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The Olympics is renowned for tradition, with athletics, cycling, fencing, gymnastics and swimming present at every game since its modern-day inception in 1869. They’re each steeped in history — and lucrative sponsorship deals. But at this summer’s Paris Games, it’s the more niche, non-conventional sports drawing attention online and piquing brand interest.
A shot of Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina ‘standing’ perfectly suspended in the air parallel to his surfboard was heralded as “the photo of the Paris 2024 Olympics” by BBC Sport. His subsequent Instagram post garnered 8.8 million likes. The viral moment awakened interest in Olympic surfing, which debuted at Tokyo 2020 to mixed reviews.
In 2014, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) noted that young people were no longer watching the games. In response, they attempted to introduce sports that young people could relate to, starting with the Tokyo 2020 Games. In a move that the IOC touted as “the most comprehensive evolution of the Olympics in modern history”, karate, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing were added to the official programme.
The gambit paid off. In a post-Olympic study conducted by the IOC, 81 per cent of younger audiences said they enjoyed watching these new entries. This new-found interest was reflected in the athlete’s growing social media platforms, with Brazilian women’s street skateboarding silver medallist Rayssa Leal seeing her Instagram following jump from 630,000 in June 2021 to nine million by that September. Since, breaking — the hyper-physical urban dance style — was added to the Olympics as a competitive sport for Paris 2024.
These sports are tempting brands into uncharted territory. In May, luxury fashion house Dior announced French skaters Aurélien Giraud and Louise-Aïna Taboulet as new brand ambassadors, the latter appearing in a campaign for the brand that very month. Ralph Lauren tapped skater Jagger Eaton to serve as brand ambassador, which paid off when he won the silver medal in men’s street skating last week. His subsequent Instagram post celebrating the achievement, which included a photo of himself wearing the Ralph Lauren-designed Team USA Kit, garnered nearly 50,000 likes.
“Luxury fashion and subculture sports have been converging over the years,” says Sarah Andelman, founder of Just an Idea and former Parisian boutique Colette. “Where they once inhabited very different worlds, having Pharrell join Louis Vuitton is making the tie into sports such as skateboarding more authentic.” For this Olympics, she co-curated an exhibition led by The Skateroom at the Hôtel de Crillon alongside architect Aline Asmar d’Amman to mark its second inclusion in the games, which doubled as a first-of-its-kind partnership for the luxury hotel.
Bring in the brands
Buzz like this can drive lucrative commercial opportunities for athletes. It’s something Team GB’s Kieran Reilly, who won a silver medal in BMX freestyle, is all too aware of. “Adidas wasn’t involved in BMX prior to it being an Olympic sport,” says the now-Adidas-sponsored athlete, noting that before, BMX and other extreme sports were viewed as “something to watch on YouTube and on social media”, which didn’t make it appealing to brands. During these games, searches for “BMX racing” and “BMX freestyle” have surged in the UK by 79 per cent and 70 per cent in the last 30 days, according to a recent YouGov survey.
The 2024 Paris Olympics marks the fifth time BMXing has been included in the Olympics, which Reilly says has helped legitimise the sport. “It’s the biggest stage in the world. It allows us to be seen by more people, which is what brands want,” he explains. In turn, this creates a self-perpetuating loop. “It pushes the sport forward by creating financial incentives for better performances. This then attracts an even bigger audience that only increases commercial opportunities further.”
For Nike, meanwhile, engaging with niche sports like BMX and skateboarding “definitely attracts younger consumers”, says Tanya Hvizdak, VP of global women’s sports marketing at Nike. The sportswear giant now sponsors athletes and creates products across 80 per cent of Olympic sports, and is increasingly investing in niche sports, including breaking, skateboarding and BMX. “Sports like this are by no means more attainable sports [at Olympic level], but they are more everyday sports for people to engage with. And so I think you’re going to have more broad-based consumers and participation. Young people can see themselves in these athletes.”
Introducing new gear is a key way to engage with such niche sports. For the Olympics, Nike developed its first-ever breaking shoe the Jam, released in line with the sport’s Olympics debut, after six years of development advised by athletes including Olympics participants Sunny Choi (USA) and Shigeyuki Nakarai (Japan). “When we innovate and design for new sports, such as breaking, we create pieces that look and feel new and different and connect with consumers outside of sport as well,” says Hvizdak. The brand has partnered with the Japanese, American and Korean breaking federations to outfit their teams and implement new design features like a second layer inside the shoulder and elbow area of the hoodie for extra protection, as well as adding more fabric to the sleeves and trouser legs for increased mobility.
Adidas hosted a community event Ground Paris in the city’s Les Halles district, featuring public-facing BMX, skate and 3x3 basketball events that were open for the public to participate. “By engaging with these sports and the local community, we’re not just showing them the brand and exciting them about Adidas, but showing them the possibilities of sport,” says Kerryn Foster, VP and general manager of specialist sports at Adidas. “We’re particularly focused on sports like skate and BMX that are new to the Olympics, to make sure that we can showcase them not just at elite level, but also showcase everyday consumers participating too.”
Know your place
As brands jump in, Alex Greenwood, co-founder of sports collective Inmotion, warns that they should proceed with caution. “It’s a delicate balance to strike. A lot of these sports are also lifestyles and cultures, and we’re often concerned with tokenisation when brands get involved in a light-touch way.” She references skateboarding as one particularly shrouded in controversy. Pro-skater Tony Hawk told Reuters in a 2021 interview that the Olympics needs skateboarding more than the sport needs the game, while skate collectives like Skate Manchester have called out companies for entering the space purely for profit without supporting the wider community. While brands authentic to the sport, like Supreme and Palace, have been noticeably absent from activating around the Olympics.
For Corey Hill, head of global sports marketing for Oakley, it’s about focusing on relationships over partnerships: “While we will always strive to have the best performance athletes, this isn’t the only thing we look at. We want to work with people that give back to the community, resonate culturally, with a strong and engaging digital footprint.” He adds that some of these relationships are now over a decade long, including with track and field athlete Mutaz Essa Barshim, runner Andre De Grasse, and surfers Caroline Marks and Gabriel Medina. They’re also already looking to the future via actively investing in flag football, which will be making its historic debut at the Los Angeles 2028 Games.
“We support breaking, surfing and skateboarding in part because we believe that, in addition to shared values, these are areas where we can really make a difference,” says Annika Bizon, marketing and omnichannel director at Samsung UK and Ireland. Last September, the phone company announced a first-of-its-kind long-term partnership with Skateboard GB, the governing body for skateboarding in the UK, to help nurture skateboarding participation among communities. They’ve also been working with breaking athlete Karam Singh to promote people getting into the sport following this year’s debut.
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