Philipp Plein signs licensing agreement with Worldtime Watches & Jewelry
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Philipp Plein International AG and WorldTime Watches & Jewelry SA have signed a licensing agreement for the development, production and distribution of Philipp Plein watches and jewelry. The watch collections will be officially presented in July 2021 to debut in the market starting from winter 2021 in Philipp Plein boutiques, online, and at selected authorized retailers, while extended multibrand distribution will follow in spring 2022.
The maximalist aesthetics that made Philipp Plein famous will inspire the new line of watches, whose designs will see the Philipp Plein logos and symbols in great prominence on the dial, bezel, case, straps, and bracelets. All the distinctive stylistic elements of the brand – the crystals, the studs, the multicolor platings, the military patterns and the innovative combination of precious and refined materials – will alternate around Philipp Plein’s signature $kull motif, in three-dimensional and faceted versions, and the embossed crossbones. The jewelry collection, will be presented in January 2022 to be marketed soon after, will also be strongly characterized by the use of Philipp Plein distinctive traits, such as the lettering, the $kull, the double PP, the hexagon, and the monogram pattern.
“I am thrilled with the debut of these new lines of watches and jewelry, which enrich our collections with key elements of the men’s and women’s look,” said Philipp Plein, founder & CEO of Philipp Plein International AG, in a statement. “I am sure that the collaboration with WorldTime Watches & Jewelry will be an opportunity to push the boundaries of our luxurious and iconic vision even further.”
For the watch and jewelry development, production and distribution WorldTime Watches & Jewelry will leverage its long collaboration with Timex Group, which boasts over 150 years of experience in the watch industry.
“We are particularly proud of this agreement and look forward to combining our experience in the world of watch and jewelry with Philipp Plein’s image, to make available to consumers around the world collections that express the unique brand’s aesthetics and its idea of contemporary luxury” said Paolo Marai, Timex Group Luxury’s CEO, in a statement.
McLaren unveils esports facility, Gen.G expands Puma deal
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Each week, ESI Digest breaks down the weekly happenings in the esports industry, making sense of things so you don’t have to. As well as being housed on YouTube, ESI Digest is available on all major podcast platforms and is also available in written form below.
In this week’s ESI Digest we cover, Gen.G’s Puma expansion, McLaren’s new esports facility, LOUD signing two Olympic skateboarders, ESL’s exclusive media rights deal with G4, and Apex Legends’s esports plans for the ALGS second season.
This edition of the ESI Digest is in partnership with Omnicoach.
Multinational esports organisation Gen.G has announced a worldwide expansion of its partnership with global sportswear brand PUMA.
As a part of the deal, PUMA will become the official jersey partner of Gen.G’s pro teams and creators, this includes Gen.G VALORANT players and creators in North America. The original partnership only included the organisation’s South Korean activities.
UK-based motorsport team McLaren Racing has announced the launch of the McLaren Shadow Studio, a space for its esports teams and ambassadors to train, race, and produce content.
The facility, which is based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, UK, builds on the McLaren Shadow programme and is the result of collaborations between its various partners. These include Alienware, Splunk, Logitech G, Tezos and QNTMPAY.
Brazilian esports organisation LOUD has signed Olympic skateboarders Luiz Francisco and Pedro Quintas as talents representing the team.
The announcement sees the two skateboarders inaugurate a new branch within the organisation called LOUD Skate. Further details over the branch have yet to be revealed. Both skateboarders are representing Brazil at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Respawn Entertainment has unveiled its Apex Legends esports plans for the second season of its Global Series (ALGS).
The second season, which is scheduled to take commence in September 2021, will see a number of changes, according to the release. The first major change is that the series will have a new format that creates separate levels of competition for ‘both professional and amateur Apex Legends players’.
Esports tournament organiser ESL Gaming has granted exclusive media rights to G4, the long-dormant gaming TV network set to return under Comcast NBC Universal in 2021.
G4 will produce and broadcast exclusive primetime programmes around ESL content, from launch to IEM Katowice 2022 pending any renewals. This deal marks the first time that ESL events will air on linear TV in the U.S. and Canada.
ESI Digest, in partnership with Omnicoach, is part of the ESI Podcast Network, a collection of podcasts encompassing the esports industry. For deep dives into the major areas of esports with subject matter experts, check out ESI Focus. For conversations with key personnel and major stakeholders in esports, ESI Insight is the series for you.
The PUMA Mirage is a Full-On Celebration of Club Culture
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It’s been a while since we’ve sweat on a dance floor, since we’ve packed bodies into a crowded room, since we’ve moved our feet in time to an invisible rhythm. For its latest shoe design, PUMA wants to pay homage to no other space than the club, those storied spaces of nightlife, fun, and connection that were completely transformed over the past year and a half.
