Formula 1 merchandise has tended to evolve slowly as it keeps up with team colours, sponsors and other branding. But more recently, fashion has become a large part of the championship and has even mirrored the culture of the countries your favourite teams visit in some examples. This weekend, two of the championship’s biggest apparel brands have produced clothing to celebrate what should be a fantastic race.
Puma and adidas have both built collections rooted in the region’s history and culture.
Puma looked across the region
Puma has released a Singapura Limited Edition line for Ferrari and McLaren, which will be sold exclusively across Southeast Asia. Its designers have pulled references from across the region, including Sino-Portuguese architecture, Indonesian and Malaysian batik, Thailand’s Mudmee weaving, Vietnamese brocade, Philippine traditional weaves, and Peranakan tiles.
Ferrari’s side of this will be finished in Club Red and a pale Shoji tone and will also feature Peranakan prints with floral detailing. It hit stores across Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia at the beginning of August and Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines two weeks later.
McLaren’s partnership went a different route, with patchworks of Espresso Brown and black colouring with batik-style graphics along with the classic papaya of the Woking-based outfit. This launched on 4 August in Singapore with other parts of the region also stocking the clothing later that month.
adidas focused everything on a single flower
adidas and the Mercedes F1 team instead focused on a single symbol: the Vanda Miss Joaquim, Singapore’s national flower. The resulting Vanda Bloom collection uses the orchid’s pink and purple colours with white detailing across multiple different clothing designs.
“Our race-specific collections are an opportunity to connect more deeply with the communities that welcome Formula One each season,” Richard Sanders, chief commercial officer at Mercedes said. “The Vanda Bloom Collection pays tribute to Singapore through one of its most iconic national symbols while reflecting the innovation and engineering excellence that both Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team and Singapore are known for. We’re excited to see the team and our fans bring this story to life throughout race weekend.”
The Singapore race is punctuated by punishing heat and humidity, so adidas has used its CLIMACOOL and CLIMAPROOF technology in a number of its pieces.
While these two collections are very different, they both celebrate what will be a distinctive weekend. And as teams look to connect to their fans and the countries they visit, collections like these will become more and more important.
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