The Greatest Fashion Collab No-One Cares About

designers collaborating with sportsware Brands is either a chance for us to access luxury fashion in a more wearable or affordable way or a marketing exercise to convince us to buy water down designs and mass Market slop under the guise of it being premium exclusive desirable I could be talking about fear of God Athletics for selling us $300 Adidas sweatshirts we will come back to that or the just launched Nike and Bodie collection but there's a bigger collab out there connecting one of the hottest sportsware Brands going and one of the Undisputed most legendary designers of the last 100 years take a look at some images this is sportsware like we've never seen it before could this be the next massive cultural Milestone that grips fashion fans and the industry alike well no because this stuff already exists and nobody cares but according to my YouTube analytics you are smarter than the average fashion fan should you care or are these sorts of clothes a waste of your time and money to answer that we'll explore among others the OG the most prolific sportsare fashion collab that seems to have plunged into irrelevancy this is Adidas here and with the help of some special guests let's talk Y3 Y3 Y3 Y3 Y3 Y3 [Music] Y3 shouldn't the link up between a highly respected designer and an on Trend mainstream brand to be a fashion Powerhouse I did poll you on Instagram and many of you felt that Y3 was a Cool brand but to a wider fashion audience I don't think it is I just have to look at the numbers it gets some press coverage but few people in online fashion communities are talking about it and few people post content to their social media most Tik toks are under 10,000 views apart from this one sneaker video Instagram doesn't have a bunch of Y3 Warriors comparing full looks and archives like you might find from Balenciaga Rick Owens acronym I haven't met anyone that likes Y3 like at all besides I guess you like Y3 right no you're probably thinking it's one of those brands that did some interesting stuff a long time ago but just doesn't have anything decent to offer now here are some images from y 3's Peak back when it was interesting what year do you think these were from Psych they're from all over the last two decades including next season if they're consistently putting out decent looking stuff how have they gone from relative excitement in the mid-20s to nobody seeming to care now a true definition of a forgotten SHO when is the last time any of you guys seen a pair of Y3 is Y3 an underrated forgotten gem or total garbage that everyone has rightly cast aside and what does that tell us about designer collabs to answer that we're going to look at three main categories brand history collaborative vision and the clothing itself let's start with history a lot of people buy into brands on this basis but I actually think it's a potential example of why you might want to avoid these sorts of collaborations whether that be Y3 fear of God Athletics Nike and Karan or even luxury Brands generally who use Heritage in their marketing Yoji of course has a long and decorated history we don't need to dispute his fashion credentials so let's look at the Y3 story over 20 years ago in 2001 Yoji amamoto felt he was becoming too far from the street at the same time he saw New York businessmen walking to work in their suits and sneakers and found the strange mix incredibly Charming a fascinating hybrid so he approached a sportsware giant looking to collab that sportsare giant was Nike and they said no we will never do that we only make sportsare Adidas however welcomed him with open arms and the two started creating clothing collections from 2003 following an initially successful sneaker launch we can't understate how groundbreaking conceptually the connection between luxury fashion and sportswar was sporty but elegant it it was very uh complicated but because it was complicated difficult I was inspired this was the collaboration that showed the market the inclusion of sportsware and Technical fabrics and design language into a fashion space could work we're talking years before offwhite based it ethos on the connection of luxury and Street fashion and before most fashion brands were incorporating sportsware inspired construction and Technical Fabrics into their work I have no doubt that Y3 was instrumental in building a landscape where these things can Thrive Y3 absolutely deserve credit for doing it first but now there are a lot of designer and sportsware brand collaps not just north face and undercover but North Face and Gucci Salamon and Marella ARX and Jill sander even within Adidas you have Wales boner Craig green Prada fear of God of course nowadays consumers are spoiled for choice and they're going to go with whichever collab feels newer fresher more hyped we also must understand that any conversation about brand history is essentially marketing from the brand they want us to know these stories because it makes us feel like we are buying more than just the physical garments we're buying better than just sportsware designed by teams of anonymous people to a particular spec or price point for example the fear of God Athletics packaging is very clear to remind us that this is fear of God clothing not just regular Adidas but it's debatable how much that garment history reflects the garments in reality at this point he's already retired and is probably not pattern making is probably not designing and Y3 is probably just emulating what designs that they think he would have created at the time sure he probably had a part to play in the beginning of when it first came up and he probably had a huge like impact on that but at some point as Adidas is they require a lot of looks a lot of designs and that's a lot of emphasis to put onto something such as a diffusion line especially uh as many diffusion lines as Yoji has like there's so many without the Y and Y3 what exactly you buying into just three but more expensive brand history and co-signing of a cool designer on a piece of mainstream clothing can