PORTLAND, Ore. – Late in the summer on Portland's East Side, it is not uncommon to find a building with a garage door raised up to let in the sunshine, and a host of Oregonians raising a glass of beer to beat the heat.
On Friday night fans of fashion and the Portland Timbers gathered in similar fashion at EVO Portland, beers in hand, to commemorate MLS's Heineken Rivalry Week with the debut of the "Timbers by Publish" capsule collection.
A new collection from conceptual menswear label Publish in partnership with Major League Soccer and the Portland Timbers, "Timbers by Publish" brings high fashion to the Timbers' team store with classic black styling and subtle wood-grain patterns.
On hand and wearing the collection's "Sinsa" camper hat and "Rodic" jogger pant, Timbers defender Zarek Valentin was enthusiastic about the look.
"You see the collection and that it is black on black, then you see the Timbers' logo on it or you see the Publish logo, you look at it and say 'that is a cool piece,'" Valentin said. "But then you say, wow, that actually represents an MLS team and the history and culture behind the team and the product as well. To have that mesh is what really attracted me to it."
For midfielder Ben Zemanski, the link between club and couture was what made the collection stand out.
"One of the coolest things is the way that they implemented the hat and the shirt. They used a wooden finish and that is a huge thing; with my log slice from when I scored [against the LA Galaxy] I am trying to preserve it, put a logo on it, and keep it for my entire life. The fact that they can take that and spin that idea into a clothing article … They could have done it and gotten it wrong, but instead they got it really right."
Publish creative director Alex James was on hand, mingling with the Timbers fans to celebrate the collection's release in Portland (shop the full line here).
"We wanted to create something different from the sometimes mundane team-sports apparel," said James. "We wanted to go with the minimalist vibe of the Timbers – especially their alternate third uniform that they wore last year."
Publish has previously worked with brands like Reebok, Timberland and Josh Madden, but this campaign is their first with a league like MLS.
"We have a lot of fans that are into soccer that wear our products, so it naturally made sense," said James. "MLS wanted to know what team we wanted to work with, and out of all the teams we chose the Timbers. Their social media is awesome, their team is awesome; the vibe, the branding, the whole squad has a very minimalistic type of vibe that is very different from other teams."
