Collaborations That Expand JIYONGKIM's World
From Kolon Sport to PUMA and Clarks.
Kolon Sport has teamed up with designer brand JIYONGKIM once again. Following their first collaboration last year, the two are presenting a second collection, with a pop-up running at 10 Corso Como Seoul in Cheongdam from October 8 to 15.
This collection started from the traditional clothing of Himalayan Sherpas and outdoor style. It adds JIYONGKIM's signature layering and patternwork to functional materials such as goose down and fleece, expressing the marks of time through garment washing.
Kolon Sport isn't the only brand to return to JIYONGKIM. Collaborations continue across very different fields, from an upcycling brand to sports brands. So what is it about JIYONGKIM's language that lets it move across so many brands?
The Designer Who Removes Color with Sunlight
JIYONGKIM's most distinctive feature is sun bleaching, a technique of fading clothes in sunlight.
Instead of adding dyes to apply color, it uses discoloration caused by sunlight. The color changes gradually over several months, and the results vary depending on the weather and environment. Rather than viewing fading as damage or a flaw, the brand has turned it into a design element created by time and nature.
Recognition of the brand has followed both in Korea and abroad. It won the Samsung Fashion Design Fund (SFDF) two years in a row, in 2023 and 2024, and in 2024 it was named an LVMH Prize semifinalist. It has also been stocked at Dover Street Market in London and Paris, building its presence through select shops in Korea and overseas.
One Language, Different Categories
What makes JIYONGKIM's collaborations interesting is that the brand maintains a similar brand language even across very different fields.
Kolon Sport — Outdoor
The first collaboration was unveiled in October 2025. Inspired by the traditional clothing and functional wear of Nepal's mountain Sherpas, it added JIYONGKIM's patternwork to Kolon Sport's functional materials.
Made up of 17 pieces, it featured signature items such as a 3D volume down jacket with three-dimensional pockets and a detachable hood, and 3D out-pocket pants made with CORDURA material. Alongside a pop-up at Shinsegae Gangnam, it was also presented at Dover Street Market Paris and SSENSE, spanning both domestic and overseas distribution channels.
The second collaboration continues with the Himalayan Sherpa motif. On the shared foundation of nature and the mountains, it once again combines Kolon Sport's functionality with JIYONGKIM's design language.
RE;CODE — Upcycling
With RE;CODE, Kolon FnC's upcycling brand, JIYONGKIM presented a men's collection.
RE;CODE's direction of turning discarded materials into new products met JIYONGKIM's perspective of seeing fading as a new value. It's a collaboration that showed the common ground between two brands approaching sustainability in different ways.
PUMA — Sports
In sports, JIYONGKIM teamed up with PUMA. Reinterpreting PUMA's V-S1 soccer cleat through JIYONGKIM's lens, the collaboration was released in Korea, China, and Japan. By carrying the faded textures and marks of time used in its clothing over to footwear, it added JIYONGKIM's signature sensibility to sports heritage.
Clarks Originals — Classic Shoes
In footwear, JIYONGKIM also collaborated with Clarks Originals. Reinterpreting the classic Wallabee and Desert Trek models in its own way, it added faded textures and the marks of time to familiar suede shoes. By bringing JIYONGKIM's process and aesthetic to long-loved classic models, the collaboration can be seen as inviting a fresh look at existing items.
💡 EDITORIAL SMALL TALK
What's interesting about JIYONGKIM's collaborations is that, as the brand grows, rather than continually creating new worlds, it carries its own language into other fields.
The approach of removing color with sunlight and leaving time in the design can be interpreted differently in outdoor and in sports alike. If a single distinctive technique and aesthetic can work across multiple categories, collaborations can become more than simple partnerships; they can become a way of confirming a brand's next possibilities.
