The Kicks You Wear — Mike Amiri Explains Fashion’s Sports Boom

Good morning, friends! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for reading today. Appreciate you giving me a bit of your time. Happy Wednesday. Hope you guys are having an awesome week so far.

Pulled off the Mr. Johnson Halloween costume. As it turns out, a bald guy being another bald guy for Halloween is a pretty easy thing to do! Making note of that for next year. You’d better watch out, Common. I’m coming for you.

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Let’s jump in.

Mike Amiri’s namesake brand made its way in the fashion world by breaking the rules. Amiri took the aesthetics of rock ‘n’ roll and fused it with contemporary streetwear to create a unique look that dominated the late 2010s and early 2020s in the luxury space.

Like any successful brand, though, Amiri hasn’t rested on its laurels. It’s expanded beyond its denim-dominated approach over the last few years and has experimented with more formal looks. That brings us to this conversation today.

Amiri and FC Barcelona have agreed to a deal, making the fashion label the official formalwear partner for the club’s men’s and women’s teams, starting with the 2025 Winter season. While Amiri has dabbled in sports before by forging athlete partnerships with the likes of NFL star Travis Kelce and boxing star Canelo Alvarez, this is by far the biggest deal the brand has had in the space.

I had the opportunity to speak with Amiri himself about the move. Just a couple of Mikes chopping it up! We discussed the partnership, why sports are essential for the fashion industry these days and what it signals for the brand’s future.

Below is our conversation. Enjoy.

Mike Sykes: You’ve worked in sports before with names like Travis Kelce and Canelo Alvarez. This FC Barcelona deal is bigger than just an individual player. What opportunity do you see here?

Mike Amiri: Whether it’s music or film or even sport, we kind of look for some sort of shared affinity, or some sort of shared value.

When looking at this opportunity — which is probably the biggest thing we could do, and one of the biggest teams in the world — it was looking at how they were investing in the team and structuring it. They have these young players kind of mixed with these seasoned players. Respecting the old but also building on the new. That felt really compelling to me. Amiri is, in many ways, a young brand, even though we’re 12 years in. But we’re quite new when you talk about heritage, luxury and all these big brands that we kind of sit along with. I really enjoyed that parallel.

And aside from that, a few of the players already wore Amiri. It was really organic. The president of the club, Joan Laporta, requested that we were approached for this, which really made it special. It wasn’t something we chased — it’s something we attracted, which is something I’ve learned to really appreciate.