COLLABORATION – A MATCH MADE IN - PRADA, ADIDAS

Prada and Adidas – Italy and Germany hold hands in a collaborative journey, which instils desire in the brand hungry, followers of fashion.

At least in this case you would hope that the many customers this will create, they cherish the craftsmanship applied to these wardrobe non-essentials.

What does this collaboration tell us?

1.    Adidas are already known for their fashion collaborations (Yeezy+), they’ve often found it to be highly profitable – it does however raise the question are their design team struggling for inspiration or are the sales team insisting on a less “risky” approach?

2.    Prada struck up a recent collaboration with Selfridges to enter into an “escape” range. To you and I that means Festival gear, as opposed to the great outdoors.  Ok, so they’ve both got history in partnerships…

3.    Collaborations can be winning combinations, consider Louis Vuitton and Supreme, Hermes and Apple (watch), Balenciaga and the World Food Programme.

4.    There is many more that use celebrity as a way of collaborating, from Kylie to Beyoncé, Rihanna to Cardi B, the list goes on. Is this the best way brands can perpetuate, sustain and grow? Let’s face it we are all now aware of celebrity endorsement and influencer programmes; it’s pretty much the same thing, right?

5.    Joining forces like this introduces new audiences, maximising social wealth whilst also creating something new and desirable for an existing brand. It’s a no-brainer.

6.    But what of the manufacturer in this process? In the case of Prada Adidas the strap line is: A Partnership of heritage, technology and innovation.  The design patterns and years of development experience have been handed from Adidas to Prada (shoes), for Prada to use their master crafts team to re-engineer and reproduce, their way.

7.    At KALOPSIA we are always on the look out for our next collaboration, our entire business model to date has been built on collaborations with weavers and textile designers.  More recently we have entered into a programme of support (entirely background, rather than public colab) due to our craftsmanship, attention to detail and clever minimal waste pattern designs.

8.    It feels good to dwell on the relationships, partnerships and collaborations that have worked; I suspect Prada Adidas will be a huge success. We also recognise that it takes a lot of work to get it right and for the big brands that work with niche experts (like KALOPSIA) we recognise the commitment and empowering opportunity it represents.

Do you have a collaboration story, you can share?