For the newest edition of its iconic Mirage Sport shoe, PUMA looks to club and DJ culture from the defining eras of the past to the ones yet to come. The sneaker itself first emerged in the 1970s (a decade that arguably gave birth to the idea of clubbing as we know it today) and has been redesigned many times over. The newest iteration of the Mirage came from the idea of remixing the archive — taking elements from the brand’s history and reconfiguring them to fit into the styles of today — to create a sneaker that’s distinctly PUMA in its heritage but feels completely new.
To celebrate the drop, and the rich history it represents, we take a look back at some of the spaces and places that have defined the past few decades of going out. From Parisian palaces of fun to beachside bastions of revelry, these are spots that didn’t just define eras but created them. Alexa, play Grace Jones’ Nightclubbing, please.
Milan
Highsnobiety
Just over 40 years ago, Club Plastic burst onto the scene in Milan. Over the course of its tenure, it established itself as one of the city’s mainstay nightlife venues, adapting to each subsequent decade and becoming an integral part of each moment in history.
From the beginning, Plastic was a hub for the worlds of fashion and art, two of the Northern Italian city’s most venerable scenes. In the ‘80s the likes of Madonna, Elton John, Keith Haring, and Grace Jones adorned the dancefloor, while in subsequent decades, fashion fixtures like Tom Ford, Stefano Gabbana, and Anna Dello Russo made appearances.
Plastic managed to maintain its relevance over the years, continuing to attract a constantly changing but always interesting clientele. In 2006, a photo book was released to commemorate 25 years of the iconic club and celebrate its impressive history. Though in 2012, they suffered an eviction scare, they were able to find a new venue and keep people dancing at Plastic well into the future.
Paris
Highsnobiety
Imagine a club where Depeche Mode, Joy Division, and Prince all played. Where David Guetta was a resident DJ (before his meteoric rise to fame). Where the front door saw the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Yves Saint Laurent, Kate Moss, and Johnny Depp all walk through. Oh, now imagine there’s a mosaic-tiled pool at the center of it all. Such was Les Bains Douches, a historic Parisian club that was a crown jewel in the city’s nightlife crown for years.
Opened in 1978, Les Bains Douches struck a magical balance between being a place for both established celebrities and up-and-coming underground upstarts. Housed in a 19th-century bathhouse, the spot honored its roots by installing a splash pool at its center for many a raucous guest to enter. Before being repurposed into the hotel that it is today, Les Bain Douches played host to a variety of artists, designers, models, actors, musicians, and creatives during its run and continues to hold its title as one of the most historic nightlife venues the French capital has seen to date.
Berlin
Highsnobiety Highsnobiety
A history of clubbing would be replete without mention of Berlin and its temples of techno. Since 1991, Tresor has operated at the center of the city’s once burgeoning but now-iconic club scene. For 30 years now, the club has functioned as a space for artists to explore the limits of their ideas and share them with others.
The name itself, German for vault or safe, derives from the club’s first location in the vaults under a department store. Very quickly, the club, which spawned its own record label soon after opening, established itself as a destination in and of itself and came to define the heady party scene that emerged in Germany after its reunification. Even after many modifications — including a closure in 2005 and a relocation/ renaming in 2007 as Kraftwerk Berlin — the club and the values it represents endure and continue to set the standard for nightlife, far outside of Berlin.
London
Highsnobiety
Nestled into the crumbling yard behind King’s Cross station was one of the dance music era’s most beloved clubs: Bagley’s. London is no stranger to a burgeoning subculture, but as the early-90s arrived and dance music took over the world, this rough and tumble club became one of the city’s most important.
The space itself supported six different rooms, each blasting its own genre of music from drum and bass to hardcore. It was known for hosting some of the biggest club nights in London at the time, as well as a variety of other events (Alexander McQueen staged his 1995 collection in the club). Bagley’s carried on having a raucous good time well into the 2000s, until its closure in 2008.
Ibiza
Because not all clubs need to be in cities, the Balearic island of Ibiza is here to round out this list. The combination of warm weather, beautiful beaches, and world-class music have made the island an international party destination for decades now.
As for Ushuaïa, what started as a Beach Club in the late 2000s merged with a hotel to create the empire that it is now. Since 2011, Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Hotel has been a can’t miss name on the island’s music circuit, and has been consistently ranked among the world’s best clubs.
The club gained prominence for inviting big-name DJs such as Carl Cox, Armin van Buuren, Avicii, and Calvin Harris, and giving its partygoers the chance to dance as the sun sets over the island. As electronic music boomed during the 2010s, Ushuaïa was at the forefront, solidifying its reputation as one of the best dance floors in the world. DJ Snake, globally renowned DJ and brand ambassador for the PUMA Mirage franchise, has even graced the stage of the Ibiza club.
Get dancing with your pair of the PUMA Mirage Sport starting July 28.