GESM Starts Next Chapter in Downtown Chicago

After ten years in suburban Naperville, Gilt Edge Soccer Marketing has packed up and moved downtown to brand new digs in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood. Moving to the city provides the Agency with a closer connection to one of America’s largest metropolitan cities, enhancing convenience for client meetings, tapping into the creative energy of the city, and providing a shorter office commute for the majority of our employees. Most importantly, the relocation serves as a springboard for the next phase of Agency growth as we approach the start of this millennium’s third decade.

I’m so pleased we decided to make the move downtown. Our decade in Naperville served us well, but moving to the city is a key ingredient that will help fuel the future ambition of the agency. Culturally, soccer is a young, diverse, and dynamic sport. Our agency culture needs to reflect the same and being able to embrace the energy of Chicago will help us set this tone. – John Guppy, President & Founder

The next chapter of our agency

One of John’s most prized possessions is his neon Budweiser sign from the 1994 FIFA World Cup. It’s hung in every GESM office I’ve worked in since 2014 and in some ways reminds us of where we’ve come from, both as an agency and from a sporting perspective. It will always serve that purpose, but with a renewed focus and the 2026 FIFA World Cup on U.S. soil on the horizon, the neon signs serves as a beacon of light for what’s ahead. Our office is the vessel that will take us there and we invite you along for the ride.

Soccer, as a sport, is at its best when players fully express their individual creativity. Excelling in soccer marketing is no different. The design, decor and vibe of our new office is a perfect field for each of us to play on. – Scott Hutchison, Managing Partner

To celebrate our new office, Scott created customized mugs for each GESM employee featuring copy from different superlatives and inside agency jokes gathered over the years. As the resident Deadheads of the office, I had a feeling mine would be related to the greatest band our country has produced and I’m glad Scott chose the lyrics he did because in more ways than one the lyrics aptly describe GESM as we usher in our next chapter. What a long, strange trip it’s been… with many more adventures in soccer ahead.

New office, great! What’s it look like?

For those of you who visited our Naperville office(s) over the years, one of my favorite things was the exposed brick, industrial feel. We’ve kept that same vibe and maybe gone a little further. Exposed brick and elevator shaft gears, large ceiling support beams, and windows that provide an abundance of natural light give our new office a similar industrial warehouse feel. While looks are similar, size certainly is not. As grows the market for soccer in America, so too does our agency and we needed the space to accommodate our growth. More people means more meetings and now we’ve got two conference rooms for hosting. For a soccer marketing agency, our conference rooms are appropriately named Estadio Azteca and Spartan Stadium – both historic places in the evolution of the sport in North America.

In addition to office space for our experiential and digital teams, we now have a common lounge area complete with couches, standing desks, and TVs for more casual meetings and watch parties. Along the wall to the lounge area is one of my favorite visual art pieces in the new office – a wall of balls featuring logos of all our clients. There are a lot of great features of our new office, but you’ll have to swing by to see for yourself! If you’re in town, give us a shout and we’ll give you a grand tour.