The Gucci x The North Face collaboration with Pokémon GO

UPDATE 01.05.2021: After last week's announcement, Niantic has published online the first image of Pokémon GO avatars in their Gucci x The North Face outfits. Players will be able to choose between tees, backpacks and hats available in 100 PokéStops around the world, divided into different continents as well as in selected Gucci stores and through the “Gucci Pins experience”.

In addition to New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago, the PokéStops (virtual locations present in-game) will also be available in Italy, divided between Milan, Rome and Florence. Among other European cities we also find Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Vienna and many others.

12.28.2020: After revealing the lookbook of his collaboration with The North Face, Gucci has in recent days launched a teaser that brings a third partner into the partnership: Pokemon GO. In the image-teaser shared by the brand, the flag that symbolizes collaboration and which was decorated with double branding bears the logo of Niantic's famous augmented reality video game – ironically also the result of a collaboration between the video game manufacturer and The Pokémon Company.

No further details about the collaboration have been revealed at this time, but if you try to guess what it will consist of based on Gucci's recent initiatives in the field of fashion gamification, the game will certainly include augmented reality and could allow users to collect branded accessories for their avatars or Pokémon to wear. In any case, the move makes this collaboration a kind of synthesis point of the major trends that have involved fashion in 2020: from the vintage craze to gorpcore, from unexpected collaborations (2020 was also the year of Dior and Jordan and Palace and Moschino) and, finally, of the increasingly close relationship between fashion, gaming and augmented reality.

The Gucci x The North Face collection will debut on December 29 at the Gucci Pin store in Beijing, China, and then be distributed in other stores in the country. In January it will be available to the rest of the world.