be a nice little bonus but it's probably not a good enough reason to buy into it particularly when we as consumers don't really know the actual level of that designer's involvement so what about collaborative Vision what perspective can a collaboration bring in some cases not much did Fendi and feler really need to exist was the world crying out for the addition of a feler logo to a luxury bag this is an area though where there can be some genuine value fear of God Athletics provides an Avenue for more sportsare focused designs than Mainline whilst retaining some of the soral inspiration and fashion forward Silhouettes something that's lost in the ultra popular Essentials diffusion line Marella brought the Tabby shape to rebok sneakers and an unconventional performance model to the streets with Salamon Nike and karong can be kind of all over the place but bring some humor to designs and intentional inversions of Nike design conventions there's something to be said for bringing a design out of the archives that Nike internally thought was too ugly to ever release something to consider when evaluating whether a collab is worth your time does it allow you access to the aesthetic the designs the world viiew of a designer either financially or aesthetically you might love cray green but not want to wear it yourself until the brand is in a more wearable Adidas shoe form on the other hand you might see A Wack collab as a compromised Vision not only products built to a lower spec at a lower price but also in a higher volume designed to sell more product rather than it being the creative expression of a designer doing something anti mediocrity and then surprise people they will accept because it has meaning anti- mediocrity sounds good but which side is Y3 really on even in the earliest collections vog noted how Adidas predicted Y3 could become a $300 million business and that if Adidas's predictions come true the mainstream is about to get a lot better looking I.E that the clothes look good but they're also very much about making money 3 years ago they commented that Y3 has certainly been a huge financial success and yoji's cheerful wave from the front row at Show's end suggested that it's made one man very happy and very rich Vogue praised the collections multiple times over the years but also made it clear commerciality has been at the heart of Y3 since day one even Yoji himself when asked in an interview in 2023 if Y3 was an anarchic brand had this to say sometimes and sometimes anarchists like B business we need both it's a nice take on a cross between a license and a diffusion line that I think must really work for its customer base that said it's not really pushing any envelopes anymore but I don't really know if it needs to the majority of people are going to like more commercially viable products but no one likes feeling like they're being Pand to any brand in this space has to walk that thin line of making enough products designed to appeal to the masses and to sell volume without it feeling like a cash grab the North Face and Gucci has their share of logo te's but also more creative outerwear pieces if you go on one of the many websites selling Y3 you'll find a lot of products new and old which look a lot like Adidas things with a different logo on how many of these represent anti- mediocrity and now we're past the mid-2010s logo Mania adding your luxury logo to something just isn't going to cut anymore sure materials and construction are generally more premium but that's hard to communicate especially online I think this was particularly the case a few years ago with several of my contemporaries mentioning that they lost interest around that time up until recently they've kind of moved in a different direction with their Silhouettes that I feel like most people didn't really like you know they were always known for their unique Silhouettes so for the past few years I've been shopping with yoji's other brands like sight ground y better design similar pricing if not cheaper than Y3 but it does look like Y3 is experimenting around again and I'm happy about that there are a few years between 2019 and 2021 basically the co years where it seemed to lose its identity opting for a more wearable westernized idea that was more in line with the loungewear craze that was adopted by a massive part of the industry needless to say I wasn't really a big fan of that since then Y3 has come back to form offering post avangard clothing combined with sports which is what it should be about maybe the clothing now is of more interest but to sell you on that interest somewhere needs to communicate the Y3 worldview what does it mean you need to feel like you're buying into a different cooler world than Adidas or at least something that feels differentiated but taking a look this is basically just a category on the Adidas website the product look and feel is exactly the same as what you'd expect from mainlight just a sentence talking about the Brand's rebellious Vision logo hat very rebellious cotton hoodies daring today aren't we a fear of God Athletics pieces aren't conceptually more interesting than Y3 but their presentation is so much better it feels like their products are substantially different that's what I get for trying to film outside this does help explain a lack of interest in Y3 if you keep coming across products like this and not the looks like this you're probably going to start writing them off and if the home of Y3 doesn't show you what Y3 should mean then why should your average fashion fan care it makes you think that if all designer collabs were presented like this how many of them would you actually be interested in buying into for me Y3 was always a brand that had really interesting Footwear collaborations when I started getting into fashion and Y3 made these variations of Pure Boost and boosted sneakers that Jerry Lorenzo was wearing that I loved fast forward to now in 2024 it's a bit irrelevant to my personal style and I just haven't been paying attention as much it's now really in my wheelhouse of interests this