The GOAT Returns: Paris Saint-Germain x GOAT
Paris-Saint Germain has kicked the ball out of the football field and into the fashion field for the second time. It was just last year that the famous French club founded in 1970, Paris-Saint Germain aka. PSG became the official GOAT of football – by which we mean they partnered with fashion marketplace GOAT for its People of Paris campaign.
This year, the campaign is back with a delectable spread of Paris’ finest people perfectly curated for name-dropping; from football megastar Kylian Mbappé who requires no introduction, to veteran Parisian creatives such as Sarah Andelmann, the mastermind of Colette, to renowned musicians like Dev Hynes, the voice behind singer-songwriter Blood Orange, to name a few.
A diverse spread, particularly diverse for the marriage of a football club and fashion marketplace, that may make you ask: what’s the common thread? Well, according to PSG and GOAT this handful of carefully picked talent are simply all people who have impacted the club, city, and world in their own unique and meaningful ways.
Football has always maintained an air of contagiousness – most famously with its fanatic, die-hard fans who have continued to be a loyal entourage of the sport and its players. But in recent years, this line between sports, specifically the fan-favorite football is getting blurrier by the minute.
So with that in mind, it only makes sense that PSG and GOAT would join forces to put forth People of Paris Volume 2, with the focus this time streamlined to the contagious influence that PSG, its fans, and the City of Lights have on not only sports but fashion and culture at large.
The gathering of GOATs (pun intended), was brought to life by the creative minds of photographer Thibaut Grevet, and stylist Tamara Rothstein, who took these culture figureheads and dropped them in a top-notch advert à la ‘90s GAP. Amongst the cluster of sports stars, musicians, and Parisian personalities, pops of PSG merch shine through; red, white, and blue in the form of scarves, ties, bomber jackets, caps, and jerseys, in what seems to be a melting pot.
Is this football we’re talking about or a Pharrell LV show? It’s becoming hard to say now!
Club legend Ronaldinho Gaúcho makes an appearance; outfitted in a furry black coat, presumably vintage PSG jersey, custom gold name-plate chain, and Martine Rose loafers. The most iconic shot of all – the shadowed profile of the Brazilian football player balancing a PSG-branded football on his head against the muted sky-gray background.
Dev Hynes, the voice and melody behind Blood Orange also features in the campaign as a person of Paris. He wears a navy blue PSG cap with red embroidering, paired with what’s safe to say a PSG purse as he describes the city as a “home away from home.”
Other Parisian-related people of interest who earned themselves a cameo in the latest campaign include PSG’s very own Nuno Mendes, French chef Mory Sacko, multi-hyphenate creative Edmond Luu, singer-songwriter Fatou Diawara, and many more talented People of Paris.
As we put it last year, there aren’t many lifestyle labels that can claim a similar relationship with a sports team as big as PSG. Though streetwear designers often partner with the NBA or car-racing companies, no other brand has laid claim to what GOAT's done with PSG: actually partnering with a world-famous sportswear outfit.
Bottom line: PSG is fashion.
But the People of Paris campaign isn’t just a pretty spread, either. Community is front and center. The sneaker marketplace GOAT, founded in 2015, conceived the project to bring people together across the globe through their shared adoration for the sport of footy, fashion, and culture. It should be noted GOAT is no novice when it comes to building a community with over 50 million members across 170 countries.
Building on last year’s launch, the 2023 iteration leans into the influence of the city in which the team resides – Paris – and all that the city means to the fashion world at large. “It’s been inspiring to see the partnership between PSG and GOAT develop over the last year,” says Fabien Allègre, Chief Brand Officer, Paris Saint-Germain. “With this new ‘People of Paris’ campaign, we are thrilled to showcase PSG and GOAT’s unique communities and the strong influence that fashion, and sports have globally on personal style and individual expression.”
What goes around comes around, which is why Sarah Andelman is bringing back the Colette x Paris Saint-Germain kit from 2017. We’d call it “vintage” but it might be a tad too soon, let’s just say it’s having an appropriately timed renaissance. Nonetheless, the kit was well-loved then and will most certainly be loved now, ran once more in a limited batch of 300 units co-released on the GOAT site.
