The world of fashion is very broad, with sports brands, luxury brands, among many other categories. Being something so old, with records of garments dating back more than 150 thousand years, one of the characteristics within the field is the possibility of innovating, thinking of new ideas and translating them into reality.
In recent years, after the explosion of Michael Jordan and his brand (Jordan, sub-brand within Nike) worldwide, several firms saw the possibility of collaborating not only with athletes, but with multiple celebrities, with the aim of achieving better numbers and greater impact. Here, some of the most emblematic and well-known cases of recent times.
Music, for its part, has always been closely linked to clothing, because of the message it gives, and to connect even more with the artist. Kurt Cobain’s red and black sweatshirt, Michael Jackson’s jacket, Indio Solari’s jean jacket, are just some examples of garments that are almost automatically related to great names in this art. The brands, always astute and never lazy, saw in this a very good possibility of union and profit.
Although it does not belong to the musical environment, it is impossible not to talk about Michael Jordan and Nike, the first great collaboration that, almost 40 years after its inception, only grows day by day. In 1984, Michael Jordan was playing his first season in the NBA, but brands had already had their eyes on him a long time before. Adidas and Converse were the most interested, but neither wanted to create an exclusive line for the player, since he had not yet proven anything. Nike bet on him, spent the money and created the Nike Air Jordan, a high-top sneaker model that, since it went on sale, was a success.
At the end of 2020, the Colombian reggaeton artist J Balvin and Jordan teamed up to release the Air Jordan 1 Retro High J Balvin “Colores y Vibras”, releasing a new collection in 2022, and in the month of September of this year the last of them, inspired by the colors of the sunset in Medellín, where Balvin is from.
To continue with sneakers, we must mention Kanye West, Adidas and Yeezy. Kanye, the winner of 24 Grammys, is not only a musician and producer, but he is also an entrepreneur and clothing designer, owner of his own brand. After Nike’s scandalous departure in 2013, Ye (his current name) quickly had an offer from Nike’s quintessential competitor: Adidas, and West didn’t hesitate. Two years after the signing, in 2015 the first shoe was released, the Yeezy Boost 750, which sold out in just minutes. Their great success was the Yeezy 350 that also came out that year and that mobilized the public so much that there were people camping at the doors of the stores so as not to lose their pair. The alliance ended in 2022 due to the controversy that arose regarding Kanye’s statements about the Jewish community, but there were sneakers to sell and a trial began that, to this day, has no resolution.
Other notable footwear collaborations are the Adidas Bad Bunny, collaborating with the most listened to Latin artist in the world and with a total of 13 designs since it began in 2021 and the Nike Travis Scott and Travis Scott Jordan, two lines in conjunction with the rapper from Houston that, as a peculiarity, in most of its products, the Nike pipe (The Swoosh) is inverted, creating something very original.
Fashion Made In Hollywood
Victoria Beckham has been, for more than 20 years, one of the best-known women in the world, not only in music, but also in design and clothing. The former Spice Girls singer and current wife of former player and businessman David Beckham, in 2019 announced through her social networks, a collaboration between her and Reebok, the well-known English brand. With the name “Drop One”, the first collection of this union went on the market in January of that year. The idea was to create a sports and fitness line, but comfortable and beautiful to look at, and the result was more than positive. Not only jogging pants, sweatshirts and T-shirts were part of this collection, but some sneakers also saw the light of day and received good reviews. After 3 years and 7 “Drops”, the collaboration came to an end in September 2022 with the “Drop Seven”, where the garments are characterized by going more towards urban and “Street-wear” than towards sports.
The collaborations mentioned are generally related to artists or composers of what is understood as “Urban Music” such as rap, trap, pop or reggaeton, music that in theory is more lively and plays in clubs. Still, one of the most anticipated and well-received alliances by the public is far from belonging to the urban genre.
On the occasion of the band’s thirtieth anniversary, in June of this year, the collaboration between Adidas Originals and Korn, the iconic alternative metal band of the 90s, was officially announced. In 1996, Korn released their album “Life Is Peachy” where a song predicted what would happen 27 years later, the song “ADIDAS” would be just an indication of what is happening this year. On Friday, October 27, the garments can be purchased on the Adidas website, which will probably collapse in just minutes. The collaboration will have a total of 7 pieces: two t-shirts, a sweatshirt with the band’s logo, two sets in black and purple (jacket plus pants) and two sneakers, these being the most anticipated part. The collection itself generally has a very ’90s style, standing out especially in the footwear, where the iconic Adidas Campus are wider and with larger laces, recalling the first versions of the pair.
Another alliance that has given a lot to talk about recently is that of Fútbol Club Barcelona, Nike and Spotify. In March 2022, Spotify began sponsoring Barcelona for a total of sixty million euros annually for four years. Unlike many other sponsors in football, where what generally happens is that the brand logo appears on the front of the shirt, Spotify went one step further: being the only team that sponsors and also being a platform of music, the company wanted that during the 4 years, not only its logo was the protagonist on the t-shirt.
Spotify and Barcelona in the last year have released several t-shirts where, instead of the classic logo appearing, that of a singer, band or album appears. To date, there have been three special t-shirts: the first arrived last October and was with the Canadian Drake and his OVO logo (which is an owl), for having been the first artist to reach 50 million monthly views on the platform. She was then followed by the Spanish artist Rosalia, who was also born in Catalonia. This union was for the first anniversary of her most recent work “Motomami”, an album from 2022. The last of these occurred just a few days ago, and will be used next Saturday, October 28. The Rolling Stones and their iconic tongue logo will be the face of the next Culé club shirt. All these garments share the characteristics of being used in a single match, which is always the classic against Real Madrid. It is expected that in the future, several more bands and singers will be present in the Barcelona jersey.
The link between music and fashion that appeared very recently, day after day shows that unity is always strength, and that in addition to generating expectations in the public, it also generates enormous profits.
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