Vetements Collaborations Under Demna, 2014–2019

Under Demna, Vetements used collaboration as a way to make clothes, not merely to market them. The label chose companies already associated with a product—Levi's for denim, Carhartt for workwear, Reebok for sneakers—and asked each one to rebuild its familiar object in Vetements' proportions.

That method reached its clearest expression in July 2016, when Vetements showed a Spring/Summer 2017 collection made entirely with 18 outside manufacturers. Across Demna's full 2014–19 tenure, the record expands to more than 30 partners once continuing footwear programmes, band licences, department-store projects, and regional releases in Hong Kong, Seoul, and Tokyo are included.

This guide separates those forms instead of treating every shared logo as the same kind of “collab.” It also excludes designs that only resembled another company's product. For the smaller record after Demna's departure, see Vetements collaborations after Demna. His later projects at Balenciaga are covered in Balenciaga collaborations under Demna.

Spring/Summer 2017: all 18 partners

Vetements presented the collection on 3 July 2016 beneath the central cupola of Galeries Lafayette Haussmann while the department store was open. The show combined menswear and womenswear, sat on the Paris haute couture calendar, and appeared several months ahead of the conventional ready-to-wear schedule.

Each collaborator was chosen for an established product category, then asked to manufacture its own recognisable object within Vetements' design frame.

Contemporary collection rosters consistently give a total of 18. One rendering of Demna's show archive substitutes “Perfecto” for Kawasaki. Because Perfecto is a Schott jacket model and Schott is already present, the most plausible reading is a naming error rather than a nineteenth collaborator.

How an original piece should be described

The partner companies manufactured their own garments using their own materials and production systems. A secondhand piece can therefore retain the maker's familiar details—a Levi's red tab, Champion neck label, Church's sole stamp, or Alpha Industries hardware—alongside its Vetements identity.

Coexisting brand details are expected on this collection; they are not, by themselves, proof of authenticity. No surviving primary account establishes one universal internal-label arrangement across all 18 manufacturers. Construction, product code, materials, tags, and a match to a documented style still need to agree.

Most launch prices were not consistently reported. Two useful anchors survive: the Juicy Couture piece was listed at €950, while Vetements had already moved a Champion sweatshirt to around $650 before the all-collaboration collection.

The dated record beyond Spring 2017

This chronology includes product collaborations, licences, store-exclusive objects, and commissioned retail installations. A partner already in the Spring 2017 table appears again only when it participated in a separate release.

DHL was licensed by retail—not simply a bootleg

The yellow DHL T-shirt appeared in Vetements' Spring/Summer 2016 collection, shown around October 2015, and became one of the label's defining products when it reached stores in 2016. Depending on retailer and currency, contemporary prices were reported around $330–$421.

Calling it either a straightforward official collaboration or an unlicensed bootleg leaves out the important sequence. Vetements designed and showed the shirt before an agreement was in place. Demna later said DHL granted use of the logo before retail in exchange for 20 shirts for company staff. Guram also publicly described the resulting arrangement as a licence.

That account comes from the founders' statements rather than a published contract, but it supports a precise conclusion: the runway design preceded clearance; the retail product was licensed.

The relationship continued beyond one T-shirt. DHL imagery anchored a raincoat in the JOYCE capsules and returned in a wider Spring/Summer 2018 group. Its visual familiarity does not mean every later yellow Vetements piece belongs to the original 2016 release.

Reebok became a continuing product system

Reebok was the longest and most varied partner of the period. Outside its Spring 2017 contribution, the programme covered at least four sneaker families, retailer-exclusive colourways, socks, a cap, and slides.

The Spike Runner also crossed the end of Demna's tenure: later colourways carry SS20 style codes. Those are best understood as the tail of an established programme, not evidence that Demna remained at Vetements after September 2019.

Oakley completed the Spike set

Oakley is easily missed when the collaborations are searched one product at a time. Vetements showed the Spike Glasses 200 with its Spring/Summer 2019 collection in July 2018, opened pre-orders that December, and delivered the eyewear in spring 2019.

The name connects it directly to Reebok's Spike Runner 200. The glasses and shoes were designed as parts of one runway look, even though they were made by different partners and reached retail through their own product categories.

Four Asian retailers received exclusive products

Regional retailer projects are the largest gap in most Vetements retrospectives. Between November 2017 and June 2018, four retailers in Hong Kong, Seoul, and Tokyo carried products unavailable through the ordinary global release.

JOYCE in Hong Kong and Seoul

JOYCE launched the largest regional capsule in November 2017, priced from $485 to $1,330, with a one-day pop-up at Hong Kong's Kai Tak Cruise Terminal. Products included a DHL yellow raincoat, an offset-stitched Umbro T-shirt, and an exclusive Reebok Sock Runner colourway.

The retailer repeated the format in Cheongdam-dong, Seoul, on 22 March 2018. The second installation used wooden crates and construction specifications under plastic sheeting, and sold an exclusive grey Sock Runner alongside Hong Kong and DHL raincoats, reworked Tommy Hilfiger T-shirts, and smaller Vetements objects.

10 Corso Como Seoul

From 19 January 2018, the Seoul retailer sold an exclusive Genetically Modified Pump in distressed black, grey, and off-white for ₩1,380,000—about $1,288 at the time.

Boon The Shop

Boon The Shop released a Korea-exclusive canvas low-top covered in multicoloured graffiti on 27 April 2018. Its launch price was ₩790,000, approximately $730.

