For Scott “Matchmaker” Michaels, the common thread between hair products, forgotten football brands, player transfers and a historic Los Angeles football club is not the industries themselves. It is the search for potential that has not yet been fully recognised. His journey from Hairbond to Stylo Matchmakers and now the Los Angeles Aztecs reflects a career built around spotting opportunities, connecting people and testing whether overlooked assets can be made commercially relevant.
Michaels’ business career began in a very different setting, working as a hairdresser in Lancashire rather than in an investment office.
Originally from Morecambe, Michaels worked as a stylist before running The Cutting Room in Lancaster. Regularly using professional hair products gave him an unusual form of consumer feedback. Customers would look at their finished hairstyle and ask what had been applied to their hair.
Those questions told Michaels something important. People were noticing the product, not simply the haircut.
In 2008, he turned that observation into Hairbond.
Building a Brand Through Professionals
Hairbond was positioned around hairdressers and barbers, with the professional environment placed ahead of traditional supermarket-led consumer marketing. The premise was that genuine professional endorsement could provide the credibility required to establish demand.
The broader men’s grooming sector was changing quickly. Euromonitor estimated the wider UK men’s grooming market at £2.3 billion in 2025, covering categories such as fragrances, shaving and toiletries, with value growth of 6% during the year. Hair styling accounts for only a portion of that figure, but Hairbond entered the market as men’s styling habits were evolving away from basic supermarket gels and towards clays, waxes, pomades and professional-grade products.
Hairbond says its products have now reached millions of sales worldwide. Its expansion moved the company far beyond its Lancashire origins, with international relationships including more than ten years of distribution in the Netherlands and sales across markets such as America.
Football and sport became increasingly important to the brand.
Hairbond was used and promoted by professional footballers and other athletes, strengthening the company’s association with football culture. England cricketer Jimmy Anderson became an ambassador, while professional footballers and stylists helped expose the products to dressing rooms, barbershops and entertainment audiences.
For Michaels, however, the principle has remained straightforward. A famous face can attract attention, but the product has to perform if customers are going to return.
That principle is now being tested again as Hairbond prepares its first significant styling-product launch in five years.
Drifter Professional Hair Crème, Forger Putty and Vector Hair Gum were developed over approximately two years. Rather than offering three near-identical products, Hairbond created each formulation around a different styling purpose.
Drifter focuses on softer control, movement and natural texture, including longer and curlier hairstyles. Forger is designed for stronger hold, matte texture and definition without the overly dry feel associated with many modern clays. Vector offers a contrasting finish, with glide, separation and natural shine aimed at longer or more polished looks.
The products are paraben-free and sulphate-free, with filling and final production handled by a UK supplier. That supports those specific formulation claims, although a wider statement that the products are entirely British manufactured would depend on the full supply chain.
Behind the launches is another reality of independent product development.
Successful formulas are not always easy to preserve. Ingredients can disappear from the market, suppliers can change and production requirements can shift. Hairbond has previously been forced to replace products when important raw materials became unavailable rather than compromise the formula while continuing under the old product name.
That is the less visible work involved in building a brand over many years. Product development is an ongoing balance between quality, manufacturing realities and commercial viability.
Reviving a Lost Football Name
In 2017, Michaels began exploring a different category of opportunity.
Football had become a huge global business, but a number of historic British sporting brands had faded from view while major international manufacturers captured an increasingly large share of the market.
Stylo Matchmakers was one such name.
The brand had been worn or endorsed by major football figures including Pelé, George Best, Kevin Keegan, Billy Bremner, Bobby Moore and Denis Law.
George Best was particularly significant.
Best had achieved a rare combination of sporting fame, fashion influence, nightlife celebrity and cultural relevance before the modern machinery of personal branding existed. Stylo was genuinely part of that story. Best wore the company’s boots and appeared in its advertising.
Then the brand disappeared from mainstream football.
Michaels saw an opportunity in that disappearance. If Stylo had once been associated with players of such stature, could the name be given a new commercial life?
In 2017, he became involved in its revival.
Rather than limiting the project to retro clothing or nostalgia products, Michaels took the more difficult route of returning Stylo to football boots.
That involved factories, prototypes, tooling, soleplates, materials, packaging, trademarks, stock and distribution. The process required considerably more than reviving an old logo and a collection of archive photographs.
The resulting Heirship range was designed with several different approaches. The Heirship Seventeen used microfibre, the Sixty Eight adopted leather and referenced the George Best era, while the Seventy Four used a softer premium-leather construction.
Pricing was also intended to create distance from the most expensive elite boots on the market.
The Heirship Seventeen initially sold for £129, the Seventy Four for £109 and the Sixty Eight for £99. Stylo subsequently reduced the range to £59 direct to consumers, while premium products from major manufacturers can now sell for more than £200.
Michaels says professional footballers returned to the brand and that more than 10,000 pairs were sold during the revival.
