Five Collaborations That Actually Mattered.
Play #020: And five more that haven't happened yet.
Part 2 of The Brand Game
Most brand collaborations are forgettable. A logo swap, a limited run, a press release, and three weeks later nobody can tell you what it was or why it existed. Chelsea do this often.
The ones on this list are different. Two worlds collided, and neither came out the same. Some of them settled arguments that had been running for decades. Some of them opened doors that are still being walked through.
Five collaborations from the last decade, ranked by cultural impact alone. Not revenue, not resale value, not how fast they sold out. By how much they actually shifted something.
5. PSG x Jordan Brand (2018–ongoing)
I wrote about this in Part 1, so I'll keep it short. A 470% increase in US shirt sales, twelve collaborative kits, Paris Fashion Week appearances, and the Jumpman on the chest of one of the most watched clubs in the world. Football speaking fluently to a generation raised on NBA highlights and hip hop. The partnership worked, but more than that, it revealed how much larger the opportunity actually is. That part is still only half-explored.
4. Nike x Off-White: "The Ten" (2017)
Virgil Abloh was given ten iconic Nike silhouettes and asked to do something interesting. What he gave back wasn’t a redesign. It was a deconstruction. Exposed foam, Helvetica labels explaining each component, zip ties left on deliberately. A refusal to make anything look finished. Not adding. Revealing. The culture received it as exactly that, and “The Ten” changed how people talked about sneakers in a way that hasn’t reversed. Design literacy went mainstream. The idea that a shoe could carry a concept, not just a colourway, became something people genuinely cared about.
Virgil passed in 2021. This is his monument.
3. Kanye West: Nike Air Yeezy to Adidas Yeezy (2009–2015)
Complicated figure yes. Undeniable legacy. Singular genius.
The Air Yeezy I and II were remarkable shoes, but Nike kept creative control and Kanye wasn’t seeing royalties. The move to Adidas in 2013 changed the architecture entirely, giving him his own sub-label, full creative autonomy, and revenue participation. What he built with that freedom, the 350, the 700, the whole Yeezy ecosystem, proved that an artist could operate like a brand rather than simply endorse one. Every artist-brand structure that followed owes a debt to what Kanye negotiated: Rihanna at Puma, Beyoncé at Adidas, Pharrell at Vuitton. The deal was the disruption. The product was almost beside the point. Despite all the noise and controversy, I love him.
2. Dior x Air Jordan 1 (2020)
Five million applications. Eight thousand pairs available to the public.
Kim Jones approached the Jordan 1 the way he approaches everything, with historical rigour and restraint, and the result was a shoe that felt like it had always existed, made from materials the original could never have imagined. It sold on the secondary market for over £10,000 a pair, (I could never btw) but the more important thing is what it settled. An argument that had been running since the eighties. Sneakers aren’t adjacent to fashion. They are fashion. This collaboration made it official.
1. Travis Scott x Audemars Piguet (2023)
No collaboration this decade said more about where culture actually is. And it came out of nowhere.
A rapper from Houston co-designing a perpetual calendar complication with a 150-year-old Swiss watchmaker. Two hundred pieces at CHF 178,000, every one sold, and the resale market pushed them past $600,000. But the price was never the point. Hip hop had been wearing AP for twenty years. Jay-Z had a Royal Oak Offshore collaboration back in 2005. But what Travis Scott did in 2023 was fundamentally different. He didn’t appear in a campaign. He redesigned the movement, replaced the moon phase with the Cactus Jack smiley, and shaped the calendar typography by hand. He was at the table as a creative equal, not a brand ambassador.
I spoke to Duane Salih, founder of Space In The Circle, who was the architect behind the partnership and understood exactly what was at stake:
“I’ve built my life in rooms where different worlds rarely mix. My role has always been to sit in the middle and make sure the connection is real. The collaboration between Travis and Audemars Piguet wasn’t about chasing attention. It worked because there was genuine respect on both sides.
And it started one summer in London, when Travis bought a watch and I found myself thinking, what if.”
The launch party told the rest of the story. Metro Boomin on the decks, Mark Ronson and Orlando Bloom in the crowd, (rumour has it) executives in suits moshing next to Travis Scott fans, and the outgoing CEO of Audemars Piguet doing a literal mic drop as his final act. It wasn’t a watch launch. It was a handshake between two worlds that had been circling each other for decades, and the question it answered matters: can the culture that built the demand become the culture that shapes the product?
