For most brands, designing a collection alongside Nike for the England national team would be a career milestone. For Palace, though, it feels more like destiny finally catching up.

This summer, ahead of the 2026 World Cup, Palace has partnered with Nike and the England national team on a capsule collection that feels bigger than the sum of its parts. At its centre sits an anthem jacket inspired by one of Nike's most revered silhouettes: the Destroyer.

Talking exclusively to LIFEJACKET, John "Fenners" Fendley's channel dedicated to celebrating the intersection of football, fashion, and music, Palace co-founder, Gareth Skewis, described the collection – which features everything from tees and tracksuits, to the aforementioned Anthem Jacket – as a "true full circle moment".

Rendered in that unmistakable Nike orange, the Anthem Jacket is the kind of piece that instantly taps into decades of sporting nostalgia while somehow feeling completely current.

Officially landing on June 12th, with proceeds going to the Football Beyond Borders, the collection is a part of Nike’s full-scale World Cup collaboration roll-out alongside the likes of Jacquemus, NOCTA, Patta and more.

For Palace, long before it was dressing footballers, collaborating with the Swoosh, or helping shape the visual language of British streetwear, co-founders Skewis and Lev Tanju were just kids obsessed with sport, style and the overlap between the two.

Simply, they were the kind of people who grew up understanding that football kits could be as influential as skate videos, and that the right jacket could say as much about a generation as any trophy ever could.

England, though, was always the dream for Palace. In fact, the brand’s relationship with the Three Lions almost got them into trouble long before it became official.

"Lev and I had always thought about England and Nike,” said Skewis. “In fact, one of the only times I've had to deal with Trading Standards directly in the UK was in 2015, just after we opened the Palace shop, and we'd just knocked off the England logo and made a pair of socks."

That story has become part of Palace folklore. "The guy from Trading Standards called me – we didn't have a lawyer at the time – so I went to negotiate with him in the shop,” Skewis continued. He was like, 'Surely you know you're going to get caught, you don't seem like the stupidest man I've spoken to today, please don't do it again.'"

Eleven years later, Palace is no longer borrowing (legally or not) England iconography, but instead it’s helping to define it. "This [collection] really is a full circle [moment for us]. We've been lucky enough that Palace has been able to create an anthem jacket [and other pieces] and aligned with the FA for England ahead of the World Cup this year."

In truth, football has never sat closer to fashion than it does right now, and few British brands have navigated that intersection more naturally than Palace. And unlike many collaborations that feel engineered by committee, this one comes from genuine fandom – i.e. the references are remembered, rather than researched.

"You talk about outerwear and you instantly talk about Nike,” continues Skewis. “Then there’s Nike of a specific era, and the Destroyer jacket is the one. [When we were designing our version] I was like, what's better than the amazing Nike orange, that infrared, and being able to do it as a Destroyer?"

 

More than anything, though, Skewis imagined the moment. "For me, all I thought about was the team walking out, doing press and interviews wearing our jacket."

And perhaps that's what makes the collection resonate beyond football. It's not simply about England, Nike or even Palace. It's about what happens when the things that shape your youth somehow become your future.

"When I think about Lev and I in about 2009, skating South Bank, to now being able to work with Nike and England, I know that this is exactly what we would've done,” adds Skewis.

What I’m getting at here is that not many collaborations get to call themselves genuine full-circle moments. This one, though, has the receipts to prove it.

You can watch the full 45 minute interview with Garethj Skewis exclusively at LIFEJACKET now