For brands, it’s about tapping into the zeitgeist — and also offers a touchpoint between the player and the league levels they’ve already been working on. Launching a private label offers a more direct line to the team itself, and in turn, the team’s audience.
“It was a special time for us to talk about being a Brooklyn brand,” Dillane says. “Sometimes when you just put ‘Brooklyn’ on a shirt, it feels like merch. But since this was a collaboration with Brooklyn, I could do it, and now I’m like, ‘oh man, I should’ve been repping Brooklyn harder from the beginning’.” Plus, he adds, it helps with inspiration, which is much needed when making 300-odd pieces for a fashion show.
Dillane is already being hit up daily for the Brooklyn jackets in his DMs, he says.
Collaborating at the team level has its own set of upsides, professor Garno says. For one, the brand is less dependent on a singular player. Though athletes have cachet as trendsetters and tastemakers — perhaps more so than models and celebrities — this type of relationship carries heavier reputational risk if an athlete were to do something to cause reputational harm to the brand, she flags.
But what happens when a team becomes the brand? Athletes’ partnerships with (and purchases from) luxury brands stems from a desire to be associated with that brand — and, by association, fans’ aspirations for this. If the team brings luxury in-house, can that aspirational element prevail?
If done right, Garno says. “I don’t think the luxury aspect automatically goes away if the team itself puts out a private label collection, provided that the intention behind the collection is to create a luxury product.” This, she says, comes through in design elements, fabrication and materials – and brand identity. “Teams already use this strategy by offering luxury packages and experiential events to their fans – it’s just a matter of applying the same marketing and exclusivity techniques to the collection.”
It helps a brand to tap a given team’s market. “Collaborating with a team’s private label may offer a direct line and connection to a team’s fan base allowing the luxury brand to help shape the brand identity in a particular market,” Garno continues. “This type of partnership may be seen as authentic to the team, the city and its roots and culture, which will help build brand and team loyalty.”
