For fashion and beauty, it’s been another summer of sports.
The summer of 2024 was a ripe opportunity for sports-led collaborations thanks to the Paris Olympics. But this year, Clinique, Vuori, D Louise and many more have increased their presence within sports, leaning into an ever-growing scope of possibility.
Tennis remains a firm fashion favourite, attracting luxury brands like Khaite, which dressed Venus Williams for the US Open last week. Ahead of the Women’s Rugby World Cup this August and September, Clinique announced a partnership with the Red Roses, England’s national women’s rugby team. For the Women’s Euro tournament in Switzerland, fashion brands Aligne, J Lindeberg and Rotate created arrival uniforms for Wales, Sweden and Denmark, respectively. Even jewellery brands are getting in on the action: this summer, D Louise became the first-ever jewellery sponsor of Chelsea Women’s Football Club.
Industry leaders and experts break down the sports, athletes and events that present opportunities for fashion in the year ahead.
Creative director and stylist Katherine Pickup, who has worked on projects involving Formula One, rugby and football, notes a growing interest in sports from fashion brands and PR agencies over the past year. “The alignment with sports and fashion has always been there, just not on this scale,” says Pickup.
From an underindexed opportunity, sport is now firmly in the mainstream focus. Has the opportunity reached its peak? Pickup, for one, believes there is much further to go, especially when it comes to lesser known sports such as the fast-emerging tennis-squash hybrid padel. “I understand that deals, brands and some sporting organisations are scared of making those new leaps,” she says, noting potential hesitancy to invest time and money into unproven leagues. “But more risks need to be taken for this space to grow.”
Women’s rugby: Ripe for innovation
Clinique’s partnership with the Red Roses — making it England Rugby’s first-ever official beauty partner — is an extension of the brand’s pre-existing sponsorships with grassroots rugby clubs. “We believe that if you feel confident in your skin, you feel confident to face the world,” says Karen Ehrlich, VP of skincare at Clinique parent Estée Lauder Companies (ELC). “Sports can bring additional confidence to areas of your life, and we’re able to enhance the life of those consumers and make them feel confident in a holistic way.”
Rugby is gaining in popularity, but is less recognised as a mainstream sport in some parts of the world. For Clinique, the appeal was in the individual athletes and their personalities. Since 2022, Clinique has been testing potential in the market by working with Sale Sharks and Red Roses fly-half Holly Aitchison on social media content. Ehrlich was enamoured by the potential to share a genuine story. “[Aitchison] was really open about her issues with her skin,” Ehrlich says. “Once she was able to understand her skincare routine, her confidence changed.”
According to the Women’s Sports Trust, players for the Red Roses post more individual content on TikTok than any other England men or women’s team, including cricket and football, making them attractive social billboards. On the other side of the pond, notable beauty brands Paula’s Choice and Maybelline have worked with American Rugby talent Ilona Maher, who was catapulted to global fame during the Paris Olympics, in large part due to her online personality and viral TikTok content.
However, most rugby partnerships so far have been limited to simple activations, like merchandise collaborations. “There is room for innovation in sports that remain relatively unsung [such as rugby],” says culture writer Nali Simukulwa. Simukulwa found Loewe’s Spring/Summer 2025 campaign, which placed actor Ayo Edebiri alongside rugby players, a positive step forward. “It would be cool to see brands participate in shaping culture by co-signing the sport and helping to build its profile, rather than capitalising once a trend has already emerged.”
The rise and rise of tennis
Tennis has continued to grow in popularity. This summer’s Wimbledon tournament was ESPN+’s most-streamed tennis tournament on record, with engagement soaring 163 per cent year-on-year. In turn, the tides of tennis sponsorships have slowly been shifting, as disruptor sportswear brands such as On and Vuori, and fashion brands like Khaite, gain greater prominence, creating competition for the likes of Nike, Adidas and Lacoste.
American activewear brand Vuori signed its first tennis professional Marcos Giron several years ago, and has since continued to grow its influence in the sport. On 19 August, the brand announced a particularly transformative deal: signing top-ranked British tennis player Jack Draper, a notable loss for Nike.
FP Movement, the athletic line of Free People, is hoping to see an impact at the US Open, which started on 18 August and runs until 8 September. The brand is hosting tennis clinics at courts in Manhattan, with some guided by star professional Sloane Stephens. Courtney Weis, FP Movement’s managing director of marketing, says tennis aligns closely with the brand. “It’s a sport that requires strength and grace, which reflects the balance we strive for in our products: technical performance with a fashion-forward sensibility,” says Weis.
