The Olympics are getting a luxurious makeover with brands like Dior, Armani and LV

LVMH is one of the biggest partners of the Paris Games, with a $160 million investment, according to Bloomberg. Brands like Dior, Louis Vuitton, Armani and Prada have invested to sponsor athletes or teams, as have more accessible high-end names like Skims, Glossier and Lululemon. They are looking to capitalize on the brand value of the Games, the growing interest in women’s sports and the host city of Paris to attract the crowds the multi-week event draws.

“Paris is a very culturally important city,” Harry Poole, vice president of marketing solutions for Excel Sports Management, told Business Insider. “There’s no doubt that the market was very relevant for that.”

The Paris Games also mark a return to form, with audiences returning for the first time since the pandemic. That’s helping to attract advertisers from around the world hoping to reach a wide audience. SponsorUnited found that 64% of sponsors for the Paris Olympics are non-local, compared to 14% for the Tokyo Games.

“We’re going to see a much bigger audience compared to the last few games we’ve had, so it’s a great opportunity for any brand to get that global exposure and be seen on a global stage,” Ellie Thorpe, director of Kantar BrandZ, told BI.

In a fragmented media landscape, where more people receive personalized ads on social media than they do spots on the evening news, the Olympics offer a rare opportunity to reach a large, diverse and guaranteed audience at the same time.

“A large portion of the world’s population will be watching” the Olympics, Fflur Roberts, global head of luxury at Euromonitor International, told BI. His group estimates that at least 1 billion people will watch the Games. “The focus is on the athletes and, by default, people will be watching what they’re wearing.”

All eyes are on women’s sport

The lack of opportunities to find a mass audience converges with a growing interest in women’s sports — a natural opportunity for fashion and beauty brands.

For the first time, an equal number of male and female athletes will compete at the Olympic Games, and Deloitte predicts that annual global revenues from elite women’s sport will surpass $1 billion this year, a record.

“Fan attendance, viewership and engagement are on the rise, and sponsoring women’s athletes and teams is seen as an easy way for brands to do so,” wrote Marguerite Le Rolland, head of apparel and footwear at Euromonitor International, in a recent report.

Among beauty brands, P&G subsidiary Olay is partnering with the event for the first time by sponsoring Team USA and enlisting several female athletes to promote a new product that is the team’s “official face wash.”

“It’s a testament to where women’s sport stands on the world stage,” Octagon’s Poole said of the new beauty brands sponsoring the Games.

Glossier also became the first beauty brand to sponsor the U.S. Women’s National Basketball Team in 2024, a partnership that speaks to the evolution of women’s sports on the global stage and how female athletes are represented. Meanwhile, Dior has assembled a roster of 15 international female athletes, forming its own “dream team.”

“In women’s sports, there’s a shift towards representing the whole human being,” Nancy Atufunwa, senior vice president of marketing and client services at sports agency Octagon, told BI. “They may be interested in beauty, they may be interested in fashion… It’s a big part of how they express themselves.”

International fashion brands are also participating in the Games. Italian-Haitian designer Stella Jean is dressing the Haiti team this year, and Actively Black, a small black-owned fashion brand, is dressing the Nigerian team, for example.

“From a general perspective, I think we’re going to continue to see these brands investing in this sector,” Atufunwa said. “Luxury is definitely the most successful sector in Paris and France.”

Fighting the luxury wave

The Games come at a time of turmoil for the luxury sector, which has been hit by inflation and slowing sales growth after the pandemic. LVMH, the industry’s bellwether, saw its stock fall after its second-quarter results missed expectations due to a sales decline.

“But what we found in our analysis is that people are willing to spend money on brands that they see as valuable,” Thorpe said. “By connecting with consumers and building strong relationships with them, those are the brands that are going to come out on top in terms of consumer choice.”

The Olympics also represent a high-stakes opportunity to prove that luxury is “worth it,” after the recent backlash against exorbitant prices.

Earlier this month, LVMH-owned Dior faced criticism when it was discovered that the company paid $57 to produce bags that retailed for $2,780. Armani and Dior have both been accused of using subcontractors who engaged in unfair labor practices.

In a profile of LVMH boss Bernard Arnault published last month, Bloomberg reported that cultivating positive public sentiment — and avoiding luxury fallout — is one reason the company is sponsoring this year’s games.

“The Olympic values ​​that you think about – there’s the pursuit of excellence, discipline and expertise, and all of those really positive aspirational traits are something that a lot of brands align with,” Thorpe said.