Throughout the 2018/2019 Champions League campaign, Paris St. Germain (one of France’s most elite soccer clubs) will be sporting Air Jordan branded uniforms.
In what is Jordan’s most exciting collaboration since Space Jam, Paris St. Germain will not only be wearing branded uniforms, but, the club will also be pushing out over 90 products across multiple product lines: Performance, Lifestyle, and Training. How did this all come to fruition? Good question. Well, the Parisian club was not picked by Air Jordan at random, in fact, PSG has a history of pushing its marketing boundaries and cultivating not only a sporting club but also a lifestyle brand. It’s important to note that this is Air Jordan’s first soccer collaboration.
This particular Air Jordan x PSG campaign began with a shoe release, which then followed by an influencer campaign – both Justin Timberlake and Travis Scott performed with Air Jordan x PSG branded apparel, which then ultimately lead up to the Champions League announcement.
For PSG, this deal is going to be worth upwards of $100 million dollars. However, this is not a massive jump for the storied club, they’ve been hard at work developing and branding their club into an evolving lifestyle brand. They’ve had some very serious co-sponsors to this claim: Beyoncé, Rita Ora, Rhianna, and Tyga, to name a few. What is interesting about PSG is that their aim is not force themselves into the zeitgeist, rather, “We don’t ask them”. – PSG’s brand and diversification manger, when asked about how they engage with influencers.
While the Air Jordan x PSG collaboration is less organic than the star-studded audience you’ll find at most home matches and the desire to wear their brand, it is evidence of things moving in the right direction for the club. What this collaboration is ultimately looking to do is to push PSG into the mainstream the same way that basketball shoes and basketball jerseys resonate in the United States.
So far, Air Jordan x PSG has left little to doubt about the potential successes, after 3 hours of its release, the club sold out all of its 5,000 pieces in just 3 hours. Prior to that, the club needed to disable its pre-order function off of its website due to heavy traffic.
Jumpman, Jumpman, Jumpman, them boys up to something.
Categories: Fashion, Paris Saint Germain, UEFA Champions League