Pepsi kicks up soccer push with international clothing line

Dive Brief:

Pepsi unveiled a capsule collection featuring fashion partners from around the world to celebrate the game of soccer, an extension of its #LoveItLiveIt campaign, a news release announced.
For the "Art of Football," Pepsi is teaming up with clothing labels, including Russia's Anteater, the U.K.'s Boohoo and Umbro, Australia's Le Specs and the U.S.'s New Era, for a line of streetwear and accessories like T-shirts, backpacks, hats, smartphone cases, shorts, soccer balls, hoodies and more. The items will be available starting May 21 at each brand's e-commerce site, department stores and specialty retailers, and the full collection will be available at a special Boohoo-Pepsi-branded site.
The fashion collection incorporates the artwork from emerging visual artists from around the world, including Argentina's DIYE, Brazil's Bicicleta Sem Freio, Germany's DXTR, U.S.'s Kim Sielbeck and the U.K.'s Iain Macarthur. The collection also brings together elements from the entire #LoveItLiveIt campaign, such as limited-edition player packaging, out-of-home, digital and TV.

Dive Insight:

While rival Coca-Cola is an official World Cup sponsor, Pepsi is hoping to get a leg up on the competition by releasing elements of soccer-focused marketing ahead of the tournament, including the new capsule collection and ongoing #LoveItLiveIt campaign. Given soccer's popularity around the world, Pepsi is best served by a more global approach and including artists and clothing brands from top soccer nations, like Brazil, Germany, Argentina and the U.K. However, a U.S.-based brand and artist are featured in the collection, even though the U.S. didn't qualify for this year's World Cup.

The Art of Football follows the trend of brands partnering with emerging artists, retailers and designers to create clothing lines and investing in e-commerce. For example, Mars candy brand Starburst recently partnered with "Project Runway" Erin Robertson on a line of trendy items based on the online "I am a pink Starburst" meme. Pepsi's parent company PepsiCo has said that it will invest some of the millions it's potentially saving under the new GOP tax plan into e-commerce and digital offerings. The company projects e-commerce to be a $1 billion business.

This year's World Cup without the U.S. team could be a rough one for stateside marketers and TV networks. Fox Sports is projecting that it will lose $10 million to $20 million in ad sales, according to Bloomberg. Pepsi launched "Love it. Live it. Football" last month featuring five international soccer stars, including a 60-second spot featuring Argentina's Lionel Messi, Brazil's Marcelo, Germany's Toni Kroos, two-time Women's Best Player of the Year Carli Lloyed and the U.K's Dele Alli.