Written by Menswear Style in New Collections on the 13th April 2015

New to Urban Outfitters this season, the iconic sportswear labels – Fila, Champion and Ellesse have launched exclusive collections online and instore. Each brand uniquely collaborating with Urban Outfitters to put a spin on some of their classic menswear staples.

ELLESSE 

Ellesse has gained a reputation for combining sportswear functionality with street-level fashion styling and has now created a fresh new and exclusive monochrome collection with Urban Outfitters for Spring Summer 2015. There's arguably no more classic or timeless pairing than black with white, and the Urban Outfitters buyers have worked with the Ellesse designers to develop this striking combination onto easy to wear men’s polo shirts, rugby tops, long sleeve raglans and sweatshirts with retro sporting influences in a laid back, relaxed fit. Taking the lead from the late 80s and early 90s heritage styling, the collection features bold branding throughout. 

Kris Babet, Senior Menswear Buyer at Urban Outfitters on the exclusive collaboration: “We wanted to think outside of the box with it. We're thinking about '90s rave culture, football culture, throwback style. Ellesse seemed like a really good fit.” “What I like personally is the engineered striped t-shirts, polo shirts- looser fit collars worn open rather than buttoned up, collars over sweatshirts. Rugby shirts, too- We've got a rugby shirt in the Ellesse range. It's not something I've seen for much of for a few years- I remember that being quite a big trend"  

Prices start at £35 for the raglan t-shirts and up to £50 for the classic Ellesse sweatshirt online at urbanoutfitters.com. There is a mixture of sweatshirts, t-shirts and polos all emblazoned with the monochrome Ellesse logo.

CHAMPION 

Urban Outfitters' Design team has collaborated with US sportswear label Champion on this exclusive collection. Taking the brand's classic reverse-weave fabric and iconic logos as a base, the project re-imagines Champion's sports staples in a monochrome colour palette with updated fits and a freshly-created box logo. Kris Babet adds, “and of course, when you think about that early ‘90s sportswear, the first thing you think of is Champion reverse weave products. The sweatshirts, the hoodies - all those classics. With the Champion collab, they actually came to us. What they were doing was the reverse weave fabric on the classic colours -and while that was all faultless, we felt that it didn't quite encapsulate our vision. The big thing for us this season has been monochrome; we wanted to use that as the colour palette, and just change the style slightly to differentiate our range from their main collection. It was more about cultural icons. We looked at early ‘90s hip-hop for ideas. Especially with the Champion stuff- people like LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, they were always in Champion.” 

Prices start at £35 for the iconic t-shirts and up to £116 for the classic bomber jacket online at urbanoutfitters.com. There is a mixture of sweatshirts, t-shirts, hoodies and the bomber jacket all emblazoned with the Champion logo.

FILA 

Last but by no means least, the Fila collection has taken inspiration from the ‘90s, when the brand exploded into the indie clubs of the Britpop years, from which this collection forms its inspiration. Prices start at £25 for the iconic t-shirts and up to £65 for hoodies online at urbanoutfitters.com. There is a mixture of shorts, hoodies and t-shirts all emblazoned with the Fila logo

We take a look at the New Collections offered by our Sportswear Heroes Fila, Champion and Ellesse exclusive to Urban Outfitters.