The result demonstrated a key difference between having a famous history and having a functioning business.
Nostalgia can generate interest.
A product has to deliver the reason to buy.
Finding the Connection Behind the Deal
Michaels’ football career later moved into the transfer market.
He became an FA-registered football intermediary, working across players, clubs, agents and potential transfers.
He says that at one stage he held mandates representing more than $100 million in football talent, together with club-side mandates involving Boavista and Central Coast Mariners.
This work added another layer to his understanding of value.
The public usually experiences a transfer at its conclusion. A player signs, photographs are published, the fee becomes public and the deal appears straightforward.
The reality can involve months of discussions between agents, recruitment departments, managers, owners, families, competing clubs and others, with budgets, work permits and timing all affecting the outcome.
Talent alone is not enough.
A club’s need alone is not enough.
The transaction only comes together when the necessary interests and circumstances align.
That experience helped turn “Matchmaker” from a nickname into a description of the way Michaels approached business.
He began seeing a common pattern across different markets. Something can have real value without generating a commercial result when the people, rights, capital and opportunities required to unlock it remain disconnected.
Footballers offered one example.
Brands provided another.
Football clubs could offer a third.
The Los Angeles Aztecs Opportunity
That idea now underpins Michaels’ most ambitious project, the attempted revival of the Los Angeles Aztecs.
The original NASL team featured Johan Cruyff and George Best, creating a direct historical connection between Michaels’ work with Stylo and his current plans in Los Angeles.
The project is still at an early stage and is not currently an operating professional football club.
Its Wefunder campaign displays $8,850 against a $50,000 target. The stated investment structure is future equity with a $2 million valuation cap, while the first $100,000 is available on early-bird terms at a $1.5 million cap. The campaign identifies an initial event in 2027 and states an eventual ambition to generate $5 million in annual revenue.
Those figures show both the scale of the proposition and its current stage of development.
The Aztecs have not publicly confirmed a final professional league pathway. Crowdfunding does not secure entry into a league. A historic trademark does not solve the problem of finding a stadium. Nor does the involvement of a famous former player automatically produce a modern supporter base.
The Los Angeles sports market is also highly competitive.
MLS now has 30 clubs, including LA Galaxy and LAFC. MLS NEXT Pro has 30 teams in 2026, while USL is developing another interconnected professional pathway through USL Premier.
Professional football also operates under formal regulation. U.S. Soccer certifies professional leagues using standards that include ownership strength, 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.
A strong history, therefore, cannot substitute for the infrastructure required to operate a professional club.
That is the central test for the Aztecs.
The value of heritage is potentially different. It may help solve one of the hardest problems facing new sports properties: establishing an identity that people recognise and care about.
New clubs can spend heavily trying to create awareness, mythology and emotional connection. A historic name potentially starts with some of that equity already attached to it, assuming an audience still exists.
That is the opportunity and the risk.
A Consistent Philosophy Across Different Businesses
From the outside, Michaels’ career can look like a collection of unrelated projects.
Hair products.
Football boots.
Player representation.
Historic intellectual property.
Crowdfunding.
Club ownership.
Writing.
ScottMatchmaker.co.uk now brings those activities together as a central platform for his football, brand, ownership and business work.
The underlying philosophy is more consistent than the industries suggest.
Hairbond began with identifying demand that was already present but not fully developed.
Stylo demonstrated that a forgotten brand could retain commercial potential.
Football agency showed that value depends on connecting the right interests.
The Los Angeles Aztecs represent an attempt to apply the same thinking to a much larger sporting asset.
There is also an important distinction between Hairbond and the heritage projects.
Hairbond was created rather than revived.
That means Michaels’ approach has two sides.
One is identifying something valuable that others have overlooked.
The other is recognising an opportunity that does not yet exist in finished form and attempting to build it.
Both require judgement, and neither comes with a guarantee.
Some dormant brands remain dormant for good reasons. Some negotiations fail. Some consumers do not care about heritage. Some ambitious ventures never progress beyond the ambition stage.
That is why the evidence behind each project matters.
Hairbond has almost 20 years of trading history and says it has sold millions of products. Stylo brought a dormant football brand back into production and sold more than 10,000 pairs of boots. The Los Angeles Aztecs are at a much earlier stage, with major milestones still ahead.
Presenting those projects according to their actual stages makes the overall story more credible.
From a salon in Lancashire to football boots associated with George Best and a developing football proposition in Los Angeles, Michaels’ career keeps returning to the same question:
What valuable opportunity has been overlooked, disconnected or left undeveloped?
The philosophy behind “Matchmaker” provides his answer.
Spot the value.
Work out why it matters.
Bring the right pieces together.
Then attempt to turn the opportunity into something tangible.
More on Scott “Matchmaker” Michaels, his businesses, football projects and writing can be found at ScottMatchmaker.co.uk.
