Luxury gains muscle: how athletes have become a sure claim for fashion

Tennis player Carlos Alcaraz has been a Louis Vuitton ambassador since August 2023. Jorge Pérez Ortiz (Louis Vuitto

Of the 15.2 billion euros of net profits achieved in last year's financial year, Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy will allocate around 1% to glamorize the Paris 2024 summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. The amount of such a large contribution is not official, because the The champion French group in the luxury arena has not made it public, but sources close to the negotiation between the holding company and the organization estimate it at around 150 million euros, as revealed by the France Presse agency.

Which is not a bad peak for a budget of 4.4 billion.

“The relationship between France and Paris with the most exclusive brands is so powerful that it would be a bit foolish for LVMH not to want to get involved as much as it can,” concluded The Business of Fashion portal upon learning of the premium sponsorship agreement [sic] reached. last July, after months of arduous tug-of-war over the Olympic use of the brands that make up the conglomerate.

But this is a story that is not about money, but about values, of course.

Gymnast Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos is new ambassador for Dior.Nelson Rosier

“As a sponsor, LVMH will try to bring a little touch of creativity, especially in moments of celebration.

"We do not want to be a mere financial partner, our desire is to play an important role in the development of these Games," acknowledged Antoine Arnault, president and CEO of the French emporium and eldest son of its founder, the businessman Bernard Arnault (second or third fortune in the world, it depends on the stock market fluctuations), before the journalists who attended the presentation of the first milestone of the agreement, in February: the new medals that the creditors of sporting glory will wear, signed by the jewelry house, Chaumet.

That in these moments of celebration the champagne (Moët & Chandon) and cognac (Hennessy) that serve as the conglomerate's surnames will also flow is taken for granted.

But this is a story with other protagonists, those who embody the values ​​of the cause, would be missing.

Usain Bolt is the image of Puma.Taylor Hill (WireImage / Getty I

In fact, LVMH made its first Olympic splash in September, with the signing of new, award-winning athletes as brand ambassadors.

Swimmer Léon Marchand, five-time world champion;

fencer Enzo Lefort, gold in Tokyo 2020;

gymnast Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos, four-time European artistic gymnastics champion;

the tennis player Pauline Déroulède, French wheelchair tennis champion, and the paracyclist Marie Patouillet, with two bronzes in the last Paralympic Games, all upcoming medal candidates for their country, stood on the Louis Vuitton podium (them) and Dior (them) as representatives of those “craftsmen of all victories” with whom the luxury group is identified, a centenary supplier of trophies and trunks made to measure for high competition – from the World Cup to Roland Garros or the Copa América de sail—and not at all alien to this game.

Neither are its two flagships, which have long used elite athletes for their advertising actions.

In addition to the usual soccer stars, Louis Vuitton's men's division won the favors of Carlos Alcaraz in August of last year (for the Spanish tennis player, second in the world men's ranking, Paris will precisely be his Olympic debut), while that Dior Men has just added skater Aurélien Giraud and surfer Kauli Vaast to its team.

Fencer Daryl Homer, with the uniform designed by Ralph Lauren for Tokyo 2020. Ralph Lauren

“The relationship between athletes and large luxury brands, especially fashion, has always been limited, if we don't talk about footballers.

With the exception of Rolex, few have had them as an image or claim.

But social networks have changed the rules: sport is a showcase for million-dollar audiences, and athletes are the best asset to make a brand visible, reach a greater number of potential consumers and achieve or strengthen their loyalty," concedes Sean Burke, analyst at the Clarkston consulting firm.

It is true that, although the clothing business is a long-distance race on Olympic terrain, with equipment designed by some of its first champions (Issey Miyake for Lithuania in Barcelona 1992, Ralph Lauren for the United States since Beijing 2008, Stella McCartney for the United Kingdom in London 2012, Telfar Clemens for Liberia in Tokyo 2020), their love for athletes as advertising banners is a relatively new phenomenon beyond the labels that are their own.

We have seen them, in fact, showing off in Nike, Adidas or Puma campaigns (Usain Bolt was one of the models in the fall/winter 2022-2023 collection that paraded in New York a couple of years ago).

They are common in labels with sports roots, such as Lacoste (for Paris, German gymnast Marcel Nguyen has been hired as an ambassador).

And there is even a legendary precedent, that of Jesse Owens wearing a seminal model of Dassler sneakers—the seed of Adidas and Puma—to break records at the 1936 Berlin Games. However, it was not until their revelation as genuine content creators that They have won over the champions of exclusivity.

The Chaumet jewelry store, one of the oldest in Paris, has been in charge of creating the Paris 2024 medals.Stephane de Sakutin (Afp / Getty

Prada has understood this perfectly, so much so that to recalibrate its play in the Chinese market it has weighted athletes above the usual entertainment celebrities.

After turning table tennis gold medalist Ma Long into an athletic ambassador, he signed shot putter Gong Lijiao, marathon runner Li Zhixuan, water polo player Xion Dungan and basketball player Yang Shuyu for the spring/summer campaign. 2022 on Douyin (the original Asian TikTok), in a display of diversity that made non-normative bodies visible.

That same year, Hugo Boss took a step forward with the signing of the Italian tennis player Matteo Berrettini not only as a model/image of his Boss line, but also as a guest designer.

His countryman and court partner Jannik Sinner caused a viral sensation for his part when he paraded around the grass at the last Wimbledon with a monogrammed Gucci bag, as the first athlete outside of football to achieve ambassador status for the Italian brand.

Here is the crux: medal-winning athletes not only draw crowds on social networks, outside their fields of play, as positive examples associated with the sweat of improvement, it is that, on top of that, with them there is less probability of the scandal that comes. with the usual suspects from film, television or music.

It is normal that luxury also wants to have them.

Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner is a Gucci ambassador.

In the image, with a bag from the firm.Simon Bruty (Anychance / Getty I

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

Keep reading

I am already a subscriber

_