In the Name of Virgil Abloh, Off-White™ & Chicago Bulls Announce Collaboration
In what the companies describe as celebration of "Virgil Abloh’s great passion for basketball and his city," Off-White™ and the Chicago Bulls have announced a collaborative partnership set to release in early Spring 2023. The resulting partnership will be the first major partnership for Off-White™ and an NBA team.
Despite Abloh's unabashed love for the sport, the late Off-White™ founder never issued a proper collaboration with an NBA team.
That likely would've happened pretty recently had Abloh not passed in late 2021, however: Abloh's longtime friend Don C was appointed as the Bulls' Creative Strategy and Design Advisor in early 2022 while his peer Daniel Arsham landed at the Cleveland Cavaliers. Surely, at least one of them would've tapped Abloh to mastermind a basketball-focused effort.
According to a release, conversations between Don C, Abloh's family, and Off-White™ CEO Andrea Grilli led to the ensuing collaborative capsule set to release on February 2 through Off-White™'s website and Farfetch BEAT, the e-tailer's digital arm for exclusive drops (Farfetch owns New Guards Group, the parent company of Off-White™ and others).
The collaboration includes four "limited edition items," comprising a hoodie, T-shirt, and two patched varsity jackets, all laden with a new logo that hybridizes iconography from all of the imprints involved.
No product shots were provided as part of the announcement but expect a campaign to arrive by release date.
Though Off-White™ never took on an NBA jersey or team logo before, it's held a longtime collaborative partnership with Jordan Brand, the multibillion-dollar sportswear brand that gets its name from the most famous player to ever sign with the Bulls.
Jordan Brand will not be part of this forthcoming collaboration, however. The door isn't exactly closed there, so not impossible to imagine some sort of triple-branded footwear eventually coming out of this team-up.
Though this NBA collection is new for Off-White™, major league sports are not. The fashion brand worked with the MLB for a divisive (and quick-selling) capsule in Summer 2021.
