Buyako Saka and Endrick for Stone Island? Top bins.
Italian label Stone Island and New Balance are leaning further into football culture with the launch of their latest collaborative collection, which arrives ahead of the 2026 World Cup and blurs the line between performance wear and terrace fashion.
Fronting the campaign are Bukayo Saka and Endrick, two players who represent the new generation of football talent shaping both sport and style. Their involvement feels deliberate, especially in Saka’s case.
Saka has become one of New Balance’s most visible football ambassadors in recent years, regularly appearing in campaigns and wearing the brand’s boots on the pitch. Beyond his performances for Arsenal (now crowned a Premier League champion) and England, he has increasingly emerged as a broader cultural figure, moving comfortably between football, fashion, and youth culture. His long-standing relationship with New Balance makes his appearance in a Stone Island collaboration feel like a natural progression rather than a one-off campaign casting.
There is also a deeper cultural connection at play. Stone Island has been tied to football casual culture for decades, particularly in Britain and across Europe, where the brand became synonymous with terrace style throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Saka represents a younger generation now redefining what football identity looks like, one where athletes are just as influential off the pitch as they are on it.
The campaign itself reflects that shift. Rather than focusing purely on matchday performance, the collection explores football as a lifestyle and community. Alongside technical kits and football boots, the drop includes glossy outerwear, relaxed warm-up pieces, and futuristic sportswear silhouettes that merge Stone Island’s fabric innovation with New Balance’s sporting heritage.
Saka’s presence helps ground the collaboration in authenticity. He already exists within the intersection of football and fashion that both brands are trying to capture, making him less of a celebrity face and more of a genuine extension of the culture surrounding the collection.
The New Balance x Stone Island collaboration will drop on June 4.
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