During this summer’s World Cup, fashion brands and the tournament’s stars launched a flurry of collaborations.
The motivation was obvious: It’s the world’s biggest sports event, and all eyes were on the tournament and its players. But now, three months after the World Cup ended in a Spanish victory, the partnerships keep coming. Residual energy from the World Cup is inspiring fashion brands to keep minting new partnerships with star players and teams. For U.S. brands, in particular, many of those players are now household names, adding even more incentive to strike up new partnerships.
Among the latest is Farm Rio, the Brazilian fashion brand, which announced a partnership with the prestigious Spanish soccer team Real Madrid last week. The U.S. is Farm Rio’s largest market outside its home of Brazil, and the collection targets an international audience. The partnership, which also includes Adidas, centers on a capsule collection called the Flamengo Collection, featuring five signature Farm Rio prints over Real Madrid’s signature white colorway. The collection also heavily features Real Madrid’s branding.
It builds on a previous iteration of the Flamengo collection, launched in 2024, which also featured soccer imagery, although it was not tied to a specific team.
The faces of the campaign include Real Madrid’s star players like Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Junior. Bellingham, a household name in many parts of the world for his high-level play, saw a surge in popularity in the U.S. during the World Cup as it was many Americans’ first exposure to him.
GQ reported that Bellingham gained roughly 1 million Instagram followers after each World Cup match he played and profiled a number of American women who went from never having heard of Bellingham to following him obsessively and sharing fan edits of him within days. His name became one of the top 30 trending topics in America on TikTok. The most popular search term related to Bellingham on Google in America was “Is Jude Bellingham my husband?”
The appeal Bellingham and his teammates have among American women, in particular, was a factor for Farm Rio, according to the brand’s co-founder, designer and creative director, Kátia Barros. Farm Rio first teamed with Adidas for a soccer collection in 2024.
“Our customer is absolutely still energized [from the World Cup],” Barros said. “Many women love football but have never felt that traditional fan merchandise was made for them. Our collaborations give them a way to wear their passion with color, personality and style, on matchday and every day. The response to our football collections has always been incredibly emotional. Our fans still ask for pieces from the first Flamengo collection.”
Bloomberg reported that there are now 10% more self-identified soccer fans in the U.S. compared to last year, bringing the total to around 75 million.
Some partnerships formed before the World Cup are still going strong after the fact. American Eagle began working with Spain’s star player, 19-year-old Lamine Yamal, in January of this year in anticipation of the coming tournament. Yamal also gained over 5 million social media followers in the U.S. during the tournament.
American Eagle dropped its first collaborative collection with Yamal in September, a back-to-school collection that plays on the athlete’s popularity with Gen Z. Jennifer Foyle, president and executive creative director of American Eagle and Aerie, said this collection is the first in a planned multi-year collaboration with Yamal, not just a one-off to capitalize on his winning the World Cup.
The partnership builds on other successful athlete-focused campaigns American Eagle has launched recently, like its Travis Kelce collab from last year.
“Soccer attracts an unrivaled global following, and our multi-year partnership with Lamine Yamal centers AE at the heart of the fandom–highlighting our commitment to him, the sport and our customers,” Foyle said in a press statement.
