Fashion startups taking on big brands at the Paris Olympics
The Olympics is big business for brands — and this year, it's not just giants like Adidas and Nike whose uniforms will be worn by competitors.
This story was produced by our colleagues at the BBC.
It won’t be until the official Games begin that Olympic and Paralympic champions will be crowned — but the winners we do know in advance are the fashion labels already taking gold.
Shannon Savage is co-founder of Left on Friday, a premium active swimsuit brand making its Olympic debut.
“It’s an opportunity for us as a small brand that’s just like absolutely mind-blowing,” she said.
Inside its downtown Toronto shop, there are one-shoulder bikini tops and bottoms in a variety of shades of red — very similar to the kits the brand has made for Canada’s Olympic volleyball team, which were designed by Shannon.
“It’s such a mark of credibility that our products are on these athletes for these Games,” she said. “But at the same time we’re like, ‘Here we are. People haven’t heard of us yet, and this is what our product is meant to do.’”
Left on Friday launched six years ago and has just a handful of shops across Canada. Shannon hopes the games will introduce the brand to more people, but she said the opportunity does have its challenges for a small company.
“You don’t have the budgets that the bigger brands have, but it doesn’t mean that you don’t have the innovation and the creativity and the standout styles, or that you’re not actually leading the category in your own way.”
Another label making its Olympic debut is Cariuma, a sustainable skate shoe brand based in Brazil. Pedro Andrade is their lead designer and has worked on the uniforms for the skateboarding teams of the Netherlands, Slovakia and Portugal.
“It’s different to see brands that are not the major brands like Nike and Adidas,” he said. “So I think we are able to create this, this uniform, and I think we can bring something new, something cool.”
The fact that Olympic teams are now choosing smaller, sustainable brands to design their kits is a “huge message” for Brazilian creators, Andrade said.
“You can create something huge,” he said. “You don’t have to be a very, very big company to create something special.”
The last Olympic Games in Tokyo had a global audience of over three billion. This year, that number could grow further, with more people expected to see Olympic content on their feeds. It’s after the International Olympic Committee loosened its rules to allow a handful of brands that aren’t official Olympic and Paralympic sponsors to post pictures of action on their social media.
Brian Qualls is a sportswear marketing expert based in Chicago.
“I think it’s massive, I think it’s a very smart move by the Olympic Committee,” he said. “It not only helps the brands that are engaged in partnering, but it’s going to help the Games. It’s allowing more visuals of these moments, and more curiosity is curated based on that access.”
Ryan also thinks, as the Olympics are in Paris, there’s going to be more focus on fashion.
“It is one of the most fashionable cities in the world, so why not show up in Paris in a way that feels connected to the Games, connected to the culture and the sport, but also connected to the city?”
If previous Games are anything to go by, we know they generate millions of dollars for labels, as well as brand awareness too. For startups, that’s invaluable.