Why Fashion and Sports Make a Good Olympic Team

25 Jul 2024

Fashion is getting its game on — and it looks good.

Style and sport have gone together for a long time, but the Summer Olympics in Paris will, starting Friday, offer a reminder of just how good the pairing is.

With the youth of the world gathering to compete in the City of Light, fashion is getting an unusually large piece of the spotlight. Luxury powerhouse LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton is acting as premium partner and, as usual, brands around the world are supplying competitors with country-themed looks, from Ralph Lauren in the U.S. and Berluti in France to On in Switzerland and Asics in Japan.
Antoine Arnault, head of communication, image and environment at LVMH, told WWD, “Athletes and sports today convey values of excellence, passion and high standards, which echo those of our craftsmen who, every day, carry out each gesture with precision to produce the world’s most beautiful products.”
Underscoring the like-minded excellence shared by top athletes and brands also opens certain very profitable doors. (Witness Nike Inc.’s longstanding collaboration with basketball great Michael Jordan, which led the Jordan brand to nearly nearly $7 billion in sales in the last year alone.)
“From a strategic point of view, our collaborations and partnerships in sport or with athletes allow us to reach a wider audience than with more ‘classic’ ambassadors or campaigns,” Arnault said.

Fashion has taken a lot of heat — and much of it well deserved — for being focused too much on surface and not enough on substance. And associating with sports brings out some of the industry’s better angles.

While so much of fashion marketing relies heavily on attractiveness, using athletes to make the pitch helps brands hit other notes, leaning into a certain indomitable spirit, performance, competitiveness and more.

Brandon Brown, president of the Sports Marketing Association, called sport “that unique medium” that resonates around the world.

“Almost everybody is able to identify with sport one way or the other, and especially the Olympics because there’s so much diversity in terms of backgrounds, in terms of color, terms of sex, in terms of gender,” said Brown, who is also director of TIDES, The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida’s College of Business.

Brown said fashion brands get at least three things by being connected to the Olympics.

It’s a powerful connection and one that smart brands have understood for years.

Launchmetrics estimated Ralph Lauren scored $14.8 million in media impact value on social media for its Olympic-related sponsorships at the Tokyo Summer Games, when the brand designed official Team USA uniforms.
And Nike, whatever its current struggles are, became a powerhouse by staying close to sport — and it plans to continue to dominate in the space.