Kappa joins forces with Russian designer Rubchinskiy

High-end designers are diving into retro sportswear partnerships.

Designer Gosha Rubchinskiy worked with soccer brand Kappa on pieces like this sweatshirt.

My brief soccer career lasted just five years, from age six to 11. I was bad — and yet, I loved it. Soccer suited my independent streak and pint-size frame. But even then, I knew enough to resist droning on about my paltry stats.

Instead, I showed my fanaticism with one beloved piece of gear: a blue-and-white T-shirt emblazoned with the logo of Italian soccer label Kappa: the silhouette of a couple seated back to back. If I couldn’t play footy like Diego Maradona, I could at least dress like him. The phase lasted until adolescence arrived and Joey Ramone replaced Maradona. With a mix of childish petulance and teenage angst, I kicked the Kappa T-shirt to the curb.

Then, last June at Russian ­designer Gosha Rubchinskiy’s spring 2017 show in Florence, all those dreams came rushing back. Teetering on my tiptoes I could just make out Kappa’s unmistakeable twosome on a model’s sweatshirt. In an instant, I was back.

Allie Williams, a buyer at menswear shop End Clothing in Newcastle, England, which stocks Rubchinskiy’s collection, was equally smitten. “As soon as Gosha did those 1990s football collaborations,” he said, “we knew they would be a big hit.”

When Rubchinskiy’s spring collection began rolling into stores last month, the Kappa collaboration pieces were swiftly snatched up. And even though it’s only February, they’re already selling out of stores around the world. The designer’s sporty 90s nostalgia exemplifies a larger trend. Designers like Virgil Abloh at Off-White and Demna Gvasalia of Vetements also found success with retro sport partnerships of their own, joining with Umbro and Reebok.

So what gives? Well, for one, after a couple of decades, we 80s and 90s babies are finding that our childhood obsessions have taken up a warm, gooey place in our hearts again. “When (customers) see a Fila logo, they’re back in the 90s,” said Aaron Cohen, the co-owner of Revive, a men’s streetwear shop in the US.

Of course, while I was bumbling around in suburban Maryland as a kid in my Kappa top, two men across the Atlantic were more successfully asserting that soccer gear could be stylish: Damon Albarn, the frontman of British band Blur and Liam Gallagher, ­ex-frontman of Oasis.

From glossy magazine shoots to the stage at Glastonbury, the Britpop stars underscored their shaggy-haired swagger with Umbro jerseys and Kappa jackets. Years later, the trend known as athleisure — a much derided term — is proving persistent, and fashion-skewed soccer gear enjoys broader appeal than ever.

Revive co-owner Cohen first noticed the latest collision of soccer and fashion a couple of years ago when his younger employees began wearing Manchester United jerseys underneath their peacoats. In 2015, more people in America watched the Women’s FIFA World Cup final than the final games of the World Series, the NBA championship or the Stanley Cup.

“When people passionately support soccer, that passion spills over,” explained Helene Hope, head of global brand operations for Umbro. “Even when men are not watching a game or playing, they still want to have those influences in their wardrobe.”

And yet, you don’t have to know Ronaldo from Ronaldinho to wear and enjoy this new wave of footy-meets-fashion collaborations. “There’s a clubby, preppy element to (soccer gear),” said Cohen, which makes it more accessible. “A regular guy can get into this stuff,” he added.

End Clothing buyer Williams agreed that you needn’t worship soccer to warm to the new sporty stock.

“Part of the appeal of the Gosha line and the others is that they’re top-level,” he said

As for me, after months of anxiously waiting for spring ­deliveries to finally hit stores, I finally got my hands on one of Rubchinskiy’s Kappa sweatshirts a few weekends ago. Wearing it beneath my trusty tweed topcoat, I felt as self-­assured as I did in elementary school, though never more so than when a greeter at Soho House, the private club and hotel in downtown New York, spotted the logo peeking out.

“Nice Gosha,” he said.