The Kardashians’ Favorite Designer Teams Up With Nike On a New Soccer Line, Changing Sports Clothes Forever

By Jailyn Marcel // May 23, 2016

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The NikeLab x OR N98 jacket is the centerpiece of the collection.

The NikeLab Top x OR was inspired by the traditional football kit.

The Nike Magista football boot offers a feel of luxury on and off the field.

The NikeLab Free Hypervenom 2 x OR is great for sports or the street.

The NikeLab Free Mercurial Flyknit x OR

The NikeLab Roshe Tiempo VI x OR

The name Olivier Rousteing calls up many associations — Balmain creative director, insanely high cheekbones, The Kardashians’ favorite designer. But one word that is probably furthest from everyone’s minds is football, which makes the French fashion designer’s next collaboration all the more surprising.

Rousteing has teamed up with Nike for the NikeLab X Olivier Rousteing: Football Nouveau Collection. While his form-fitting, glitzy silhouettes at haute couture fashion house Balmain have defined Rousteing’s design tenure, his love of sports — especially soccer — inspired this six-piece collection.

“Sports have always been a part of my life. I think I started playing football (soccer) when I was like 10 or 11 years old,” explains Rousteing in Nike Lab’s Football Nouveau video, which includes appearances by French football players Blaise Matuidi and Laure Boulleau.

It’s this knowledge of the game that kept Rousteing focused on the form and function of each piece. The collection was designed not only to look good, but also be fully functional for footballers, which resulted in iconic styles being reimagined for everyday wearability.

“Olivier was obsessed with the complete look, making sure each piece worked together — not just within the men’s and women’s collections, but also between the two,” says Jarrett Reynolds, NikeLab’s senior apparel design director. “At every design review, he’d ask, ‘Would a football player really wear that?’ That question helped keep the collection rooted in sport.”

As for the design aesthetic, Rousteg says, “I really wanted to mix black and gold. Black because it’s sleek and chic, and at the same time, it’s timeless. The gold is about victory. It’s about winning.”

Of course, if this collection’s debut mimics that of the 2015 Balmain X H&M collaboration, be prepared to sleep at your computer. Football Nouveau will be available starting Thursday, June 2, at select NikeLab locations and online at nike.com/nikelab.