Gucci Linking With Detroit Vs. Everybody
Gucci is gearing up for Motown.
The Italian luxury giant is working with Tommey Walker’s streetwear brand Detroit Vs. Everybody on a new collaboration, WWD has learned.
While the exact nature of the project has not yet been revealed, it is said to be rolling out to stores for an introduction in short order, and early pictures of the collaboration using the slogan “Gucci Vs. Everybody” have started popping up on social media.
A representative for Detroit Vs. Everybody declined to comment.
The collaboration brings the worlds of luxury and streetwear a little closer together and furthers Gucci’s outreach in Detroit.
According to Detroit Dialogue, a student news website, Antoine Phillips, Gucci’s vice president of brand and cultural engagement, was at Walker’s alma mater, Cass Technical High School, in 2019 to give the school’s fashion design club a $10,000 check and welcome Cass to the brand’s Changemakers program.
Gucci confirmed the collaboration and said it is part of its Changemakers initiative. Proceeds from the special lineup of T-shirts will benefit nonprofit organizations.”
Walker, a Detroit native, started the brand with the hopes of helping to rebuild Detroit’s image, launching the first “Vs. Everybody” collection in 2012.
The formulation hit and proved to be a very flexible brand, most often seen wrought in black T-shirts or hoodies with white lettering.
Rapper Eminem and Shady Records licensed the mantra to use “Shady Vs. Everybody” and the concept has expanded into other areas as well, including “Atlanta Vs. Everybody,” “Everybody Vs. Injustice,” “Everybody Vs. Racism,” “Everybody Vs. COVID-19” and more.
Detroit Vs. Everybody is still relatively small, but it is a very of the moment brand, displaying a pride of place and taking on social justice issues.
And the Gucci collaboration could get its message out to a broader audience.
More from WWD:
Streetwear’s Leaders of the New School
Supreme: VF’s ‘Simple, Beautiful Machine’
‘Key’ Supreme Executive Set for VF Stock Pay Day
Tommey Walker, Gucci plan line of ‘Vs Everybody’ T-shirts benefiting nonprofits
Other cities featured are Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
“My partnership with Gucci is a dream come true, not just for me and my team, but also for celebrating the city of Detroit’s cultural richness and innovation,” Walker said in a news release.
The project also includes a “Gucci Vs Everybody” T-shirt available only at the Gucci store at Somerset Collection in Troy.
The shirts combine Gucci’s fabric and materials with the “Vs Everybody” graphic, Gucci said. The Gucci line is made in Italy, the company said.
Detroit-based Design Core and Journi are the local recipients of grants from the Changemakers Impact Fund run by Gucci.
Design Core, housed at the College for Creative Studies, promotes and supports design-based businesses in Detroit. Journi works to build an inclusive technology ecosystem, was selected as the nonprofit partner for the second phase.
Get Access
You are not authorized to view this content.