How luxury brands have engaged in sponsor and partnerships over the decades
ModernRetail and Glossy somehow decided to “columbus” that luxury houses like Prada and Burberry are “stepping into the sports arena”. Which disregards over fifty years of sponsor- and partnerships between the two sectors.
So let’s take a look together at the first intersections between sport events and luxury brands before we wrap up with the renewed focus on European soccer clubs as preferred partners for European maisons.
Also, why does Indochino get mentioned in the context of luxury ?
It all began with Ottavio Missoni (yes, the Missoni) who launched Venjulia tracksuits worn by the Italian Olympic team in 1948 — he’s also credited with the invention of zippered legs.
1978 — Rolex x Wimbledon. The Swiss watch brand is arguably one of the last true luxury brands, and it has a long history with sports. Not only did it start the long lasting Wimbledon partnership in 1978, it was also the year that Rolex hired its first female testimonial, Chris Evert.
Today Rolex not only sponsors all four tennis Grand Slams and has decicated watches for each tournament (Australian Open — Oyster Perpetual, Roland Garros — GMT Master II, Wimbledon — Datejust Wimbledon dial, US Open — Datejust in steel and yellow gold) but is also involved in the Davis and Laver Cup among others.
1983 Louis Vuitton associates with the America’s Cup Challenger Series (1983–2017), 4 years before LVMH was founded.
1992 Polo, the Ralph Lauren brand, decides to sponsor the America 3 yacht.
1997 Prada founded Team Luna Rossa. The team’s merchandise was so desirable in the early years that fans liaised with crew members to get a coveted shirt or even jacket; the challenger series became the Prada Cup (2021)
2005 Ralph Lauren RLX shuts down its mountain bike team
2008 Ralph Lauren takes over US Olympics ceremony outfit sponsorship, the cooperation is ongoing.
Now we are entering the era of European soccer as the de-facto hotbed for luxury sponsorships.
2016 The iconic Canadian designer duo Dsquared2 signs a partnership with Manchester City that entails seasonal capsule collections which are being released to this day.
2018 Thom Browne signs three-year deal with FC Barcelona.
2019 Emporio Armani signs sponsorship agreement with the Italian soccer federation to provide men’s, women’s, and under-21’s national teams with formal match-day uniforms.
2020 Charles Tyrwhitt signed a four-year partnership with England Rugby to become the team’s official formal wear partner from September 2020. Thank you Anthony for making me aware of this.
2021 Armani’s activewear brand EA7 becomes technical sponsor of Calcio Napoli
2021 Dior x Paris Saint Germain
2021 Moncler x Inter Milan
2021 Tombolini, the Italian RTW brand famous for its Zero Gravity suits enters a partnership with soccer club AS Rome.
2021 LVMH’s fine fibers brand Loro Piana enters a sponsorship with Juventus Turin.
2022 and the sponsorships of European soccer clubs grew again.
Farfetch-owned Off-White (owned under parent company New Guards Group which also owns Heron Preston and Palm Angels) teamed up AC Milan as style and culture curator.
2022 The Roman house of Fendi announced its sponsorship of soccer club AS Rome.
2022 Zegna, the Italian suit and fine fabrics specialist who I’ve written about because it is shaping up to become Italy’s counterweight to LVMH becomes sponsor of Real Madrid. The capsule collection led to long lines on launch day at the brand’s Madrid flagship store.
2022 It is Charles Tyrwhitt again, this time the brand signed a multi-year deal with The New York Jets, which marks the first cross-Atlantic NFL brand partnership in menswear.
2023 Kiton’s KNT brand signed a two-year partnership with Tottenham Hotspur F.C. as its off-field formal wear supplier
2023 Ralph Lauren partners with G2 Esports and becomes the team’s official outfitter. The partnership also features a capsule collection that combines Ralph Lauren design hallmarks and G2 Esports’ crest.
2023 LVMH announces its top tier sponsorship of the 2024 Paris Olympics. This sponsorship is the odd duckling on this list because it does not entail a single brand from the holding’s portfolio but instead encompasses the entire organization. It is listed for the record, because it, by the time of this writing, represents a different dynamic for being a corporate sponsor versus a commercially available brand.
So after seeing all of these partnerships, what is the takeaway ? It is in fact not new for luxury brands to sponsor sport events, teams or athletes. It is also commercially valuable for brands to grow their audience with capsule collections that are sold through the brand’s own channels, thus not only collecting data, but also banking all of the profit margin.
In addition to exposure to a broader audience, these sponsorships are also aiming at the next generation of customers, which are essential for the aspirational nature of luxury goods.
In the past brands focused mainly on golf and tennis, which at first glance have a greater overlap with the brands’ core customer base. This narrow focus ultimately limits the long term growth of brands, which as we all know from Byron Sharp, and Binet and Field grow through light buyers and a combination of mental and physical availability, as well as long and short term advertising exposure.
Luxury brands have closely aligned themselves with sports for decades. Many of these brands were more attainable in decades past, e.g. a Rolex didn’t use to cost 20%–30% of a western citizen’s average annual income, and thus remained more aspirationally attainable. By outperforming inflation for decades, luxury brands have doubled down arguably too much on their core audiences and now need to cast a wider net. And in a world of filter bubbles, teams and events offer a large and relatively well defined surface area for brands to target without risking to fall victims to curators or algorithms. So while the external reasons may have changed, the core concept and motivation for sport sponsorships remains the same.
