is a great example. RePlay’s first pitch in Eastern Europe is now providing Second Chance Sports Association with a long-term home where it can continue using football to support young people through inclusion, teamwork and personal development.
Warner argues that preserving that purpose as the program grows is one of RePlay’s greatest challenges. Once you go big, it’s hard to keep the core goals intact. Warner believes that they’ve been able to do that.
“There's always a risk when you scale things that you might not be able to do that. This was born from the starting point of, ‘How can we have a really positive and enduring impact on communities around the world?’ as well as the environmental benefit of the circularity - the reuse of our packaging. I think we've stayed true to the purpose in every community that we've gone to,” he said.
The scale of the program is reflected in the numbers. In five years, RePlay has grown from a single sketch into 13 pitches across 12 countries and five continents. Eighteen organizations have helped build the pitches and reach out into communities. Programming has gone on for more than 25,000 hours. Lay’s says that over one million people have used the facilities since the first pitch opened in 2021.
But Warner argues that the individual stories - those from kids in cities all over the world - mean far more than any KPI.
“It’s really when you speak to some of the community members in these different places around the world, and you hear their qualitative feedback. It has a real serious benefit for these communities. The confidence that it helps enable these young people who otherwise wouldn't have access to this type of facility,” Warner said.
And the World Cup was good proof of concept. They sponsored the tournament this summer and put on some ambitious programming around it. Dubbed the “Lay’s RePlay World Cup,” the activation featured tournaments in individual countries, with the winners flown to World Cup games. Nearly 2,000 participants kicked a ball on a field, and victors got to watch the biggest fixtures in football.
But the league was not only about who won the most games. Participants were also recognized for how they supported their teammates, celebrated one another, and represented the values RePlay aims to build through football.
Some of those young people then had the opportunity to represent their communities at the World Cup in Mexico City, Los Angeles and New York. In Mexico City, 30 young people from Colombia, Mexico and South Africa came together, spent time at a local RePlay pitch and then walked into a World Cup stadium.
One player described attending the World Cup as something they had dreamed about forever.
“We gave some of these community members a pretty once-in-a-lifetime experience, and the stories coming out of that are pretty special. It's often people who haven't even had the opportunity to travel outside of their home country, and then they find out one day we're flying them to a World Cup in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. These journeys began on community football pitches, and suddenly these young people were experiencing the biggest stage in the sport together,” Warner said.
The future is full of opportunity. Lay’s is already looking ahead to the Women’s World Cup, and has made it clear that their ambitions are massive. There’s a roadmap for the men’s and women’s Champions League, too. While specific plans and activations are not yet being shared, the direction is clear: RePlay is positioned to reach more communities and football audiences. If there is a global football event, Lay’s will be there.
That’s pretty remarkable for an ambitious idea, a scribble on a piece of paper, that finally came true. If the first five years are any indication, RePlay is only getting started.