Pop Trading Company and Burberry launch skateboarding-inspired collab

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jun 8, 2022

Burberry has just launched a capsule collection with Pop Trading Company, the Amsterdam-based brand with its roots in skateboarding.

Described as “a celebration of a shared connection to community and the outdoors”, it references the Japanese skateboarding community. In that country, the activity is restricted during the day “and the scene comes alive at night, [so] the collection emphasises a sense of freedom and movement through the city after dark, with the iconic Burberry Check cast in shades of grey and blurred, while reflective elements deliver high impact in low light”.

Burberry’s signature shades of beige and birch brown are replaced with a palette of grey, black and red, “inspired by nighttime cityscapes, in relaxed proportions that ensure ultimate comfort and ease of movement”.

The collection comes as technical parkas, zipped jackets, silk shirts and cotton cargo trousers alongside a crossbody bag, tote and bucket hat. Classic car coats are highlighted with reflective check in an allover pattern or panelled onto a nylon version. The hallmark icon stripe is “dialled up to an oversized scale and jacquard-woven onto a grey melange cardigan or knitted across a deep mulberry hoodie”.  With trademark Pop Trading Company lettering, there are also oversized T-shirts, hoodies, a baseball cap and a blanket. In footwear, leather loafers are detailed with a metal logo plate.

For the film supporting the launch, New York skate filmmaker Colin Read “captures the spirit of the collection as Pop Trading Company’s skateboarding team moves through Amsterdam after dark. Catching a sense of freedom in the city, the video highlights each skater’s movement while emphasising the essential design elements of the collection”. 

Photographer Ari Marcopoulos has also shot “candid stills of skaters”. A “titan of the early-90s New York skate culture, Marcopoulos’s ability to capture the spirit behind the skater is brought to life through his stark, direct style”, we’re told.