In the competitive landscape of soft drink brands, the need for revitalizing what a beverage “means” to a target marketplace keeps the kingpins of soda constantly coming-up with new campaigns. From Mountain Dew’s streetart collabs and bottle designs, to Coke’s recent licensing with Uniqlo, the constant search to connect with youth culture often means moving beyond the beverage industry to relate the lifestyle of the consumer. For Pepsi, this means a new streetwear collection along with designer headphones, sneakers, and accessories.
While it may seem a little odd that Pepsi, a beverage, would think that young people would like Pepsi-inspired apparel the brand did choose an interesting cast of brands and street artists to participate. The reality is, as we see on our Spring Youth Culture Study 2014, there are actually other preferred beverages including energy drinks, natural sodas, and teas that would fare better with youth culture via a streetwear collection than Pepsi, which continues to drop in terms of preferences, but Pepsi’s onto streetwear regardless.
The Pepsi collection called Live for Now features some interesting collaborations including T-shirts and boardshorts with Original Penguin, caps from Gents, Hoodies from Goodlife, and designer headphones from Bang & Olufsen. They are also doing skate-inspired footwear with Del Toro and skateboards with Shut.
Most of the artists within the collections are from places outside of the USA, as this campaign is mostly intended as Pepsi’s push for their soccer associations.
The Pepsi Live for Now collection debuted in Bloomingdale’s in NYC last week, and will be in 15 other stores across the USA and online. Colette in Paris will also be carrying some of the items as well as Liberty in London.
Here’s more about the Live for Now campaign.
