Paris St-Germain and the Jordan Brand formally announced their highly-anticipated new collaboration on Thursday ahead of next week’s Champions League group stage.
It is an initiative that will help the French soccer team further push their brand in North America and help the Nike-owned company branch out in overseas markets.
The Jumpman logo will feature on PSG’s home and away jerseys during their European campaign while over 90 performance, training and lifestyle products are available for sale.
“The collaboration… is a logical next step in our project to make Paris St-Germain one of the biggest global sports brands,” PSG chairman and CEO Nasser Al-Khelaifi said.
“It’s about the idea of dimensionalizing,” said David Creech, Jordan Brand’s vice president of design. “We have American football now. We’re getting into running. We had a women’s relaunch recently. And we felt like the next step, from a global standpoint, was football.”
It appears Brazilian superstar Neymar was key to the deal. In 2016, the PSG forward collaborated with the Jordan Brand for a boot, sneaker and apparel deal. “The football team came to us and said, ‘Hey, with the Neymar collection, wouldn’t it be great to take this to the pitch?’… that’s kind of how the conversation started.” Creech said.
The move also strengthens PSG’s relationship with Nike, the club’s long-term kit manufacturer. When asked whether the partnership could lead to a contract extension between the pair, Al-Khelaifi said: “There are discussions, let’s see, let’s hope the story continues.”