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BENGALURU: Cricket fandom is stepping onto a different pitch as PUMA and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) take their six-year partnership to Milan Fashion Week, joining hands with Indian designer Dhruv Kapoor.
The trio has debuted three statement jackets as part of Kapoor’s Spring/Summer 2027 collection, Presence, giving RCB’s sporting identity a high-fashion treatment. The wider PUMA x RCB x Dhruv Kapoor collection is scheduled to arrive during the 2027 IPL season.
Rather than unveiling the next chapter of the partnership through a conventional sportswear campaign, PUMA has used Kapoor’s Milan runway as its first reveal. The three jackets offer an early look at the collaboration, months before the larger collection reaches consumers.
Kapoor has reworked existing PUMA pieces through his design language, reconstructing performance textiles and technical components and combining them with handcrafted interventions. The result is a trio of limited-edition runway pieces that bring together cricket, sportswear and fashion.
The Milan appearance comes as RCB’s commercial and cultural presence continues to expand. The franchise was valued at USD 269 million in 2025 and has more than 22 million followers on Instagram, accounting for a 16.2 per cent share of engagement, according to the campaign communication.
RCB merchandise has also recorded strong traction. PUMA’s 2026 authentic RCB jersey registered a 300 per cent year-on-year increase in sales and became PUMA’s top-selling apparel globally within its first week of launch, the company said.
The partnership between PUMA and RCB has evolved over six years beyond match-day merchandise, extending into fan experiences, participation-led campaigns and the #RCBEverywhere initiative, which encourages supporters to take their RCB fandom beyond the stadium.
The Milan collaboration extends that idea into fashion, placing RCB’s visual codes within a global fashion context while connecting the cricket franchise with a designer-led creative proposition.
The Milan reveal is the first step in the collaboration rather than its final launch. A larger PUMA x RCB x Dhruv Kapoor collection will arrive for the 2027 IPL season.
Each of the three styles showcased in Milan will be produced as part of a limited-edition collection and made available through select PUMA and Dhruv Kapoor retail and online channels.
The collaboration brings together RCB’s fan community, PUMA’s sportswear platform and Kapoor’s fashion perspective, taking the franchise’s identity from the cricket stands to one of the world’s major fashion stages.
