Inside Fashion’s Biggest Olympics Ever

26 Jul 2024

In 2024, the Olympics are in fashion.

Brands across the industry, from the highest echelons of luxury (LVMH is the event’s premium partner) to mass-market players (Gap-owned Athleta is the “dry land” sponsor of Team USA swimmer Katie Ledecky) are aligning themselves with the Games in Paris in hopes of capturing some of that Olympic shine for themselves.

The Olympics have always been a playground for large brands with deep marketing budgets, like sportswear giants like Nike or Adidas or the homegrown labels like American fashion giant Ralph Lauren. They will still have a major presence at this year’s Olympics, but so will companies like Left on Friday, the direct-to-consumer swimwear company, which is outfitting Canada’s beach volleyball team in one-shouldered bikinis, and Actively Black, a three-year-old Black-owned athleisure label that is dressing Team Nigeria. Plus, countless labels are engaging in Olympic-centric advertising: enlisting Olympic athletes as ambassadors, rolling out special product collections, hosting events and more.

“I want to build a global brand, and it doesn’t get any more global than the Olympics,” said Lanny Black, founder of Actively Black.

The Olympics’ appeal is about more than its status as one of the last vestiges of monoculture. Though that shouldn’t be discounted: these will be the first games free of pandemic-era restrictions; millions of visitors are expected to spend an estimated €2.6 billion ($2.8 billion). According to eMarketer, the Paris Olympics will be the most-watched event since the Rio Olympics in 2016. Plus, the setting of fashion’s favourite city, Paris, automatically lends the event a certain level of glamour. LVMH, the world’s largest fashion conglomerate, is a premium Olympic partner and the biggest local sponsor of the games — typically a role that went to a decidedly less luxury-associated firm like Toyota or General Electric. That sponsorship ensures that there’s an LVMH entity behind nearly every moment of the games: jeweller Chaumet is crafting the medals, menswear seller Berluti is designing Team France’s opening ceremony outfits, Moët champagne stocked in the VIP suites, and trays and a travel trunk designed by Louis Vuitton to carry competition medals and Olympic torch, respectively.