palace skateboards and adidas’ new drop is where skating meets nature

What brings Elton John, Mercedes, booze, Moschino and... skateboarding together? Palace Skateboards, of course. The London-based brand is about much more than just skateboarding – even if its name might be deceiving. Since 2009, its weekly drops have featured fast cars, high fashion and even beer.

Palace design team’s new collaboration, with sportswear giant Adidas, has taken the brand out of its urban surroundings. For their latest outing, the brand has created a collection inspired by the great outdoors. Debuted in a short documentary, featuring Palace skater Heitor Da Silva alongside British fisherman, photographer and angler Chris Yates, the film follows the pair as they bond over a shared fascination with the unpredictable rural landscape.

The collab, which drops on 20 May at 11am, could hardly be more of the moment. The cosy boy aesthetic – getting wrapped up for anything nature can throw at us – has emerged as the​ style successor to normcore and gorpcore. (Think, outdoorsy stuff: puffer jackets, utility vests, liner coats and cargo trousers). In the new comedy series, Nature’s Calling, Woo explores how an antidote to the mental health crisis could be right on our doorstep. It follows TikTok superstar Oatmilk Leader [Mary Steven] and musician Niko B as they ditch the city in search of a serotonin boost.

The collection features garments which might seem more suited to a walking holiday in the Peak District, or even a Duke of Edinburgh expedition. But there’s a youthful, urban-influenced thread tying the pieces together. Moss-hued fleece Adidas logo jumpers sit alongside lightweight, pocket-heavy stone jackets. The garments are adorned with collaborative branding, plus Adidas’ “End Plastic Waste” symbol. There's a nylon cap, complete with protective, bug-repelling netting and a backpack to hold all your adventuring gear. (And a few beers for the end of the day, we recommend).

This drop might be enough to momentarily unite young people who’ve long fled the countryside with their Tory-voting parents who still live there. But there’s no footwear in the collection – so you’ll have to style it out with your own country-appropriate options, which might be a challenge for the city-dwellers among us. But who knows? Perhaps a Wellington or walking boot collab is next on the horizon for Palace – the skateboarding brand that has much more to offer us.