The Chocolate AP says yes.
And Five I’m Still Waiting For..
Every list like this leaves you thinking about what hasn’t happened yet. I wrote a full wishlist for SportBusiness a while back and none of it has aged. These are the five I keep coming back to.
England x Burberry
The England squad is full of young icons who carry the weight of a nation every time they pull on the shirt. The pre-match walk, the tunnel, the build-up. It all means something. Burberry understands that tension better than almost any British brand alive. History, identity, pressure, and a very specific idea of what it means to represent this country.
A tailored pre-match collection shot on 35mm. Trench coats that feel like armour. I mean come on, how iconic would this be. Why hasn’t this been done yet! This isn’t a sponsor deal. It’s a statement about what England actually looks like in 2026. We might not win the tournament, but this is a trophy itself.
Galatasaray x Stone Island
Galatasaray fans don’t do halfway. Have you been to a game in Turkey? They’re some of the craziest. Pyro, flares, noise that rattles the chest. It’s one of the most visceral supporter cultures in world football, and Stone Island was built for exactly that energy. Functional, utilitarian, worn by people who mean it.
A capsule designed for terraces and pure chaos. Fire-resistant scarves. Heat-reactive details. Jackets that earn their badge. The launch video shot in grainy black and white, flares lighting up a night sky. No tagline. Just fury and fabric. This one writes itself.
Inter Miami x GTA VI
GTA VI is heading back to Vice City. Inter Miami already plays like they were coded by Rockstar: neon pink, Messi, Beckham, maximum drama. The IP overlap is obvious once you see it. An in-game stadium. Messi as an unlockable character. No seriously imagine that. A limited kit that drops inside the game before it hits shelves. Radio voiceovers from Sir Goldenballs between missions.
FIFA is not the only place football lives digitally. This is where a new generation of fans builds its relationship with the sport, and this collaboration would meet them exactly there.
Arsenal x A24
Arsenal isn’t just a football club. It’s a specific kind of feeling: moody, brilliant, maddening, occasionally transcendent. The group chat debates. The voice notes that start with “I can’t lie...” and spiral into something approaching existential dread. No other club in England carries that particular emotional frequency. I can genuinely tell an Arsenal fan just by their viewpoint on certain subjects (this could be a whole article in itself).
Anyway, A24 would understand it immediately. Not a documentary, not a behind-the-scenes series. A proper drama. Top Boy meets Marty Supreme on steroids. Scripted, slow, minimal. A youth player trying to reach his mum before kick-off. Arteta in a grey room, staring at a tactics board like it contains the meaning of life. Fans queuing in the rain outside the Emirates, wondering why they keep coming back. Shot like a film because it deserves to be treated like one.
US Olympic Athletes x Rhode
Heading into a home Olympics, the energy around the US women’s programme hits differently. Rhode, Hailey Bieber’s skincare brand, built around the ritual of preparation and the unglamorous reality of being constantly on the move, fits that world better than any traditional beauty brand ever could.
A limited skincare set built for athletes. TSA-friendly. Designed around the routines that happen before the cameras turn on. Pop-ups at LAX. Locker room content. Olympic village drops. The athletes narrating it themselves, in their own words, on their own terms. Not a girl power campaign. Just power. Seriously, if you lot at Rhode aren’t already thinking this, then I want a commission.
Some of these are going to happen. I know which ones I’d back.
THE BRAND GAME
A two-part mini series on how brands are reshaping football.
This is Part II. Start with Part I below.
I don’t just write about the future of football, I help shape it. If this hit a nerve, I’m probably already thinking about how we could build something together.
Thanks for reading GAMEPLAYER.
Through CAOS, GAFFER, EDEN, and over 100 football contracts, transfers, brand deals, and equity-driven partnerships, I’ve seen power shift from clubs to investors, brands to athletes, and legacy to culture.
I break down what matters. Private equity takeovers, athlete-led media, billion-dollar sports IP, and the future of merchandising and streaming.
This isn’t just commentary. It’s about who’s making the real moves and what’s coming next.