October 27, 2020
Luxury Car Brands Court Youth With Merch Collabs
BMW and Porsche are among the high-end automakers seeking to grow brand awareness with youthful audiences through limited-edition capsules with hip fashion brands.
Branded merchandise is at the center of growing collaborations between luxury car makers and youth-focused fashion brands – the swag seen as an essential element to igniting younger consumers’ interest in the vehicle lines.
The Kith for BMW New Era low-profile 59Fifty fitted cap
That’s according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, which pointed to several recent high-profile examples. Just last week, for instance, there debuted a collaboration between BMW and New York City-based streetwear brand Kith, founded by Ronnie Fieg. The partnership featured a rebuilt vintage BMW M3 and 150 limited edition Kith-branded M4 Competition sports cars.
Still, the marketing channel that BMW was hoping to most leverage in courting youthful demographics was the 94-piece co-branded clothing and accessories line that Kith launched with the German automaker.
Merch from the Kith for BMW collection
Hooded sweatshirts, crewnecks, track pants, keychains, water bottles, license plate frames, bomber jackets, racing jackets, T-shirts, curved-bill dad caps of various materials including suede, a pin set, drinkware, lanyards and more were part of the collection, much of which has already sold out.
Kith for BMW quilted racing jacket
Meanwhile, back in February, Queens, NY-based streetwear label Aimé Leon Dore teamed up with Porsche. ALD founder Teddy Santis designed elements of a custom vintage Porsche 964 coupe. Only one was built. It was shown off at a hip gallery, drawing a youngish crowd consisting of devoted ALD fans.
While the car wasn’t for sale, the ALD-Porsche co-branded capsule collection that Santis created most certainly was. The range of apparel and accessories included coach jackets, hoodies, crews, tees, caps, pins, driving gloves and more. ALD 964 graphics anchor the collection, which also featured a car and toolkit that were constructed from Schott leather and Loro Piana houndstooth wool, a reinterpretation of Porsche Classic’s product.
Caps from Aimé Leon Dore’s capsule collection for Porsche
In its report on these and other fashion/luxury vehicle merch collaborations, the Wall Street Journal wrote:
In both the BMW and the Porsche collaborations, the idea of bundling in co-branded tees, keychains and other take-home souvenirs came from the clothing brands. Both Mr. Fieg and Mr. Santis viewed that element as vital to making the collaborations a success. “There’s got to be some component of product or merchandise or something tangible that the kid who knows nothing about what we’re talking about shows up and leaves with something,” said Mr. Santis. Porsche went along with the idea of offering clothes; the collaborative pieces sold out in two days.
Coach jackets from Aimé Leon Dore’s capsule collection for Porsche.
The Wall Street Journal elaborated that, for the car brands, selling a car to young consumers isn’t necessarily the immediate purpose of the fashion collabs. Rather, the swag is about raising brand awareness with consumers in that Gen Z /younger millennial demographic and setting the stage for them to become loyal customers as they mature into their top earning years.