For boxing fans, the Chris Eubank Jr vs Conor Benn rematch on Saturday will be a highlight of the month. It’ll also be when Benn walks out in an eye-catching fight fit, thanks to his custom Everlast kit in collaboration with Palm Angels. His look, emblazoned in snowy white and cobalt sequins, signals that boxing is on the precipice of a new moment. As fashion and sport continue to combine, boxing is poised to be the next opportunity.
Days before New York Fashion Week (NYFW) ended, a “once in a lifetime” fight went down in Las Vegas between boxers Canelo Álvarez and Terence Crawford. While it was worlds away from the runways, it served as its own fashion moment. As he entered the ring, Crawford wore a sateen Everlast robe clad with Off-White logos and details from the brand’s Spring/Summer 2026 collection that had debuted at NYFW the day before. Álvarez walked out sporting Amiri’s emblem on his shorts and hoodie.
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“Canelo has been a longtime supporter of Amiri, and last year we had the opportunity to sit with him and exchange ideas,” Nima Zaribaf, Amiri’s senior global vice president of brand and communications, said over email on their partnership. Álvarez also starred in the brand’s FW25 campaign. “What we discovered was that he and Mike share many of the same values: a dedication to their respective crafts, the pursuit of excellence and a shared passion for inspiring the next generation.”
There’s some history tying the two together. Hublot sponsored Floyd Mayweather, while Hugo Boss once sponsored Vitali Klitschko, a former professional boxer and now the Mayor of Kyiv. More recently, Emporio Armani has dressed the likes of Ryan Garcia. Now, one-off ambassadorships are giving way to holistic crossovers. Experts compare it to tennis’s big fashion year, which evolved from athlete sponsorship to cultural touchstone. “If you look at how sports and fashion are merging, boxing is just behind the curve. It has been a very fragmented sport [with no singular governing body or organization]. Plus, it’s had some colorful characters in the past, and big global brands have pretty much stayed away from boxing,” Michael Murray, CEO of Frasers Group, which owns Everlast and its gyms, tells Vogue Business.
What’s changing now is that more fashion brands are realizing the opportunity, and key players in boxing are working to make it easier for brands to partner with the right fighter. Those that play a dominant role in outfitting players, namely Everlast, want to become a sort of broker between boxers and high-end fashion brands partnering on highly visible moments. Promoters are also gaining awareness and working fashion partnerships into how they believe will boost the talent on their roster.
This matters especially because the sport poses some unique challenges for fashion collaborations. For one, it has no governing body (unlike Formula 1 or Uefa Champions League), which makes it more complicated for interested brands to know where and how to fit in. As more labels become open to the idea and opportunity, Murray says he wants Everlast to be a platform that connects boxers, who “want to express themselves and align themselves with culturally relevant fashion brands”.
Bronx-born Everlast has been slowly building out its roster of collaborations, including with Saint Laurent, Supreme and Urban Outfitters. Now, Murray plans for Everlast to start making special kits for fighters so that unique pieces are part of a bigger cultural moment rather than shopping only. Since Crawford’s special kit came together quickly, he didn’t want to let “perfection get in the way of progress”, but would have liked to sell corresponding and limited-edition gloves or boots — which is the plan moving forward. This is why the Palm Angels and Everlast collaboration worn by Benn, for example, has inspired sellable merch.
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The fight schedule, which is unpredictable and includes just a handful of big matches per year, is another hurdle. Morgan Dewan, chief brand officer of Top Rank Boxing, one of the sport’s leading promoters, explains that the biggest boxers are only fighting once or twice a year. “They really have one shot in the public eye to make a statement, and if a brand is investing in them and paying them for that logo placement, they need to make sure that it’s prominent and large and overt,” Dewan says. “You never know how long the fight will be. We’ve had first-round knockouts five seconds in.”
This explains why the Amiri and Off-White logos were so large on Álvarez and Crawford’s respective kits for their ring walks and during the fight.
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It’s a good time for fashion brands to realize the opportunity, especially with increasing eyes on the ring, boosted by Netflix live broadcasting some of the biggest fights.
“Our investment in boxing is fundamentally driven by our belief that sports are a powerful way to connect people globally,” Netflix VP of live sports Gabe Spitzer told Vogue Business over email. And the choice seems to be generating dividends. Over 125 million people watched Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson in late 2024. This past September, albeit millions less, over 41 million tuned into the Canelo-Crawford fight. “We view sports as the ultimate soap opera, and boxing brings out the best in that,” Spitzer adds.
Beyond eyes on the ring, it seems like more people are discovering the sport for their own wellness. Cassandra Napoli, head of marketing for events and culture forecasting at WGSN, says there were nearly nine million people engaged with boxing for fitness in 2024, which rose 6.4% from the year before. “TikTok, meanwhile, has played a significant role in boosting the digital visibility of combat sports culture,” she adds. “Combat sports can take a page out of the growing relationship between football and fashion, and start making inroads into combat sports. There’s an opportunity for fashion brands to lean into the space by launching collaborative capsules, combat-inspired drops, branded equipment kits, or even using the ring as the latest runway opportunity.”
Boxing won’t be for everybody. The sport is particularly violent, and matches can be gruesome. For some, however, that’s just a by-product of the sheer grit, strategy and mental fortitude the sport requires. This is true for Palm Angels. “We’re particularly drawn to the energy around the sport… the discipline of the athletes, the intensity of training, the cultural weight of the walk-in moments and the passion of the community around it,” Joey Gabbay, CEO of Palm Angels parent company Bluestar Alliance, says. “Boxing creates powerful visual storytelling.”
Brands have to remember this romantic way of seeing the sport — evident in classic boxing movies like Rocky, Million Dollar Baby and Creed — when scouting for partners or thinking about merch opportunities. “Boxing is one of the loneliest sports because it’s really just you and your opponent in the ring. It’s violent, but also a beautiful ballet,” Dewan says
Ahead, it’s unlikely that “every fighter is going to command a luxury brand partnership. That’s just not realistic,” Murray says. But whether it’s branded ring walks or campaigns starring athletes, the movement between fashion and boxing seems to be gaining momentum on the heels of fashion’s greater love affair with sports.
