Luxury fashion brands such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, Boss have in recent years entered into partnerships with sports or streetwear brands such as Supreme, Adidas, Nike and Puma.
Why do they do it and what does it bring them?
It’s part of a growing trend of collaboration between luxury and streetwear brands. This trend has emerged as a way for luxury brands to take advantage of the growing streetwear and casualwear market, as well as to appeal to younger consumers who “live on the street”. In doing so, luxury brands are broadening their audience and getting closer to a more mass audience.
The partnership also allows sportswear brands to add luxurious and cutting-edge elements to their collections and gain access to the prestige and exclusivity associated with luxury fashion brands. Another interesting dimension of this connection is the collaboration with celebrities who love both types of brands – whether streetfashion, but understandably also luxury. So in communications and marketing, it is literally true that 1 + 1 = 3. The connection of the 2 brands is also communicated by other third parties. It is also a way to reach new audiences and create cross-appeal to different market segments, as well as offer consumers unique and innovative products. Limited pieces at a high price.
Examples of such cooperation are:
- Gucci and The North Face
- Louis Vuitton and Nike
- Prada and Adidas
- Burberry and Puma
- Hermes and Converse
- or the latest collaboration between Tiffany and Nike or Tiffany and Fendi.
Nike and Tiffany
Nike Air Force 1 and Tiffany teamed up to bring the sneakers for 400USD, 1.4mil people liked the post “A Legendary Pair” on NIKE and Tiffany’s IG pages, but mostly they were shown off by “king” Lebron James, Mark Wahlberg and the faces of Tiffany Gal Gadot, Hailey Bieber, Zoe Kravitz, Elle Fanning.
These collaborations can also be seen as a way to reinvigorate the brand and give it a sense of freshness and relevance in the marketplace. AI intelligence is helping to do just that. As part of marketing today, AI can already create “beautiful” pieces based on a good brief, and these live their lives online to the point that Tiffany has not commented on or denied this viral.
The result, however, is custom exclusive sneakers whose price remains secret and on demand.
Rating of Generations
From a branding and marketing perspective, this trend appears to be a masterpiece, albeit an expensive one, and a sure-fire win-win situation. From the perspective of reputation, which is fragile, special consideration needs to be given to the influencers that brands work with and how they communicate. But if your brand is considering this trend in a local setting, explore the possibility of further collaboration with influencers the other party is working with. There’s a good chance they may make a bigger impact than expected.
So if you’re planning a partnership with a brand, look at what influencers the brand works with in addition to the traditional communication mix.
