Inside Fashion’s Biggest Olympics Ever

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.

Luxury branding all over this year’s Olympics is fitting considering fashion and sports’ closer ties. In April, women’s basketball phenom Caitlin Clark became the first player to be dressed by Prada for either the WNBA or NBA draft. Both WNBA and NBA tunnel walks have evolved into their own sort of runway, with luxury labels clamouring to dress star players before games. Athletes are now common sightings in the front row – and on the runways – in Paris and Milan. Fashion and beauty companies routinely partner with sports teams to access their rosters of marketable superstars and global fanbases.

Marketing at the Olympics this year is sure to look different, whether it’s because of new advertisers entering the sphere or traditional Olympic advertisers facing pressure to update their strategies in the face of heightened competition for consumer eyeballs during the event.

“When you tap into a fandom, you have a whole new audience that you’re able to introduce the brand to and to begin telling your story outside of the echo chamber,” said Lauren Stillman, senior vice president at entertainment and culture agency R&CPMK. “It can really help a brand evolve and grow.”

An Influx of New Players

In a fragmented media landscape, the Olympics offers a rare moment where people are all focused on the same thing. As Eric Dahan, founder of marketing agency Mighty Joy, put it: “[The Olympics] have a broad appeal in a world that’s pretty polarised.”

But for fashion, it’s also a chance to for a spot on the world’s stage, and introduce it to a new audience. Particularly as interest in women’s sports ramps up, the Olympics — typically the biggest platform for sports with more visibility for female athletes, like gymnastics — offers a seamless entry point. Jeweller Pandora released an Olympics collection of charms and bracelets, and enlisted French Olympians Estelle Mossely, a gold medal-winning boxer and football player Sakina Karchaoui, to star in a corresponding campaign.

“We want to support women in all areas of their lives, and women in sports is a key area that we’ve seen needs more visibility and more support,” said Mary Carmen Gasco-Buisson, the chief marketing officer of Pandora.

With plenty of brands entering the Olympic conversation for the first time — LVMH being the most prominent example — they have to get more creative to get their logo in front of viewers. This year’s medal trays, historically an unbranded moment, will be done in Louis Vuitton’s signature brown-and-tan check. Figs, a DTC label that makes scrubs for healthcare professionals, is outfitting the 250 medics headed to Paris with Team USA — the first time Team USA’s healthcare workers have an official uniform.

Bené Eaton, CMO of Figs, said that the partnership allowed it to spotlight its mission of uplifting healthcare workers — a corresponding campaign is running this summer in out-of-home ads along commuter routes to hospitals in major cities — as well as engaging with the general public.

Simply riding on the Olympic association, however, is not enough to stand out, particularly this year. Figs, for example, is hosting multiple events, including “From Arch to Arc,” an opening ceremony watch party held in New York City’s Washington Square Park — a nod to Paris’ Arc du Triomphe. Athleta ran its first TV ad, starring Biles, ahead of the Games.

Brands can do more than serve as an official partner of a team or the International Olympic Committee. J.Crew, for example, rolled out a product collaboration with USA Swimming meant to “help solidify our place as a great American brand.” It’s not an official Team USA sponsorship, but still puts J.Crew in close proximity to one of the most-watched events. The first drop of t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats and more was so well received J.Crew did a second release to meet demand.

Activewear brand Year of Ours didn’t have the budget to forge an official partnership with a team, but released an Olympic-inspired collection in reds, whites and blues, called “Year of Ours Sports,” to capitalise on the moment without even using the word “Olympic” in its messaging, which is reserved for official sponsors.

“It’s a way for us to be involved and our consumer to be involved that’s accessible,” said founder Eleanor Haycock. “Other brands are maybe making clothing for athletes, we’re making what the fan would wear.”

Sportswear Giants Still Have Their Say

The influx of new brands is creating challenges for traditional sponsors like Nike and Adidas, which have long used the Olympics as a springboard for launching new product cycles and memorable campaigns. This time around, they are going bigger than ever on cultural marketing too.

Nike remains by far the biggest athletic sponsor of the Games, working with hundreds of athletes and over 100 international federations. The brand is especially keen to assert its dominance, coming off the back of a troubled 18 months. It announced a partnership with the Centre Pompidou (whose architectural design is said to have inspired the creation of the Air Max 1), turning the facade of the iconic Paris landmark into a jumbo-sized Nike billboard. Jordan Brand has transformed a former department store in the city’s 18th arrondissement into “District 23″, which will feature six weeks of cultural and sporting events for locals.

Nike’s pre-Olympics marketing peaked with last week’s “Winning Isn’t For Everyone” campaign, which was widely celebrated by fans for evoking the arrogance and swagger of the brand’s 1980s and 1990s Air Jordan commercials. Meanwhile, it also released the Nike Jam, its first-ever shoe for breakdancing, to assert its presence in the competition’s Olympic debut.

“The Paris Olympics offers us a pinnacle moment to communicate our vision of sport to the world,” chief executive John Donahoe told investors last month.

Other sportswear names are not passing up on the opportunity either. Adidas launched its own pre-Olympics campaign, an uplifting commercial which tracks athletes like American sprinter Noah Lyles to the soundtrack of Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure.” The brand will also present the latest iteration of its Sporty & Rich collaboration at Paris’ Le Bristol hotel. In recent weeks, Salomon opened its first ever sportstyle concept store in Paris to showcase its fashion-forward footwear and apparel, as well as a flagship store on the Champs-Élysées in May. On also chose the famous shopping street for its largest ever flagship store, set over three floors, which opened earlier this month. The Swiss sneaker giant, which sponsors 66 athletes at the Games, will also be showcasing its latest sneaker technology such as LightSpray at its On Labs location in Paris, as well as hosting panel talks and run clubs.

New Balance is sponsoring 85 athletes including US Open champion Coco Gauff, and is also bringing prized sneaker collaborators, Joe Freshgoods and Teddy Santis, to Paris to host events launching upcoming collections, including Freshgoods’ much-anticipated 990v6 silhouette.

“Brands are getting a lot smarter and leveraging those moments outside of the actual sporting action at the Olympics,” said Kenny Annan-Jonathan, founder of sports marketing agency The Mailroom.