Despite it being a bloody weird year all round, designers, creators, brands and teams still found time throughout 2020 to come together, adjusting their working methods to deliver some fresh collaborative projects, and we’ve rounded up the best releases of the last 12 months.
You can’t beat a good collaboration; two entities coming together to produce something creatively unique, providing new approaches to otherwise tried and tested methods. Whether it’s bringing in a creative mind from another field to get an entirely fresh perspective, crossing boundaries into other disciplines, often venturing away from sport entirely, or pooling knowledge and passion of the beautiful game for a bespoke collection, collaborations often offer something completely different.
PSG and Juve undoubtedly opened the doors to wider collaborations in the footballing arena, and that ball has been well and truly picked up and run with, offering new avenues for creative minds to play in, and we can’t get enough of it. Whilst there can be no doubt that the pandemic will have hindered a lot of projects in 2020, restricting releases and hampering our general enjoyment, many collaborations still managed to make it over the finish line, and here’s our pick of the bunch from 2020.
Linking up for a second hit of collaborative cool, PUMA and Dutch lifestyle brand BALR. introduced the limited edition Future 6.1 alongside a selection of kits for the German brand's premium European teams. The collaboration combined the best of both brands, blending football performance and fashion into a sleek street-ready capsule collection that bridged the intersection of football, culture and lifestyle.
Fuelled by Lyle & Scott’s Royal Warrant for Knitwear and Lovers FC founder Neal Heard’s love of casuals culture, the Scottish heritage brand and English football collective came together for two hits of ‘Memories are Made’ collaboration, which featured reimagined knitwear pieces inspired by some of football’s most iconic designs from legendary teams across the world.
PUMA dived into the special edition realm in company with creative collective KidSuper, presenting a football collection helmed by a new rendition of the iconic King. The King Super, along with the wider streetwear collection, works to combine the energy and unbridled passion of football with the creativity and innovation of art, inspired by PUMA’s football heritage and KidSuper founder Colm Dillane’s past football career in Brazil.
Launched as a celebration of the art of football and the power that the sport has to unify, adidas and British-based artist Reuben Dangoor unveiled a limited edition Predator along with two complementing trainers. The boot represented the first time an artist has collaborated on the Predator silhouette, capturing the power and reach of the game beyond the pitch.
As if you could have a list like this without the kings of collaboration, PSG. For the third season in a row, the partnership produced a collection that lived up to the hype levels. The design of the new kit and collection referred to the colour of the Air Jordan VII, debuted by Michael Jordan on the floors of the 1992 NBA All-Star Game – the brand’s first pair to feature the bordeaux colour that dominated the whole collection.
Borussia Dortmund x SpongeBob SquarePants
Does this one deserve a place on the best collaborations list, or the most left field? In our opinion, it's deserving of its place purely on the basis of crossing a boundary that has yet to be traversed, with football and the world of animation coming together. PSG get Jordan, Juve get Palace, BVB get SpongeBob.
Crossing the boundaries between the virtual world and reality, AS Roma paired up with Brain Dead to create the Giallorossi’s limited edition 4th kit, which has been added to the PES2021 as part of the latest Data Pack 3.0 but that was also made available for purchase in physical form. A striking sublimated design combined with Roma's iconic colours, all centred around the Capitoline Wolf symbol that takes its place as the crest.
Having announced an industry-first partnership with them, AC Milan revealed a collaborative collection with Roc Nation-owned streetwear label Paper Planes that drew on their shared link as two of the world’s fashion capitals, and it also represented the first time that the Serie A giants have ventured into the world of fashion.
PSG x Jordan Women's collection
Paris Saint-Germain and the Jordan Brand took their collaborative journey in a new direction by unveiling the first ever women's capsule collection to accompany the first men's collection of 2020. The six-piece strong drop made up of statement PSG x Jordan products was inspired by the French flag and highlighted by the iconic Jumpman logo on each dual-branded clothing piece.
Adidas collaborator and Humanrace Creative Director, Pharrell Williams, drew inspiration from the Three Stripes' archives to honour Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Man United & Real Madrid's histories with reimagined jersey designs. Each jersey was unified by the hand-painted aesthetic, which was central to the process led by Pharrell, with the iconic shirts redesigned in a traditional artistic format. And it didn't just stop with the shirts either, with a fresh twist on the classic Predator Accelerator aesthetic launching as the headline footwear piece from the collection. Epic in scale and awesome in execution, this didn't get the attention it deserved. We blame Covid.
Roll on 2021...
