“Black glove, black mask, TDM / Asics, Reebok and TN / We can come without a quickdraw / fuck your mother like in Tekken. ” At the turn of a verse, in I don’t just have friends, already seen 8 million times on YouTube, the rapper Jul sings the names of brands with which he collaborates. After Asics asked the Marseille artist to design a pair of sneakers in December 2020, it was Reebok’s turn, at the start of the year, to do business with him and his ready-to-wear label. Gold and platinum for a collaboration.
“This is the first time that we have worked with a French artist to whom we give full powers”, underlines Brice Lefebvre, Marketing Director of Reebok France. Because with his almost 3 million Instagram subscribers and an album that comes out every six months on average, Jul is not just an ambassador, these muses that brands tie up with a golden contract in order to dress them up in cap as shop windows. For Reebok, he officially “Coded” sneakers, slides, socks, t-shirts… Logoed, bathed in yellow and black like motorsport, this wardrobe is unisex, affordable (from 18 to 100 €) and cut from XXS to XXL, from 34.5 to 47 for shoes. “An important point because what seduced us about Jul is this unifying momentum that he triggers, praises Brice Lefebvre. It brings together all communities, all generations. “
Recruit a celebrity, not as the only incarnation, but to offer him to play fashion designers for the time of a project? The model is spreading. After the comedian Billy Porter who signed in May 2021 for Jimmy Choo satin ankle boots or zebra pumps, Charlotte Gainsbourg released in September with Zara her denim basics and the popstar Dua Lipa easy street sets, produced since December by Puma. Already, in 2020, Sandro had joined forces with Clara Luciani, while wearing graphic blouses, while Coach now occasionally gives actor Michael B. Jordan, until then a simple ambassador, a creative carte blanche.
It doesn’t matter that the fashion world often twists its nose in front of these opportunistic alliances that seem calibrated by strategists obsessed with social networks. “The pandemic has pushed brands to rethink how to amplify their content by favoring voices with a greater number of subscribers to catch more people in their nets”, remarks Alison Bringé, who oversees the marketing of Launchmetrics, a data analysis platform specializing in fashion.
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