How PSG is turning into the hypest club in the world

Tonight at Anfield Road PSG will make his debut in the Champions League against Liverpool, the finalist last year. The debut on the field of the Parisian team will perhaps be overshadowed by a more important: it will be the first game of the PSG with the highly anticipated kit produced by Jordan. Even before seeing the new shirts in the field, the news went around the world - not just football - given the teasing of the collection by Justin Timberlake and Travis Scott this summer. The PSG x Jordan collection is the pinnacle of a journey that the French club has brought the brand and the team logo within the streetwear and fashion world scene like no one has ever done before.
The operation is complex, with multiple objectives and questionable results: this is the complete story of how PSG has become the most hype brand of contemporary football.

Let's start when everything has changed

It was 2011 when PSG was bought by the Qatar Investment Authority. Since then, the history of the Paris club has been a succession of "no come on, they are not really doing it". In the early years, a group of champions or future such joined their ranks. Every player purchase seemed to continue to sculpt and define a precise style, a coolness that no other club in the world could not boast and that over time will become the real style of the team, the hallmark: it’s emblematic the engagement of a Beckham at the end career in 2012 (he will devolve the salary received in the months of stay at a charity).

The modus operandi is almost arrogant and exclusive, probably for this terribly fascinating. While PSG's supremacy in Ligue 1 becomes embarrassing, in terms of style the logo with the Tour Eiffel in the center begins to be a must-have for everyone, from people that live for football to the trap-star up to the Kardashian family. Beyonce, Jay-Z, Rihanna, Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid, Kourtney Kardashian, Lenny Kravitz, Naomi Campbell, Macklemore and Tyga are among the members of the modern jet set to have taken in PSG home games in the last couple of years.

The PSG was perhaps the first and above all conscious football terminal for the clamorous explosion of the streetwear, the cult for sports style and soccer shirts. If you have on your side being the first team of what is considered the city of fashion par excellence, you may surely have an easy life in this world. However, it can not be denied how important was the contribution that the team now led by Thomas Tuchel had in the customs clearance, in a city that was for a long time conservative, the new era of commingling between high fashion and streetwear. The pinnacle so far has been reached just a few months ago, when Virgil Abloh took the reins of Louis Vuitton.

The cult that has now been created around PSG is the result of a multidisciplinary all-around work that often goes beyond football on the pitch. I doubt that 6ix9ine has ever seen a game of Ligue 1, but he, like an infinity of other members of the American star System and not, related to rap and street culture, flaunts the team's suit in peace. Few other clubs can boast such a massive presence between different worlds: it is easy to trace the logo of the PSG in an infinity of music videos and lyrics of different songs, as well as on the catwalks and then at the same time in the neighborhood, on the fourteen-year-old boys from the suburbs around the world.

It didn't happen by chance: the attention to style, always present since 1989, the year in which the technical partnership with Nike has begun, manages to speak to the most sensitive and attentive generations, as does the aforementioned Virgil Abloh or the good Kanye West with their fans; manages to create its own world in which different themes and different influences are moving, well distinguished and recognizable.
At the same time PSG also carries out a very fine work of “returning to the future”, taking care of the vintage aspect of its brand and its own imaginary, for example by enhancing a 90s icon like Raì or creating hype, which only time will tell us if justified, on a very young son of art as Timothy Weah, or even, hosting the last jolts of the career of an Italian icon like Gigi Buffon. But of course, talking about hype, young people, fashion and so on we can not talk about a Brazilian curly guy who has forever changed the rules of the game.

The Neymar Era

The most expensive transfer in the history of football has not only changed the transfer market and the economic relationships between top clubs and all the others, but it was also the definitive affirmation of PSG as the most globalized and desired brand in the world. A shot that has also definitively cleared the ever hidden European ambitions of the club, throwing it on top of the predictions for the final victory, which despite everything continues to escape. Purchasing Neymar, the PSG has acquired, in addition to sports performance, a fan base among the most enthusiastic, young and wide, especially in countries that don’t have a history with football, cheer and follow more the individual player that the whole team.

Engaging a player so strong, at the peak of his career and in the prime of the years, perhaps the only player who can compete, as regard influence and follow, with NBA stars, has cemented the position of the PSG brand. It was the classic perfect wedding in terms of style and marketing (we'll see if also regarding the sports side).
We did not even have time to rumble about the sports performance of Neymar, which was placed another resounding blow: immediately entered the team the young most promising and followed the last ten years, that Mbappé that is equally in love as Neymar with street culture and that now seems to have surpassed in popularity (in this the world cup has certainly helped) the same Neymar. Two transfers, two small revolutions, one step forward towards the next.

The Jordan collabo

So we finally arrived to the present days and yet another gamechanger scored by PSG, the partnership with Jordan in the Champions League matches and in general the whole collection signed by the brand of MJ23. Michael Jordan's relationship with the French capital has been steady since 1985: Jordan has always considered Paris the European capital of culture and fashion, has opened here the first European store of his brand, has worked with the French national basketball team and supports the Quai 54 tournament, one of the most important basketball playground competitions in the world.

It is therefore not such a crazy marriage as it has been perceived by most, but it is certainly significant. We could somehow consider it as the icing on the cake, the point of arrival (at least for now) of the work done by Paris Saint Germain during these frenetic and intense years, a definitive consecration as the only team that can really put themselves at the table and work hand in hand with the most important, historical and creative brands of streetwear.

At the same time it is something perfectly in line with the concept that PSG shows to have of itself, being a proper brand, making that with Jordan a real collaboration as it could be that between Louis Vuitton and Supreme: the Jumpman Jordan instead of the Tour Eiffel included in the PSG logo is the perfect example of this concept.Do not be surprised to see other top clubs in the coming years take the example of this very direct and creative approach, given the results in terms both purely stylistic and in the commercial and advertising return side, that this operation is proving to produce.

For the moment, we can be sure that PSG x Jordan is one of the most interesting collections released in recent years and that probably has in its own way marked the birth of a new era for football fashion and at the same time for streetwear in general. For far-reaching speeches, we have to wait, for now we have the opportunity to see Neymar and Mbappè running in jerseys designed by the most famous sportsman of all time, and if this it's not cool, I do not know what it can be: think then that these two and the PSG can finally win the coveted Champions in jackets signed by Jordan, is something very close to science fiction with the potential to become reality. We'll see.