is a common experience for many fashion fans it's not to their taste now but people were super interested in Y3 and Y3 sneakers especially in the mid-20s The Glory Days when the Casta was one of Adidas's most hyped sneakers they did try to re-release this recently but maybe they should have given a bit longer for Nostalgia to kick in more and my first video posted to a Facebook group was about a pair of Y3 retro boosts that I bought for 50% off I think that was my first like premium piece of clothing my recommendation would be if you can find Y3 stuff at a little bit of a discount then I would probably go for it I think people really lik the idea of Y3 using aded as Tech like boost and Prime nit but then applying that in a more fashion forward way and they genuinely felt like more premium products too if you bought a pair of Y3 sneakers you get two dust bags in the Box you get a little information card and aesthetically so many of these shoes are great examples of things which neither brand individually could do alone that's quite common now like North Face and undercover taking wellestablished products and material technology giving it some little updates you've got different pocket details you've got different interpretations on what those original jackets were plus the little undercover lick of paint this is something Y3 has been pretty consistent with like integration in the terx sub brand to provide more outdoor performance focused fashion clothing and literally the most recent Y3 capsule called Y3 atellier makes heavy use of gortex but in a far more Avant Guard Way than Adidas would ever do with their Mainline it feels like a real 360 degree exploration of what Adidas can offer from a material and a performance perspective and I think that's a very interesting thing to look out for when considering if these kinds of collaborations can provide value to you current Y3 maybe has something to offer Reggie and Johnny clearly not of interest to Drew but I wanted a definitive fashion opinion so I called up the biggest name in YouTube fashion content who I was sure could provide some real insight yo Christian Mr aesthetic thanks so much for coming on here would be great to get your thoughts on Y3 all right well so I've never actually been asked the question why three it's an interesting topic though thank you yeah I think it's really interesting if you really think about it a lot of like really cool things happen in threes no no no no no I mean the brand you know for example right like why is that so magic athetic pleasure and just the order 3 2 1 why do kind of gets uncomfortable cuz then you're starting to get aware you're starting to get sens of the fact that you're breathing you are now conscious of the fact that by hands which is another interesting thing cuz when you start becoming aware of your hands father son Holy Spirit that's another three that's another tril that was great thank you but what about Y3 the brand though I don't know man wait wait what is the point of trying to look maybe brand perceptions aren't that important anyway what really matters is the clothing itself having a fancy website or a brand vision is again a form of marketing to convince us to spend more money on clothes so is Y3 clothing worth buying should you pick up fear of God Athletics I could focus on random things I've purchased over the years but instead I wanted to bring in some new stuff and judge it on its own merits but where should I look now as far as Japan is concerned Y3 has and always will be quite popular as its Silhouettes is more common here than anywhere else in the world and in Japan Yoji the brand is still one of the most popular in the country so that'll tell you about the popularity of Y3 right there what Reggie said really resonated with me the idea of this solid Market in Japan for those who have found their brand and aesthetic so I thought it could be a great source for this clothing and I checked out a source for Japanese clothing that I have never used before no gatekeeping if you're into this stuff you're definitely going to find this useful this particular retailer is called ragtag a Japanese exclusive secondhand Consignment covering all sorts of Brands and full of items you will not find in Western retailers and I was only able to make use of this site thanks to this video's paid sponsor World shopping if there's one thing you need to know is that they are automatically integrated with hundreds of Japanese fashion websites so you literally don't need to do anything to take advantage of it that is my kind of service so anything with World shopping integration will activate when you browse it and you'll add items to the world shopping car and pay using them rather than site directly they'll then give you a shipping estimate so no nasty surprises and once it arrives with them you'll pay the actual shipping cost I think it was something like $40 to get this Y3 jacket over to me that I found I hadn't seen this thing anywhere else so I was quite excited but because the yen is internationally quite weak right now it makes this sort of international shopping make more sense and if you want more ideas of where to browse there is an enormous list of fashion retailers and I will list some of the best ones here so you can check them out first take a look at what they do via the link in the description I always like using these Services first before I talk about them and I'm pleased to say I think the whole process was really smooth here and as an added bonus code Antoine will get you 700 Yen off your order on any of those World shopping supported sites I feel like I've just unlocked a cool new place to buy clothing from not just ragtag but any of these potential retailers selling cool Japanese stuff that's just really difficult to find elsewhere and as we've covered in previous videos there are so many great Japanese brands to consider over all price points so whether you're into Brands like Y3 Japanese Americana or anything in between there'll probably be something for you so my nicely package jacket arrived after