PlayStation... as a Streetwear Brand?
PlayStation is a game console manufactured by Sony. It is a brand synonymous with gaming and, maybe for an older set, nostalgia. But is PlayStation... streetwear?
Japanese retail giant BEAMS says, yes, PlayStation is streetwear. That's why it essentially created glorified PlayStation merch to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the first Sony PlayStation console, the appropriately named PlayStation 1.
The PS1, as fans remember it, was released in December 1994 and changed the home gaming landscape almost instantly.
It was initially outsold by Sega's Saturn console, released one month prior, but I'd argue that its legacy is better remembered by Western gamers, thanks in part to a robust game library and incredibly '90s advertisements, so saturated in 'tude that watching them is the visual equivalent of opening a bag of Doritos 3D (Sega, for its part, had equally 'tudetastic ads).
PlayStation consoles were always the most stylish of the bunch, even in the modern age.
Sure Nintendo pushed the interactive envelope and Microsoft's Xbox was green but PlayStation was always stupid slick, the unspoken epitome of single-stone style.
Or, at least, it was unspoken until Travis Scott was tapped as a PlayStation 5 ambassador, launching the console in late 2020 with flashy ads, merch, and a collaborative Nike Dunk that's rarer than anything this side of the original PlayStation Air Forces, which cost only a little more than the collaborative Balenciaga x PlayStation collection (yes, this was a real thing).
This all reinforces PlayStation's status as the closest thing that gaming has to a "streetwear" brand. You don't see anyone lusting over the Xbox adidas or Nintendo PUMAs — only PS has the sauce.
Hence why PlayStation is a natural partner for IYKYK makers like F.C.Real Bristol, the football-obsessed label overseen by sophnet founder Hirofumi Kiyonaga.
Which brings us to PlayStation x BEAMS.
The actual collaboration isn't anything terribly exciting, comprising a hoodie and pullover sweater in two colors and graphic styles. A simple but effective demonstration of what makes PlayStation so much more inherently fashionable than its gaming rivals.
The logos of Xbox and Nintendo are curvy, rotund. PlayStation's branding is trim, futuristic. Its controllers' four face buttons are, literally, iconic. This lends itself to the emphatically visual tenets of streetwear with impressive ease.
And that BEAMS' PlayStation clothes are sold out on its web store, even on pre-order, is proof that there's something to this idea of PlayStation as streetwear brand. Sony, are ya listening?
