Tailored suits are great. Everyone looks good in a quality tailored suit. For professional athletes, a sense of fashion seems mandatory in this day and age. But even ordinary folks need a suit for the occasional wedding or funeral.
Getting a good suit is an investment in yourself and accepting the inevitability that you’ll eventually have to look nice at an event of some kind. Which is why Reebok pairing with a tailored suit company is such an interesting move. The shoemaker announced on Tuesday that it’s collaborating with London-based tailor Huntsman to come up with a tailored suit that incorporates an interesting bit of RBK’s proprietary shoe technology.
The two companies are pairing to make a custom suit for New England Patriots wideout Brandin Cooks that uses Reebok’s Flexweave technology, which it’s using on its newest shoe designs.
The collaboration won’t debut until next spring, but both companies will work with Cooks to create a cut using the special material, which Reebok uses in its uppers to create unique fits and weaving patterns in its shoes.
“Reebok Flexweave provides a performance fit and look unlike any other so I’m excited to see how the material translates into a custom suit,” Cooks said in a release. “There are endless opportunities for what we can do with it.”
It’s certainly an interesting concept, and Cooks is right: it will be very interesting to see what the suit looks like. Most shoe technology uses banded fibers in unique ways that create patterns and styles not seen on other types of clothing. Will a Flexweave suit look like a pair of running shoes stretched into a suit jacket?
For Reebok, it seems like they’re taking the suit initiative as a challenge not only for the technology, but the level of quality that’s often found in custom tailoring.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with Huntsman and push the limits of fit and function to develop a men’s suit using this innovative weave, said James Wollard, brand director at Reebok Running. “Our goal is this level of tailoring in all our footwear.”
And it’s actually not the first time Reebok has made suits before. Back in 2006 when Reebok outfitted the entire NFL, two coaches got league approval to wear suits as a tribute to the more formal look coaches spotted on the sideline in the past. Jack Del Rio and Mike Nolan each wore suits in two games that season.
Right now all we have are some sketches of their new endeavor, but the two companies said the Reebok x Huntsman collaboration will finish up in February of 2018 when they deliver a suit to Cooks for him to try out. Maybe it will be just in time for Cooks to wear it on Super Bowl Sunday.
