Balenciaga is investing in Substack creators, becoming the first fashion brand to join up with the platform through Substack’s new native partnership program. Announced on June 15, the program gives brands the tools to directly back Substackers by putting ad dollars behind the creators, rather than the platform itself.

Through the partnership, Balenciaga will work with creators to plug ads in newsletters, promote products directly in Substack content, share affiliate links, and co-host events. Balenciaga plans to work with more than just fashion creators, exploring the worlds of music, wellness, and other fields where Substackers have built a presence.

“Substack is reshaping the media landscape by giving greater control to independent publishers and creators. Balenciaga has a long history of supporting bold voices across culture, and this partnership felt like a natural extension of that commitment,” says Balenciaga CEO Gianfranco Gianangeli. “This reflects our commitment to supporting creativity, independent thinking, and new forms of cultural expression.”

Balenciaga launched its own profile on Substack last year, where it posts intermittent dispatches from creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli and became the first brand to live stream its runway shows on the platform. On Wednesday, Balenciaga and Substack hosted a panel at the brand’s Cannes store featuring Vogue contributor Plum Sykes and writer Pauline Klein, and moderated by head of Substack international Farrah Storr, about the changing nature of media and influence. That theme is central to Substack’s pitch to brands as well as creators: it wants to be the facilitator of a new content landscape, where audiences follow individual voices that brands can invest in directly.

The new partner program will fuel what has become a massive ecosystem of creators, who are competing for time and attention.

“On Substack, people do work they believe in for an audience that chooses to subscribe to them directly, with many choosing to pay. That creates a different dynamic than much of the internet,” says Substack CEO Chris Best. “These types of partnerships will succeed by adding value to that relationship through unlocking creative ambition as well as equity for brands. This model works because the incentives align with the trust relationship between creator and subscriber.”

Substack has become a way for brands to diversify revenue streams and drive traffic as the social media landscape changes. More often, people are looking to break out of the sameness of the algorithmic scroll and find new, interesting voices, which is what Substack enables, Best says.

“In a world increasingly shaped by algorithms and AI, meaningful engagement matters more than volume,” Gianangeli says. “The most valuable connections happen within communities where audiences are actively choosing what they consume. Substack creates exactly that kind of environment.”