a week or two checking the label this is from Y3 Sports in 2016 and apparently came with an in ated vest and retailed about $850 the outer jacket though was surprisingly cool very nice looking and feeling face fabric with a futuristic three-dimensional texture velcro to adjust the fit which admittedly doesn't work super well but I like the look asymmetric collar looks nice removable hood and something I've never seen on a jacket before dual front zip so you can not only adjust the fit depending on which you use but the inner one is reversible so you can wear the whole thing inside out changing its look very strange but I like it and the designers were clearly thinking outside of the box with this one obviously something like the isn't for everyone but it does show some really cool creative technical design that feels robust and let's be honest it's going to fit in pretty nicely to my wardrobe but again ragtag and the many websites which have World shopping integration cover pretty much any fashion aesthetic that you might Vibe with go and check them out and thanks to World shopping for being paid sponsor of the video I also wanted to see if anything new was worth buying so I took a look at end which often have a pretty good selection from well-known Brands and I picked out two things which I felt were some of the more interesting items available I was really drawn to the topography style designs of this combo and it comes together pretty well particularly details like the edges of the pockets forming part of the asymmetric fluid lines double layered fabric feels very substantial these are weighty and solidly made the fit though is a little off for me the bomber style track jacket is quite oversized but the track pants are a lot more slim fitting I looked at the women's equivalents of these and the track pants look way nicer I don't know why they split these by gender but I'm 187 CM so I won't be fitting into the women's ones unfortunately they're also not hugely feature Rich besides these snap button Pockets don't get me wrong they look and they feel premium and they're a good example of a slightly more fashion forward take on something that's very wearable but I'm not sure how close they are conceptually to anything from Yoji lines I like them but I don't know if I'd recommend them at retail price it just feels like a lot to ask for funl looking tracksuit I don't know could you buy something like this knowing the clothing that you could be purchasing for that amount of money outfit check time it's the Y3 Warrior we got the Y3 track jacket on the matching Y3 pants Oh and what's that the Y3 shoes the Retro boost you kidding me oh and to top that all off oh it's the Y3 socks this man is Unstoppable 360° Y3 action clearly Y3 does make interesting stuff I've showed some interesting lookbook pictures the Y3 sport jacket I thought was really cool OG viewers will remember the sailcloth Poncho which is chilling here yes also a Y3 item today still one of the craziest things I own and understitch mentioned a jacket that she really likes I own a jacket from Y3 that I love it's good quality it's comfortable and it has great details in the design that I really admire I know that it comes with a lot of creative weight and Innovation that I genuinely respect those exciting things just don't seem to have that much visibility in favor of the basics n's clothing selection was pretty logo piece heavy sneakers have always been a big part of the Y3 brand though and there are infinite examples of unique fashion forward designs incorporating Adidas Tech or experimenting with conventional shapes this is more where that rebellious vision seems to lie I've bought two pairs in the last year which are far from the wildest looking models but both have a distressed upper whilst representing a more premium looking and feeling shoe versus Mainline Addidas equivalent i' happily recommend either based on what I paid for them but I purchased both at pretty significant discounts it is so common for Y3 to be available on sale that why would you pay full price it's another way that that premium perception has kind of been eroded over time that is not synonymous with a brand being seen as desirable or cool if few people want to pay full price again we have to compared to fear of God athletic at a similar price point items seem to be selling out you won't see it on sale it feels more desirable even if the sneakers conceptually are not really that interesting in my opinion compared to the Y3 stuff does this desirability convert to decent clothing though well as I promised let's take a look at the fear of God Athletics sweatshirt this thing cost me £280 I think that is a lot of money for an Adidas top the fabric is this micro suede fleece that does genuinely feel premium whilst being quite lightweight too subtle chest branding looks and feels good with the curved Recreation of the three stripes feeling like this has its own identity but not leaning on its named cell product unlike the often slightly tacky Essentials branding the cut is also clearly very different it's got the extreme dropped shoulders combined with the tight cuffs and hem gives this a nice drape without looking totally shapeless the lookbook shots show how you can wear these in unconventional or interesting ways for sports wear what sport is my man doing in this note this is a size M which is my usual size I'm 187 CM I'm like 70 something kg so I'd say take your usual size for the intended oversized fit the tight neckline is also pretty unusual so yes it does feel like a differentiated product with premium construction and ties to the fear of God brand but again is it worth that retail price there's no doubt part of the value is that fear of God tie and how it feels like a more luxury version of the essentials brand that everyone has enjoyed so much because at this price you have access to a lot of different brands and Aesthetics forget the Allure of this collaboration you've got to be really sure that love the idea of this oversized sportsware versus pretty much anything else it's not even