M&S is the retail outlet for a new McLaren Racing and Sonic the Hedgehog apparel collection, launched in stores and online this week.
The range includes children’s sweatshirts, rugby tops and bomber jackets featuring Sonic and McLaren branding.
It marks the first apparel collaboration to come out of McLaren and SEGA’s partnership, announced in 2025, when SEGA became McLaren Racing’s Official Gaming Partner.
The relationship also draws on a longstanding connection between the two brands, dating back to 1993, when the team received a Sonic trophy after winning the European Grand Prix.
M&S is not a McLaren partner, but the new Sonic collection is also not a standalone launch.
It is the third strand of a broader push into Formula 1’s audience over the past year. The retailer became Official Travel Kit Partner of the Atlassian Williams F1 Team in February through a multi-year deal covering the team’s travel wardrobe, alongside formalwear for drivers, engineers and leadership.
Three weeks later, M&S announced a separate multi-year partnership with Silverstone, becoming a year-round Official Partner of the circuit and Main Stage Sponsor of the Pirelli British Grand Prix.
The strategy reached the British Grand Prix itself in July, when M&S staged a fashion show in Silverstone’s pit lane, incorporating pieces from its Williams travel-kit programme into the collection.
The McLaren and Sonic range gives M&S a third and different kind of route into the sport’s audience, this time through entertainment IP and consumer product rather than teamwear or an event partnership.
