Paul Pogba, Paulo Dybaba feature in Kith x adidas 2025 Fall collection

The silence regarding Paul Pogba’s return to the pitch has been deafening, but the noise surrounding his return to the billboard is about to shatter eardrums. We have entered a strange, twilight era of football, one where the ghosts of potential past are resurrected not by managers or physiotherapists, but by creative directors. The announcement of the Kith x adidas 2025 Fall collection is not merely a press release about jerseys and denim; it is an obituary for the pure athlete and a baptism for the content creator. By centering the campaign on Paul Pogba and Paulo Dybala, two mercurial talents whose careers have been defined as much by "what if" as "what is," Kith and adidas have signaled a darker, more cynical future for the sport. The game is no longer played on grass. It is played on the runway, and the consequences for the upcoming transfer windows will be severe.

The Commercial Rehabilitation of Paul Pogba

Let us strip away the varnish of "heritage" and "streetwear aesthetics" to look at the cold, hard machinery working beneath this collaboration. Paul Pogba, amidst a career pause that would end most tenures at the elite level, is being repackaged. This campaign is a calculated wager that his face sells more units than his feet ever will again.

For Juventus, or whichever club holds his registration when the dust settles, this creates a toxic dilemma. If the primary value of a player shifts from their defensive work rate to their ability to move denim jackets in a Kith lookbook, the incentive structure of the squad collapses. We are looking at a future where starting XIs are influenced by apparel contracts.

"This isn't a comeback; it's a pivot. When the boots are replaced by lifestyle sneakers in the marketing materials, the player has arguably already retired from the Champions League in their mind."

The Kith collection utilizes heavy fabrics, denim, and retro-inspired cuts. These are not garments designed for movement; they are designed for posing. This mirrors Pogba's likely trajectory. Expect his next contract negotiations to focus less on performance bonuses and more on image rights percentages. The precedent this sets is dangerous: young talents watching this unfold will learn that the brand outlives the form. Why break a leg for three points when you can preserve the knee for the Fall 2026 shoot?

Dybala and the Sunset of the Fantasista

Paulo Dybala’s inclusion is equally foreboding. The Argentine La Joya has spent years teasing greatness, hovering between world-class and injury-prone inconsistency. By attaching himself to a "Fall" collection—a season associated with cooling down, with the end of the harvest—Dybala implicitly accepts his status as a legacy act.

This collaboration serves as the canary in the coal mine for his European exit. Insider chatter has long placed him on the radar of MLS franchises or the Saudi Pro League, leagues where the tempo allows for the "heritage" style of play that Kith is fetishizing here.

The "Cobras" branding found within the collection—likely a nod to Kith's fictional teams or a stylized reinterpretation of club mascots—suggests a move away from the tribalism of real football. It creates a "Team Kith" that transcends the badge Dybala actually wears on Sundays. This erodes the connection between player and club. If Dybala is selling shirts for Ronnie Fieg, he is less concerned with selling shirts for Roma or his next employer. The loyalty transfers to the lifestyle brand.

The Death of the Technical Sponsor

We must address the elephant in the room: Adidas. For decades, the German giant sold us the dream of speed, precision, and power. Predator. F50. Copa Mundial. These were tools of war.

The 2025 Kith collaboration marks the final surrender of "Performance" to "Culture." By prioritizing denim and accessories over technical innovation in their headline Fall drop, Adidas admits that football culture has consumed the sport itself. The consequences for the transfer market are subtle but seismic.

Sporting Directors are losing power to Marketing Directors. When a club looks at signing a player in January 2026, they will not just look at Scout7 data; they will look at whether that player fits the aestheti