To ride the wave, brands are tapping the new generation of tennis stars as ambassadors, launching their own tennis collections and dressing a new breed of influencer.
Pascal Monfort, a cultural marketing expert in both fashion and sport, notes there can be commercial success in such partnerships. “When thoughtfully executed, they [collaborations] benefit both sides, leveraging athletes’ global influence and passion for style,” Monfort says. For a brand entering the market, he says there is potential for, “rejuvenated audiences, new markets, heightened visibility, desirability and brand appeal”.
For Weis, working with Stephens is a no-brainer as she’s, “not only a world-class athlete, but also an inspiring figure”. Stephens founded the Sloane Stephens foundation, which, run alongside her mother and uncle, builds courts and after-school coaching programmes in tennis, swimming and football for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. “Partnering with her allows us to authentically connect with athletes and consumers who value both performance and purpose,” Weis says.
The influence of fashion and culture partnerships in tennis has also bled into padel. Padel apparel brand Pulco recently launched in Harrods, and EA7 Emporio Armani has become the official apparel partner for Rocket Padel’s UK clubs, a clear sign of the sport’s burgeoning popularity within the UK.
Deeper relationships
Clinique and FP Movement aren’t alone in valuing the possibility in platforming the characters of individual athletes, alongside larger-scale team partnerships.
D Louise will release a collection with Chelsea Women’s football club in September, but the brand has also recently worked with Lucy Bronze, the Chelsea and England defender who helped the Lionesses secure their second Euro victory in July. “We weren’t just looking for a face for the brand, we wanted someone who embodied what we stand for,” says D Louise founder Olivia Jenkins.
Jenkins says Bronze was heavily involved in creating the brand’s Sports Edit, a collection designed with movement and fitness in mind. D Louise’s audience has reacted overwhelmingly positively to the brand’s new football ventures. “The campaigns have brought in new customers who may have discovered us through women’s football, but have stayed because they connect with the meaning behind what we do,” the founder adds.
Understanding the connection to consumers is an important aspect of these partnerships, says creative director Pickup. “People not only want to watch athletes compete, but they also want to be wearing their favourite brands while doing so. It has been done before — think David Beckham in the early 2000s,” she says.
Cherry Beagles, founder and CEO of 400, a creative company connecting female pro athletes and clubs with brand owners, notes an uptick in unexpected fashion and beauty collaborations in the space that feel authentic as opposed to just “slapping a logo, or sports language, onto their product”. Monfort agrees, adding that not all partnerships are beneficial. “In my view, a brand unprepared for this universe should refrain rather than risk making grave missteps,” he adds.
There is a hope from those manufacturing these partnerships that opportunities will continue to present themselves, opening further avenues to invest in sports culture. “This is just the beginning,” says Jenkins. “We want to keep championing women in sport, not just through sponsorship, but by telling their stories. That might mean more collaborations and limited-edition pieces that bring fans and athletes closer together.”
Weis agrees, and wishes to increase FP Movement’s visibility in sport to deepen the connection with a community they feel aligned to. “We want to inspire people to embrace movement confidently, whether they’re professional athletes or simply passionate about an active lifestyle,” she says.
One piece of advice is to find a sport that’s still growing and stick with it, rather than coming in when it’s already blown up. “We’re going one step at a time,” says Ehrlich of Clinique’s positioning in women’s rugby. “Women’s football is already on the top, and I think rugby is next.”
“Time will tell whether this is a moment or a movement,” says Simukulwa, who believes that while brands have clearly recognised the growth opportunity of investing in sports, many remain hesitant to “invest wholesale in shaping the culture of a space”. “I can’t pinpoint any one collaboration this summer that was the big ‘wow’,” adds Beagles.
It’s a sentiment shared by Pickup. “Quantity over quality is what I see at the moment on projects. There is a lot of copying and pasting,” she says, imploring brands and leagues to create campaigns that create conversation and place community first. “The beautiful thing about sports and fashion as a pair is the expansive and diverse audience. Tap into all of those subgenres and create sparks that get your fans wanting to wear your fashion pieces like sports fans wear their home teams’ shirts with pride.”
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