Case Study | Fashion’s New Rules For Sports Marketing

When the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Video games kick off in July 2024, the tens of millions of world followers watching will see way over simply athletes.

LVMH manufacturers reminiscent of Louis Vuitton, Dior and Berluti will present uniforms for choose groups, whereas the medals would be the work of its excessive jewelry label, Chaumet. For the primary time ever, the video games will characteristic LVMH-sponsored athletes, together with world-champion swimmer Léon Marchand, European champion in inventive gymnastics Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos and Olympic gold-medalist fencer Ezno Lefort.

The “premium” partnership between LVMH and the Olympics marks the most important indication up to now of sport’s newfound significance to style. Till not too long ago, sport was one of many remaining cultural arenas through which style, with a number of exceptions, had didn’t forge long-lasting and significant relationships. That has modified.

Trend manufacturers are waking as much as the business worth of sports activities like basketball, soccer, tennis and Method 1 as they appear to be a part of the booming sports-sponsorship market, which is projected to develop from $63.1 billion in 2021 to $109.1 billion by 2030, in line with PwC.

“Sport is now the one by-appointment factor to observe on TV or tune into dwell at that cut-off date — all the pieces else is on demand,” stated Clive Reeves, PwC’s UK sports activities chief. “To be within the dialog, you should watch sport at that cut-off date, which makes it the one factor left in society that actually drives an enormous quantity of individuals at particular moments, which for manufacturers may be very particular and worthwhile.”

A New Enjoying Discipline

The scope for style’s skill to faucet into sports activities has been blown vast open. Past competing with massive firms for conventional sponsorship on jerseys or round stadiums, manufacturers can goal area of interest areas the place they might have a extra pure affect. For instance, they will companion with athletes on clothes traces, gown them for the “tunnel stroll” that happens as they enter an area — pictures of that are immediately shared on-line by devoted social media accounts — and even create clothes for his or her avatars in video video games.

“There’s nonetheless a lot untapped potential and uncharted territory for manufacturers to discover throughout so many various sports activities,” stated Kenny Annan-Jonathan, a sports activities advertising and marketing veteran and founding father of London-based company The Mailroom, who was appointed artistic director of the Premier League’s Crystal Palace Soccer Membership in August 2023. “We’re solely on the outset of seeing the place the world of sports activities can take style manufacturers.”

Whereas sportswear corporations like Nike, Adidas and Puma have lengthy since aligned their manufacturers with style, this case examine unpacks alternatives for non-sportswear manufacturers and retailers. The businesses profiled — German luxurious model Boss, Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer and UK-based sneaker market start-up The Edit Ldn — every have positioned sports activities advertising and marketing on the coronary heart of their progress methods and model identities, both to deepen connections with present shoppers or as a method to successfully and authentically goal new audiences.

Disclosure: LVMH is a part of a bunch of traders who, collectively, maintain a minority curiosity in The Enterprise of Trend. All traders have signed shareholders’ documentation guaranteeing BoF’s full editorial independence.