PaperBoy Paris Teams Up With Bangkok's Carnival for Limited-Edition Capsule

Just off the back of the news of his New Balance sneaker, James Dridi aka PaperBoy Paris, has announced his latest collaboration, this time with Bangkok‘s leading streetwear brand Carnival.

For this collaboration, Dridi tapped into his sandwich-making expertise, something he’s known for in Paris. While these sandwiches generally are presented with a Japanese twist at his home restaurant, they instead offered a Thai touch to honor the region. The full menu included three sandwich options: a fried chicken garlic siracha bun, a crying tiger sub, as well as an egg and vegetable siracha roll. Additional items included homemade ginger elderflower lemonade and peanut butter cookies ice cream for dessert.

While his New Balance FuelCell SuperComp Elite V4s weren’t available for sale — said to be only releasing in Paris and Tokyo — Dridi and Carnival did come with some collaborative heat. Merch for sale included two graphic tees, one white with his logo and the other black with the word “PaperBoy” written in a Thai script. This same script is featured on a pair of silky Muay Thai shorts, which were the highlight of the collection. Additional items included ceramic plates, mugs, a sandwich press and co-branded siracha sauce. To add to the exclusivity, items from the collab were only available through the in-store pop-up that ended earlier today, August 11.

Speaking on the collaboration in a conversation with Hypebeast, Dridi said “We love sneakers and personal style, deeply rooted from our ’90s childhood but our specialty is to make food. In France, our family loves going to some Asian restaurants and sharing a meal, discovering new textures, and new tastes. The Siracha spicy sauce bottle always being present, at the center of the table. Of course, the adults were warning kids to handle it with care! We wanted to pay homage to this delicacy, owning a very personal memory and sharing it with our contemporary world.”

He further shared “The Thai boxing shorts have the same connection to our fond memories! Discovering Thai boxing in our early teenage years was mesmerizing: the body dance, the power, and the dedication mixed with spirituality and hard work represents what we are pushing for now in the kitchen. Working with Carnival who offered us the chance to realize this dream and we are truly happy to build a relationship together. Now we know that we have family in Thailand and can’t wait to build another experience together.”