Of all the collections KidSuper founder Colm Dillane has designed, the one he’s been most anxious about is his new collaboration releasing Friday with the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets.
It’s the inaugural showing by the Nets’ new in-house label Bero, which launched earlier this year. Not only does it mark one of the clearest examples to date of the growing affinity between sport and fashion, but for Dillane, who teased the tie up in January at his Autumn/Winter 2024 Paris Fashion Week show, it’s highly personal: The Nets are his local team and play not far from where he went to high school.
“Sometimes these sports and fashion collabs really aren’t great,” he told The Business of Fashion. “I was trying to make product that I think people would actually want to wear outside of the arena and make pieces that felt like Brooklyn.”
The collection includes letterman jackets, bombers and accessories like bucket hats. It also allowed Dillane to work with new materials like leather. The accompanying campaign features fellow Brooklyn locals like Nets centre Nic Claxton and his teammate Jalen Wilson, as well as borough president Antonio Reynoso.
The Nets are one of many sports organisations putting increasing time and resources into making clothing that goes beyond basic low-quality merch in a bid to drive cultural clout and also boost retail sales. At London Fashion Week in June, Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium hosted the runway show of menswear brand Labrum London — who also designed the team’s away kit for this season — with players like Declan Rice modelling the collection on the pitchside catwalk. This week, Rhude founder Rhuigi Villaseñor was named chief brand officer of Italian football team Como, in a role that will encompass transforming the brand’s approach to fashion and creative partnerships, hospitality and fan experience.
Dillane has been at the forefront of fashion’s recent convergence with sports. He designed the 2023/24 season jerseys for English football team Barnsley FC and will soon release a collection with all-time football great Ronaldinho, who starred in his January runway show.
With his Nets collaboration, he said he felt encouraged after getting the all-important buy-in from the team’s players, many of whom — like Claxton, who wore a leather jacket from the collection in a pre-game tunnel walk last season — were clamouring to get their hands on pieces ahead of this week’s general release.
For Claxton, it was important the team partnered with a designer who understood Brooklyn’s style codes.
“This collection really reflects the energy of Brooklyn and the new style that’s driving things forward right now,” he said.
