Champion Celebrates 100 Years of Global Collectives in "For The Team" Campaign

Staple heritage athletic wear brand Champion continues to celebrate its centennial with a campaign that taps into its roots as an arbiter of team spirit since its humble beginnings in Rochester, New York in 1919. With the “For The Team” campaign, Champion is giving fans an inside look into what it means to be a part of a team, exploring unique perspectives across all clubs, crews and squads in the world of sports and pop culture. The campaign aims to engage with teams large and small all around the globe to bring their unique stories to an international audience.

The “100 Years For The Team” campaign launched earlier this year with a video featuring five-time NBA champion Magic Johnson as he reflects on his time with the 1992 USA “Dream Team” and his years in the league. The brand has been weaved into the fabric of some of the most important moments in sports and cultural history, from designing collegiate apparel to supplying military uniforms and even dressing that famous 1992 men’s Olympic basketball team. “As part of the ‘Dream Team,’ I experienced first-hand the power of people coming together to achieve great things,” says Johnson. To highlight this, Magic joined Champion in celebration and in the search to find other teams around the globe that represent unity and something bigger than sports, just like he was a part of.

Keeping that spirit alive, the 100 year campaign connects athletes across the world through the “For The Team” campaign, which highlights different sports collectives operating in various corners of the earth. REPRESENT, a basketball team in Beijing with a brotherly bond, and the resilient Shanghai Extreme Boarding School skaters are to be celebrated for their success in portraying unity as strength in their respective fields. Champion is now telling their stories to show the power that sports have on friendships, dealing with adversity and learning sacrifice.

To shed light onto its work outside of sports, Champion has also teamed up with Luka Sabbat to showcase how working together is just as powerful off the field or court. The model and actor explores the concept of team through the creative mind and the power of collaboration by pulling back the curtain on his work with Art Start’s Emerging Artists Program. Fueled by inspiration from the New York-based non-profit, he created an exclusive, limited-edition line of apparel with Champion. The wide ranging campaign is a testament to Champion’s tireless work of bringing talent together “For The Team.”

Hear the stories of REPRESENT and Shanghai Extreme Boarding School in the videos above and head to Champion’s website to join the brand in celebrating “For The Team”.