Champion join up with Japanese label BEAMS on some extremely nice leisurewear

I know you think you’ve got a hoodie and that your hoodie is fine - it does what you need it to - being, as it is, a jumper with a hood - but you are wrong. Have you ever been more wrong in your life? Who knows. Perhaps when you broke up with The One because you wanted to be ‘free and easy’ when you went to Magaluf aged 19 and proceeded to stand there, leaden and heavy-lidded in a packed BCM, before snapping to and realising - GOB Bluth-ing, truly - that you’ve made a huge mistake. By the time you got back to the airport she’d already blocked you on BBM. 

Maybe then. Either way, heritage leisurewear outfitters Champion and Japanese cult favourites BEAMS have joined forces to totally re-imagine your off-duty gear in a campaign shot by Lola & Pani. Truly the salve for all of life’s mistakes is very luxe hoodies. 

But it’s not just hoodies - despite what I was just saying; despite what I literally just said - that they’ve got going: it’s jackets, it’s button-up bombers, it’s T-shirts and shorts (two kinds!) and tracksuit bottoms and thigh-length cagoules in bedrock shades of navy, grey, black, and white. 

Drilling down into the simplicity of the items - staples, certainly, for the Work Hard During The Week And Do Fuck All At The Weekend Besides Going To Whole Foods And Looking Good man - and what we want from them, while still progressive sporting silhouettes that embody modernity, street style, and more in the heft of some ribbing or some playfully re-examined logoing is no easy feat.

Thankfully they’re helmed by one of the most influential athleticwear for the cosy boy (and girl) brands of recent times and a true Japanese favourite, ever since Mr. Yo Shitara first set up shop in 70’s Harajuku. 

The difference between proper, quality tracksuiting and the common-or-garden variety can be minor, but you know it when you see it and certainly when you try it for yourself. It could be in the fall of the cut, the quality of the stitching, the warm and purity of the knit as it ensconces your most delicate areas in comfort. But allow me to point you detail-ward, dear reader, to the aforementioned hoodie, the one we’re Very Much Into: the thumb hole in the extended cuff for extra warmth, the embroided logo on the heart and the stitched on logo on the wrist, the heavy-duty string around the hood, the button at the throat, allowing you to strangle yourself with warmth or open the cooling clavicular floodgates at will. 

Lovely stuff.

The Champion x BEAMS collection is available now exclusively at the London Champion store on Brewer Street