Paris Saint-Germain partnered with Jordan Brand in 2018, taking a gamble with this new venture. The three-year contract turned into a five-year agreement, allowing the French giants to expand beyond the pitch.
Furthermore, the relationship meant that the Ligue 1 side would attach itself to Michael Jordan’s name. As a result, rocket fuel allowed the PSG name to enter different circles, such as basketball.
In an interview with The Athletic, Marc Armstrong, PSG’s chief revenue officer, spoke about what it meant for the Parisians five years into their relationship with Jordan Brand.
“It’s the one thing that gets talked about the most, everywhere we go in the world,” Armstrong said. “It was the one agreement that has maybe elevated us to another level.”
Even with this, PSG has managed to enlarge its appeal beyond football and, through this partnership, reach a younger audience, a target area many clubs find difficult to access.
“The vision of the chairman (Nasser Al-Khelaifi) in 2011 was clear — to make the greatest sports franchise in the sports industry,” Fabien Allegre, chief brand officer at PSG, said. “PSG is unique. It belongs to Paris. We believe football is part of culture, not apart from, and so creating a bridge between music, art, fashion and sport was a key element of our strategy.”
The result has given Jordan Brand access to the world’s most popular sport and a cultural audience that aligns with its brand identity. The company has already dipped its toes into other sports outside of basketball, such as American football at the collegiate level.
