Why Usyk Wearing Stone Island Is Bigger Than Usyk
You probably saw Oleksandr Usyk's Stone Island campaign and thought, "Huh, just another namedrop." He’s a world champion boxer, globally known, easy choice. But his Stone Island turn actually goes way deeper.
Usyk’s modeling gig isn’t a big deal just because Usyk is famous. Nearly every Stone Island campaign star is famous. No, Usyk is different because he grew up around Stoney the same way that a lot of Ukrainians grew up around Stoney. This campaign was his coming-home moment.
But to really get why Usyk matters to Stone Island, and vice versa, you have to understand the brand's appeal in Ukraine and, really, all of Eastern Europe.
There, Stone Island wasn’t something you just walked into stores to buy. I’m speaking from experience here. I grew up in Eastern Europe and spent a lot of time in Ukraine. As such, I grew up with a lot of Ukrainians. We'd dig through secondhand stores for stuff to resell.
Sometimes, you'd come across a piece of Stone Island mixed in with everything else imported from Italy and Northern Europe. It was a rare come-up worth treasuring. These stores were our gateway to Stone Island. When you’d spot that compass badge between piles of worn-out jeans and jackets, it was electrifying. It felt like striking gold. And sometimes it was so good, you had to keep it for yourself.
“I bought a Stone Island sweatshirt from a secondhand reseller when I was 11," says Vlad, a fellow secondhand buyer. "Wearing the badge was a stamp of approval on the streets." And that “stamp” wasn’t hype. It meant you’d done the work to find something most people couldn’t. Stone Island “was a gem everyone looked for,” adds Pavel, another reseller.
Stone Island’s link to okolofootball — football fandom — gave it an edge but in Ukraine it was especially defined by its scarcity. You didn’t just wear Stone Island, you earned it — as locals like Usyk would know. Since most people couldn’t afford Stone Island, finding it secondhand made it feel doubly valuable. That process of uncovering Stone Island elevated it into this unattainable ideal that everyone craved.
“A friend of mine gifted me a sweatshirt for my 16th birthday because I was yapping about [how badly I wanted] something from Stone Island,” recalls Ilya, another childhood friend. That craving shaped people’s love of the brand. After all, you want want you (usually) can’t have.
This is exactly the world Usyk comes out of and that’s why his role in Stone Island’s Fall/Winter 2025 campaign hits differently.
Stone Island knew that, of course, because Stone Island knows that its brand is inextricable from the youth culture that’s informed its vitality across Europe and the UK. Its campaigns are packed with recognizable people like Paolo Maldini and Spike Lee who are, yes, famous, but also carry a real connection to the brand.
Usyk just happens to be both: a global name and someone who embodies a deep personal link. It's why you always see him wearing Stoney.
This connection was made particularly obvious last year when Usyk fought Daniel Dubois at Wembley last year, a fight that ended in a fifth-round TKO and secured his place as a three-time undisputed world champion. But before all that, he walked out to the ring in custom Stone Island.
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