like this look is super new or on Trend maybe that's indicative of how long it took this collaboration to release in fact you could say similar of Y3 it was groundbreaking but keeping that same consistent Vision means that's maybe no longer the case today I had to Google what their current market offering was on their online store and yeah it's pretty much exactly what I remember it's exactly as it has always been it has a decade of consistency how old is this branded it's been the the same since the very beginning and that is quite rare in retailing these days nonetheless as I showed earlier even recent season look books have interesting pieces a far cry from logo t-shirts and I'd argue have a real identity about them if this was an unknown upand coming designer I feel like people would be paying more attention it's almost like Y3 has this negative brand Equity it's old news now and for all the talk of rebellion it's been around for so long that maybe many people perceive it as part of the establishment this doesn't fit well in a fashion environment where everyone's desperate to be next up to the hot new thing or gatekeep a fresh brand others haven't heard of yet and if content creators won't get views they won't show it off less interest less exposure it's a bit of a vicious circle worth noting though Yoji himself is not a big social media user and also not that interested in people archiving or obsessing over his work online there is actually one area why 3 is popular that I've neglected to talk about until now and that's football the ongoing collab with Real Madrid has had multiple shirts and capsules collections release and those products do sell out using the popularity of a team to provide a more fashionable football product clearly does work and I like the idea of introducing the non fashionable Market to Fashion in this way it gives a clue into the current buyer base people appreciating actual sportsware but want a bit of unconventional looks thrown in and probably people who want to look good but are perfectly comfortable in sportsware and don't spend all day sitting around on Tik Tok sometimes I think that we as consumers of the internet think that if a brand isn't being spoken about 24/7 across all the platforms all the time that it's dying out or that it's not as well loved as it should be there's something to be said of the consistency of Y3 it shows that it knows exactly who it is and it caters to its own design language primarily that allows it to build a tribe of consumers what's desirable on social media versus what are people actually wearing and that's something that Y3 has I actually see a lot of people wearing Y3 on the street this brings us to the hard-hitting finale how does the rise and of Y 3's popularity actually help us decide what to wear well Brands really really want you to see these collabs as more than they are the legends of the designers who make them up the chance to wear their clothing in a more affordable or palatable way how thin the facade is on Y3 now the potential lack of involvement from Yoji amamoto side the lack of investment in brand differentiation the frequency of the sales eroding that brand premium it shows what's underneath any kind of sports where or high low collaboration if you can strip anything else back to the transparency of Y3 you can better evaluate whether that clothing is going to be of value to you does this shape these materials really appeal or does the idea of getting affordable fear of God or luxury Essentials make you want to spend more money on what could just be a fleeting desire so no I'm not going to try and convince you that Y3 as a whole is some hidden underrated gem like any brand it has its share of high margin basic pieces and more interesting stuff I'm hoping you can agree that I do have some really nice pieces from the brand so you really need to approach things on this individual item by item basis not just for Y3 but any of these sorts of collaborations what y 3's lack of popularity does mean though is if you can take this individual piece by- piece approach it's very possible to get some really nice pieces of clothing at decent prices whether that be cut price sneakers from retailers or exploring the secondhand market like I would not be able to get a jacket this nice for the $ 250ish that it cost me and there are way more Bargains to be had on other secondhand sites because of Y 3's negative brand Equity you need conviction to spend money on a brand that other people are not going to socially validate for you but if you can do that you can absolutely take advantage of the average fashion fan not searching for or disregarding this brand I would love to hear what you think about the Y3 brand and more recent designer and sportsware collabs have you had a bad experience with any of these or have you picked something up that's been unexpectedly really cool thanks to World shopping for being paid sponsored of the video If you haven't interest in Japanese fashion that is definitely something to remember and massive thanks to my many special guests un Stitch Drew Joiner fashion elitist Johnny Tai Reggie casual and Frugal aesthetic for providing their insight into the topic all their channels will be linked in the description I'll also link all my sources for this video if you want to find out more about the Y3 brand there's 15 plus articles interviews and more and now I'm going to take a bit of a lie down so I'll see you in the next one

Channel: This Is Antwon

Views: 77,620

Keywords: thisisantwon, this is antwon, techwear, tech wear, techwear guide, techwear fashion, adidas y3, adidas y-3, y3 clothing, y3 review, y-3 review, y-3 sneakers, adidas collab, adidas fog, fear of god, fear of god athletics, fog athletics, fashion history, rise and fall, yohji, yohji yamamoto, japanese fashion, fashion trends, techwear trends, techwear brands, adidas review, sportswear, nike collab, streetwear, street fashion, streetwear trends, 2024 trends

Id: AFlgmeguZic

Length: 26min 52sec (1612 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 22 2024