As we near the start of this year’s Lunar New Year celebrations on January 29, we take a look at an active area of collaboration tied to the holiday, namely European soccer/football clubs who mark the moment with special jerseys and other apparel designs in partnership with their official jersey licensees or other companies.
These types of pairings, which have been ongoing for some time, are a way to appeal to the clubs’ Asian fans and perhaps expand that market by making members of the Asian diaspora living in their countries feel more a part of the community around the clubs. The Lunar New Year holiday also lends itself to eye-catching designs and iconography that give the clubs a chance to offer new products to all fans.
Here are some of this year’s examples:
- Chelsea F.C. and its jersey licensee Nike paired with Jackie Tsai, a China-born graphic artist based in London, for a pre-match jersey to celebrate the Lunar New Year this year, to be worn by the men’s and women’s clubs before one of their respective games this week. The black, gold, and white jersey is described as combining a London identity with the cultural symbolism of the holiday and features designs and patterns suggesting snakes and scales. It is sold in the club’s stadium store and online.
- Paris Saint-Germain, which touts its close relationship with the Asian community, paired with PHANTACi, a Taipei-based streetwear label. The brand was co-founded by Taiwanese singer Jay Chou, one of the most popular Chinese-language artists and known as the King of Mandopop (the Mandarin-language form of Chinese pop, or C-pop). Available on the club’s ecommerce site, the shirt and jacket collection is in the red and blue of Paris Saint-Germain, with a geometric background, a stylized snake motif, and Mandarin lettering. The jersey will also be worn in a game.
- Real Madrid and Adidas paired for a 2025 Lunar New Year collection described as combining modern aesthetics and tradition with streetwear and football style. The jerseys, sweatpants, patterned sweatshirt, and jacket are in Real Madrid white and a deep purple. Unlike most examples in this space, there is no snake-related imagery included. The collection is available on the Pro Direct Sport ecommerce site.
- Sheffield United and kit maker Erreà released a Lunar New Year pre-match warm-up jersey in a red-and-black-patterned design that sports an illustration of a large black snake from top to bottom on the jersey front. It will be worn before a February match and is available through Erreà’s ecommerce site.
- Manchester United and Adidas have come together for a 2025 Lunar New Year collection that includes a black jersey, bomber jacket, and black-and-red-patterned sweatshirt. The assortment is sold through the Pro Direct soccer store. This initiative marks a return to Lunar New Year collections for the partners after a several-year break; their last release tied to this holiday was in 2021.
These and other similar initiatives build on a trend that has been ongoing in a significant way since at least 2020, with several collections before that as well. Of course the Lunar New Year also ushers in many other collaborations outside the soccer space each year, notably involving luxury brands, often in partnership with Chinese or other Asian designers or artists, for both global and Asia-only distribution.
One typically popular segment of the Lunar New Year collaboration space that is largely missing this year, however, consists of pairings involving licensed characters. This is likely attributable to the fact that there are few headlining characters that are snakes, compared to the relative abundance of cartoon IPs that have natural affinities with the Chinese zodiac symbols highlighted in other lunar years, including dragons, tigers (and cats), rats (and mice), and especially rabbits.
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