Through smart collaborations and consistent quality, Arsenal has positioned itself at the forefront of football culture over the past five years.
In the constant arms race that is modern football, clubs are always looking for new and fresh ways to connect with their fans and stay ahead of the curve.
In recent years, when it comes to football kit culture, Paris Saint-Germain has been the leading club in partnering with the biggest sports and fashion brands to give their fans a plethora of options for repping their colors. However, they’ve been overtaken by another European giant who has stepped up their game with innovative ideas, smart collaborations, and top-tier marketing: Arsenal.
Much of the Gunners’ recent progress in the kit game has coincided with their partnership with adidas, who took over as the club kit supplier in the 2019-20 season. The two had a fantastic run throughout the late ’80s and early ’90s, and picked up right where they left off over two decades later. In 2022, the deal was extended to run through 2030, which is a massive W for fans and kit collectors alike, as the club and brand have rarely missed when working together.
But it’s not just with adidas that Arsenal have been smartly working with. The North London side has teamed up with a handful of brands at the forefront of fashion and culture, which has both strengthened its connection to existing fans while drawing the curiosity of new ones as well.
We’ll look at their most recent collaborations, rate them, and talk about how well they’ve done to conceptualize the ethos and culture of the club in the merch they’ve dropped.
424: A Major Step Into Lifestyle Products
In the same year as their initial re-up with adidas, Arsenal announced a new clothing partner, Los Angeles-based 424, to a two-year deal. While the initial announcement was extremely promising in itself, it was their 2021 drop that turned collective heads.
It was perfect timing for both parties. Football culture was still fresh into its evolutionary phase that saw more institutions looking for ways to break into the fashion market through ingenious partnerships.
There are only so many things a club can do to redefine and redesign their home and away kits every year. It’s a massive reason why more clubs are making the smooth transition into collaborations like this and releasing more lifestyle collections that can be donned by the everyday fan in their everyday life; giving the people who form the foundations of the club new ways to express their fandom.
This team-up proved to be the first of many for the Gunners in the next few years.
Stella McCartney: Putting the Women in the Spotlight
Early 2022 saw Arsenal taking another massive step, this time for the most decorated club in English women’s football.
Partnering with Stella McCartney was a masterstroke. Her self-named brand has long been at the top of the game for luxury women’s fashion in the United Kingdom and beyond, and her consistent aim of doing things in an eco-friendly and sustainable fashion blends perfectly with the values that a football club should uphold.
It was a 10-piece collection featuring both streetwear and matchday gear, so fans and players alike could rep the set. It was an extremely out-of-the-box design, featuring contrasting red, white, and blue colors in leopard print style designs. The white and blue number in particular was a huge hit. Plus you can never go wrong when you get Wrighty to model your drop.
Jamaica-Inspired Pre-Match Kit: Celebrating Their Strong Jamaican Fanbase
North London is one of the most diverse areas of England’s capital, and Arsenal in particular have a huge delegation of Jamaican fans, both in the diaspora and back on the island. Many of the club’s past players, perhaps most famously Ian Wright, have Jamaican or Caribbean roots.
The pre-match kit is one of the most recognizable and popular of its kind that we’ve seen. The black, green, and gold that is synonymous with Jamaica and the nation’s flag is used to perfection on this number in the stylized geometric design.
In another bit of marketing genius, Arsenal released this kit on the eve of Notting Hill Carnival weekend, so you can only imagine how many you could see in the streets.
LABRUM Away Kit: Highlighting the African Diaspora
Arsenal’s commitment to both fashion and the inclusivity of all members of their fanbase brought them to their current 2024-25 away kit.
It’s a linkup with London fashion brand LABRUM, whose mission is to tell the stories of Africa through their clothing and to ensure that the culture of the motherland is shared with the diaspora.
The kit is a beauty, no two ways about it, and the subtle hints of Africa can be seen throughout, especially in the use of black, green, and red, the main colors of Pan-Africanism.
Plenty of Others
In addition to these larger scale collaborations, which often saw time on the pitch, Arsenal has done a fantastic job of releasing smaller, yet still massively significant collaborations.
Most recently, the club teamed up with London-based streetwear label Aries for a 26-piece collection centered around the “Arsenal faithful.” The navy bomber jacket in particular was a headliner, and quickly sold out upon release. In addition to having first team players like Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice featured in the rollout, Arsenal reached out to celebrity fans including British music staples Knucks, Ghetts, and Lava La Rue.
Also this year, Arsenal released a pre-match lifestyle line in collaboration with Maharishi, another dope London-based label, which featured dragon-like aesthetics in a nod to club mascot Gunnersaurus.
The consistent quality and vision in each of these collaborations, not to mention the fact that the club clearly has its ear to the ground when it comes to its fanbase both in and out of London, is proof that Arsenal gets it. The club has time and again showed its commitment to ensuring as many portions of their base feel as important as possible. Another move that highlighted this was the club’s pledge to donate £5 from every sale of their 2022-23 home kit to the Arsenal Foundation, with the aim of continued support to their local community.
Whether it’s highlighting their brilliant women’s team, promoting inclusivity in their fandom, or just dropping straight heat for supporters and streetwear fans alike, the Gunners have been at the top of the game for a minute.
Football clubs would be nothing and nowhere without the loyal support of their fans. Arsenal, through not only their community work and outreach, but also the product they put out, ensure the connection with their fanbase is maintained to the highest degree.
