Palace Created the MCU (McDonald's Cinematic Universe)
Palace Skateboards is one of the most prolific collaborators in the fashion biz so it's hardly any challenge to imagine the British streetwear brand teaming up with basically anyone. A Palace x McDonald's collab? Sure, why not.
But Palace and McDonald's aren't just collaborating: Palace has helped create the MCU — no, not that Marvel thing, the McDonald's Cinematic Universe, of course.
Arriving on August 14, the Palace x McDonald's collaboration, officially titled "PALACE MCDONALDS" (all-caps if you please), comprises no less than 15 pieces of clothing ranging from T-shirts and hoodies to co-branded skateboard decks.
Unlike its ordinary collaborations, Palace's McDonald's collection initially wasn't available via its site or stores, but instead could only be purchased after scanning a QR code printed on the packaging of "As Featured In," the new McDonalds meal.
That is, until the entire Palace x McDonald's collection was made available for purchase at a dedicated web store on August 30, a couple weeks after the collaboration's debut.
The reveal and release information only tell half of the Palace x McDonald's story, which began on August 8 with a Palace billboard in New York's Times Square.
That Palace x McDonald's billboard, appropriately situated above a McDonald's restaurant, offered a sparse sentence — "Basically if I do enough descriptions about McDonald's I reckon I can expense burgers then my life's complete" — broken into the typically abrupt bullet points that serve as item descriptions on Palace's website.
Meanwhile, on McDonald's Instagram page, a short clip of, well, short clips showed McDonald's appearances in TV shows and movies, like Loki and anime series The Devil is a Part Timer!. For one brief second, an image of a Palace-branded McDonald's logo also appeared.
On August 9, a day after debuting the teaser, McDonald's revealed that its As Featured In meal will reference nearly two dozen McDonald's pop culture appearances and "guest stars" Palace Skateboards.
Specifically, the McDonald's As Featured In meal includes all kinds of classic treats indicative of the Golden Arches, including the Quarter Pounder with Cheese referenced in Reality Bites and the Big Mac recalled by one of George Costanza's dates in Seinfeld
Sadly, it ain't no Palace meal, but it's something.
That same day, unconfirmed product photos of the Palace x McDonald's collection leaked online thanks to McDonald's itself, revealing typically cheeky Palace fare, like photos of co-branded McDonald's signs and more bullet points.
Highsnobiety reached out to Palace for comment and was simply told that the clothes weren't intended to be revealed on August 9, though it turns out that they were indeed legit.
Even with the full reveal on hand, it remains curious that none of the Palace merch directly calls out to any of the other pop culture references seen in the As Featured In meal but, hey.
On August 12, Palace and McDonald's revealed a collaborative solid gold ruby ring. Palace's bulleted caption: "I thought the only seedin' McDonald's did was on the buns," although it has since been confirmed that this one-off ring isn't a part of the collaboration and, uh, isn't seeding to anyone.
Note that Palace previously erected bullet-point billboards in London's Piccadilly Circus, both for an adidas collab and self-promotion, but this is the first time that a Palace billboard has appeared in New York, Calvin Klein ad aside.
Anyways, the idea of a Palace x McDonald's collaboration makes sense, at least from a semi-cynical business perspective.
Palace, for its own part, has indulged in far-reaching collaborations with the likes of Crocs, luxury label Gucci, and the WWE.
Meanwhile, McDonald's has only beefed up (pun intended) its own collaborative legacy thanks to recent crossovers with the likes of Cactus Plant Flea Market, Cardi B and Offset, and Travis Scott, to name just a few. And there were those brief moments with some guy who used to be called Kanye West, too.
Not only are these organic cultural crossovers very much within McDonald's wheelhouse but the fast-food giant also constantly spawns hugely viral campaigns by accident, like the Grimace Shake meme that dominated TikTok earlier this summer.
That's just what happens when you're an omnipresent corporate colossus at McDonald's scale. Palace was likely only too happy to go along for the ride.
This article was published on August 8 and updated on August 30.
