Inside The KidSuper Collaboration Shaped By Colm Dillane’s Irish Roots

For Colm Dillane, the latest KidSuper collab was never just about clothes.

Built alongside Jameson Irish Whiskey and shaped by a trip to the Middleton Distillery in Ireland last year, the project became something a lot more personal: a creative exploration of heritage, football culture and the communities that have defined the KidSuper universe from the very beginning.

Drawing inspiration from his Irish roots and his upbringing in NYC, Dillane approached the Bottled by KidSuper collection—part of Jameson’s It’s What You Bring campaign—through memory and emotion as much as design. The floral patterns inspired by his grandmother’s couch sit alongside vintage football references, old-school warm-up silhouettes and varsity-inspired Americana, creating an eight-piece capsule that feels nostalgic while still grounded in contemporary streetwear.

Football—or “soccer”, as Dillane insists on calling it—sits at the centre of the project. Long before luxury fashion embraced the sport’s cultural crossover, KidSuper was already championing it as a creative language tied to art, music and identity. Now, as the worlds of fashion and football continue to collide internationally, Dillane finds himself in the unique position of seeing the things he genuinely loves become central to the wider cultural conversation.

The It’s What You Bring campaign also sees Dillane reunite with his close friend, J Balvin—one of the earliest major artists to publicly support KidSuper before the brand reached its current global scale. Their long-standing relationship brings another layer of authenticity to the collaboration—a meeting of two creatives who helped shape each other’s worlds long before the spotlight arrived.

Complex UK caught up with Colm Dillane at KidSuper Studios in Brooklyn to talk football, fashion and the creative world behind his latest project.

COMPLEX: You visited the Middleton Distillery in Ireland last year with Jameson Whiskey—how did that experience inform this project?
Colm Dillane: It was really special. My dad’s Irish, and all of his side of the family is in Ireland, so my cousin and uncle came with me. I hadn’t seen them in a long time, so it became more than just a work trip. When you grow up Irish-American, people in America think you’re super Irish. Then you go to Ireland and they’re like, “Who’s this dumb Yank?” [Laughs] But honestly, doing this collaboration gave me a little more credibility over there. I’ve always been really interested in Irish history—or more specifically, my father’s history—so being able to connect that with a creative project was amazing. It became a way for me to learn more about my roots through fashion and storytelling.

Football, fashion and community have always been central to the KidSuper universe. How did you bring those three elements together in this particular campaign?
What’s cool is that the things I genuinely love—soccer, art and community—are finally becoming culturally relevant in a mainstream way. Now every brand wants to talk to me about soccer, and I’m like, “Man, I’ve been screaming about soccer for 10 or 20 years!” [Laughs] Suddenly, it’s become the “cool” sport. I still call it soccer, by the way [laughs]. If you’re American and you suddenly start calling it football, it feels pretentious, because then people think you mean American football. But yeah, it’s exciting that the things I’ve authentically cared about for years are now the exact things brands want to collaborate with me on.

You draw from both your Irish heritage and your experience growing up in New York throughout the Bottled by KidSuper collection. How did those influences shape the creative direction?
Inspiration came from everywhere. The floral jersey, for example, was inspired by the print on my grandmother’s couch—and to me, that feels very Irish. The tracksuits came from vintage football warm-up culture, while the styling, hats and varsity jackets lean more American and more New York. We really tried to cover every side of the story—heritage, football, streetwear, nostalgia—and bring those worlds together naturally.

You’ve spoken about your love of football for years, and have been a fan of the sport since childhood. How did that passion naturally find its way into this project?
Everything connects back to the things I loved as a kid: soccer, art and music. Even working with J Balvin on this was meaningful because he was one of the first major artists to support KidSuper early on. We go back years, so it was cool that this project brought us together again in such an organic way. Honestly, this collaboration felt easy because it was something everybody genuinely wanted to do.

You’ve collaborated with a lot of friends and long-time creative partners over the years. Does mixing friendship with work ever complicate the creative process?
Well, it depends. You never want your friends to feel like you’re pulling favours out of them or pressuring them into something. I think the key is giving more than you receive. That’s how friendships survive, especially in creative industries.

Even as KidSuper reaches a wider international audience, the brand still feels very intimate and personal. How do you preserve that DIY energy while operating on a much bigger scale?
That’s a really great question. Honestly, I don’t think too much about “international audiences” anymore because culture has become so globalised through fashion and the internet. For me, the focus is always authenticity: I just want to make something good and something real. Sometimes collaborations between streetwear and alcohol brands can feel forced, and I really didn’t want this to feel like that. Everything needed to connect naturally.

For me, this project was really about reconnecting with my roots, which made it personal straight away. At the same time, Jameson is such an international brand, so it’s been amazing seeing how different markets respond to the collection and interpret it in their own way. And honestly, the tracksuit goes hard! [Laughs] But overall, the coolest part has just been getting to work with an Irish brand in a way that still feels authentic to me.