Can Balenciaga Redeem Under Armour?
Balenciaga is in its comeback arc. Under Armour is Under Armour. Can these two unlikely bedfellows make beautiful fashion together?
Balenciaga revealed a surprise Under Armour collaboration on May 28, mere days before its Spring 2025 fashion show in Shanghai, by way of possibly the least Under Armour item ever conceived: silver hoop earrings in the shape of Under Armour's logo.
On second thought, maybe it's the most Under Armour item ever. Your call.
The Under Armour partnership is part of Balenciaga's pre-presentation social media rollout, which also yielded the biggest Balenciaga sneaker since the days when the Triple S roamed the Earth en masse.
But even amidst those 10-layer shoes and a shirt-shaped tote bag, Balenciaga's Under Armour collaboration — which also includes co-branded athleisure — stands out.
It's a left-field sportswear team-up so strange that it makes last season's Erewhon collection look downright cliché. Which, by Balenciaga standards. maybe it was.
This is the fashion house that previously specialized in collaborations as outré as The Simpsons and Gen-Z gaming staple Fortnite, the brand so well-known for provocation that even an alleged Target team-up seemed likely (and actually predated Balenciaga x GAP), remember.
By comparison, Balenciaga's recent affairs with Erewhon and Alpinestars felt fitting, yes, but perhaps too fitting.
Both of those labels were already on the cusp of fashion's clutches by the time Balenciaga came calling, a celebrity-adored, VIP-priced supermarket and a motorsports mainstay constantly referenced by designers referencing the trend of road-ready gear.
Balenciaga x Under Armour feels more apropos.
Here you have Balenciaga creative director Demna taking on a genuinely massive and genuinely "uncool" sportswear titan that's only made occasional inroads into fashion at large, with all the resources necessary for world domination but none of the all-important swag.
Under Armour benefitted from a one-off partnership with current PUMA ambassador A$AP Rocky, who designed a divisive (but prescient) sneaker for the American company in 2018, though it never really rode the ensuing momentum to further fashion inroads. Occasional cosigns from luxury labels like Palm Angels also came and went.
It may be the house of Curry but Under Armour hardly curries any clout outside of the sportswear biz.
Balenciaga only stands to benefit from that inherent disconnect, though. By linking with a brand that's so far outside of luxury conventions that Balenciaga's peers would never dare tap it themselves, the formerly provocative luxury flagbearer defiantly dares naysayers to call it boring.
In fact, the entire Balenciaga Spring 2025 collection — or, at least, what's been revealed on Instagram thus far — feels like as much a comment-baiting return to form as anything Balenciaga has produced since it bowed from the spotlight in late 2022.
Balenciaga can still shock Merely months ago, its "tape bracelet" and $900 towel skirt engendered minor internet outrage in the vein of the leather trash bag that sold for $2,000.
But these recent moments felt like accidental virality rather than the purposeful button-pushing once gleefully engaged in by Demna and co, perhaps due to a newfound desire to avoid controversy.
As such, Balenciaga struggled to reclaim some of the you-gotta-see-this energy that prior collections once possessed innately, meaning that this moment may not be an immediate springboard propelling Under Armour into fashion's good graces.
Balenciaga has not languished, to be clear: it may not yet be back atop fashion's cutting edge but it is hitting a stride, reflected in a minor boost in the brand's rankings within the industry-cataloguing Lyst Index.
Once merely the industry's 18th-hottest brand as of Q1 2023, Balenciaga became the 12th-hottest by Q4.
This Under Armour collaboration alone won't hasten that rise. But it is a sign that Balenciaga is no longer playing softball — or, given that Under Armour specializes in baseball gear, maybe it is. But at least it's on Balenciaga's own terms.