RESTIR in Tokyo

RESTIR commissioned a black hoodie printed with “Hi, I Don't Care. THANKS” on the front and a longer sarcastic slogan across the back. It went online on 22 June 2018 and reached the Akasaka store the following day at ¥103,000, roughly $940.

These products are genuine parts of the collaboration history even though the retailer—not a global press campaign—was the outside partner.

Sportswear, footwear, and the phone case

Umbro produced hoodies, T-shirts, and a red-and-grey cap for Spring/Summer 2018. A surviving longsleeve carries style code MSS18TR40, independently confirming the season.

Tommy Hilfiger appeared during the same cycle through a red double-sleeve hoodie and reworked T-shirts sold in the JOYCE programme.

SWEAR London became the second dedicated footwear maker alongside Reebok. Announced in February 2018 for Fall/Winter 2018, it delivered chunky sneakers in June and a black suede platform in September.

CASETiFY supplied a much smaller object at the end of the period: a $250 phone case released on 4 January 2019 using the Spring 2019 collection's sticker-like dog, flower, and logo graphics.

Mötorhead was a real licensed capsule

Vetements used many music and film references without naming an outside partner. Mötorhead is different. Retailer descriptions explicitly identify the pieces as part of a Vetements x Mötorhead collaboration, and Farfetch used dual-branded product titles.

The range included “The World Is Yours” hoodies and T-shirts, a “World Tour” tee, and “Big Skull” shorts. No dated announcement has surfaced, but retailer catalogue placement is consistent with 2017–18 product. That supports a date range, not an exact month.

The returning manufacturing partners

Several of the Spring 2017 names continued through later standalone products.

Alpha Industries made the most expensive documented garments in this group: a reversible racing bomber with a fully printed hood at $3,315 in September 2018, followed by black and olive patchwork “Antwerpen” bombers at $2,415 and $2,535.

Levi's returned with a sticker-and-graffiti denim jacket in October 2018. In March 2019, it produced five-pocket jeans interrupted by a bright red jersey track-pant panel down one leg, priced at $1,320.

Eastpak extended its involvement into a continuing Patched range of reconstructed backpacks, convertible backpack-to-waist-bag designs, and a long-strapped Grunge version of the Orbit. Autumn/Winter 2019 style codes on Eastpak's site support the continuation, although no single announcement defines its endpoint.

Some partnerships made spaces rather than clothes

Saks Fifth Avenue worked with Vetements twice in different forms. The September 2016 project was a stockroom-like shop inside Saks Downtown and made Saks the exclusive New York specialty carrier of the women's collection. The July 2017 project was a display made from staff donations, out-of-season clothes, hangers, street signs, and plastic. After the installation, the clothing went to RewearABLE, a New York nonprofit employing adults with developmental disabilities.

Harrods expanded the donation idea from 8 February to 2 March 2018. Four windows collected used clothing for the NSPCC, while donors received wristbands made from recycled bottles. These belong to the partnership record as commissioned retail projects, but they did not produce ordinary Vetements garments for sale.

Birkenstock was discussed and rejected

Vetements and Birkenstock entered talks, but no product reached a runway or store. A Birkenstock representative attributed the failed project to design technicalities. Chief executive Oliver Reichert was publicly hostile to fashion collaborations at the time, although he reportedly asked his team to reopen the conversation after hearing that Demna's interest came simply from finding Birkenstock shoes comfortable.

Nothing was released. Birkenstock therefore belongs to the history as a documented negotiation, not as a collaboration a buyer can own.

What was not a Vetements collaboration

Resemblance, appropriation, and concurrent creative direction do not establish a partnership. A reliable collaboration attribution should lead to a named credit, licence account, partner-made object, original product description, or documented commission.

Open questions

Some entries can be named more securely than they can be dated.

• Church's is confirmed within the Spring 2017 roster, but little product-specific documentation survives.
• A Schott cropped shearling biker dated January 2017 is more likely a Spring 2017 delivery than a separate collaboration, so it is not double-counted.
• Wolford appears on co-branded monogram tights sold for $150, but the release date remains open.
• SVMoscow appears on an “ОХРАНА” security T-shirt made with the retailer; it cannot yet be assigned securely to the Demna or post-Demna period.
• Cradle of Filth produced a licensed band capsule, but retailer records lean later than September 2019 and it is therefore discussed in the post-Demna guide.

None of these should be assigned to a precise year merely to make the list look complete.

How to identify a collaboration piece

Start with the object rather than the two most visible logos:

1. Identify the exact silhouette and product code.
2. Match it to a season, retailer release, or dated campaign.
3. Check whether the outside company manufactured the piece, licensed imagery, commissioned an exclusive, or only inspired the design.
4. Expect partner-specific construction or tags where that company made the product, but do not treat one label detail as a universal authentication rule.
5. Ignore the date of a current resale listing; it says when the seller listed the object, not when Vetements released it.

This is especially important for Reebok, Eastpak, Levi's, Champion, and DHL, whose relationships extended across multiple products or seasons.

Sources and scope

The chronology was reconstructed from collection rosters, partner and retailer announcements, contemporary reporting, archived product descriptions, and style codes. Regional retail records are included because a press-only history omits several genuine Vetements products.

“Collaboration” is used broadly in the title for discoverability, but the body preserves the difference between co-manufactured product, trademark licence, retailer exclusive, store installation, charity project, and an agreement that never reached production. Unlicensed references and unsupported resale attributions are kept outside the main list.