The Biggest winners of 2022 - Sports and Fashion
Just about a week before the World Cup began in New York, the Knicks announced that they had named their first fashion creative director, a man known as the co-founder of Kith.
On Sunday, as Lionel Messi and the Argentina national team stood on the podium in front of their World Cup trophy, the general mood was one of joy and admiration, though in some corners of the internet a few viewers had noticed a detail that had them raising their eyebrows.
The Louis Vuitton trunk where the gold statuette arrived was adorned with a logo.
Carine Roitfeld, the former French Vogue editor, orchestrated a fashion show that featured looks by more than 150 different designers from 50 countries.
Sports and fashion are teaming up to become the power forwards of the game.
Both offer a language that can be spoken across the globe. The relationship went to a new level. One driven by the tangles of social media and the growth of sneaker culture. Brand ambassadors or NBA stars should not be in the front row. Something more important has been happening. The connections create a new root system that shapes our sense of self.
Just about a week before the World Cup began in New York, the Knicks announced that they had named their first fashion creative director, a man known as the co-founder of Kith.
The Arizona Coyotes, the ice hockey team, appointed Rhuigi Villaseor, the founder of the Los Angeles men's wear line Rhude, as its creative strategist a few weeks ago.
In the wake of Serena Williams announcing that she was stepping back from tennis, the news came. Tom Brady's brand of lifestyle casual wear was created with Jens Grede, the man behind the Kim Kardashian Skims line, and was designed by the former Public School label. She introduced her brand. There is a fashion show at Milan Fashion Week.
There is a leather jacket for sale at the Isles Lab and a hoodie and joggers by Brady.
The Jordan brand chose to open its first concept store in Milan instead of Chicago. It is the fashion capital of the world, according to Craig Williams, the brand's president. When we think about the impact we want to have on consumers, in the industry, and in culture too, there are a lot of synergies between ours.
Mr. Grede said it came down to the intersection of commerce and entertainment. They have reached a point of convergence.
Mr. Villaseor said his deal with the Coyotes will allow him to get his hands on a lot of things. It is similar to an in-house program.
He's trying to do the same thing in Bally as he did in Alpine. Mr. Villaseor said that it was important to honor the heritage and amplify it.
That type of fashion speak is usually found in design studios. Scott Malkin is an owner of the New York Islanders. The founder of Value Retail, a group of luxury outlet malls in Europe and Asia, broke ground this year on a new shopping village next to the recently opened hockey arena.
Influence sells fashion
He said that sports and fashion are both about creative energy married to execution and that it has to evolve as society does. He said that they both deal with a relentless schedule and can have a huge psychic impact.
They are both about branding.
A brand is a collection of values that include a name or logo. It is a symbol that shows heritage, know-how, and beauty. Athletes are often described as having excellence, aspiration, power, grace, and activism. Sometimes bags. Either sneakers or something else.
"People really care what a brand stands for," said Tory Burch, who has merged her main line and sports line and who this year created the winner's jacket for the Billie Jean King Cup They are focused on building their communities.
Rhuigi Villasenor is the creative strategist of the Arizona Coyotes hockey team.
Live experiences that generate emotional connections are one way to do this. The citizens of the brand can be represented by individuals. They fly the flags of their allegiance in a circle of group identification. They aren't flags, they're clothes.
The celebrity became the epitome of the brand in order to know what the person stood for. It's possible that you thought you did; sometimes there are surprises.
The idea may have started with Hollywood stars, but it has now moved into sports. Think of Joc Pederson, who is currently with the San Francisco Giants, and his pearls, as well as basketball, soccer, football, and even baseball.
According to Jerry Lorenzo, the founder of Fear of God, anyone who understands who they are and what they are showing the world at a deep level attracts influence.
The role of image-making in extending and ameliorating fame has been understood by sports stars since René Lacoste put an alligator on his left breast and Stan Smith put his name on some kicks. The potential of camera appeal for burnishing an on-field reputation was exploited by athletes.
Mark Shapiro, the president of Endeavor, which owns multiple fashion weeks around the world and the Ultimate Fighting Championship as well as modeling and sports representation arms, said that it was Michael Jordan who changed it all when he started coming to press conferences fully dressed.
Even before Mr. Jordan started his line with Nike, he understood the leverage that dressing to complement his play could provide, and he created a model that has been mimicked by many athletes. Tom Brady stated in an email that he paved the way for most of us.
The same way that Hollywood stars realized that red carpet appearances could be as much a performance as any actual performance, athletes realized that by branding themselves through what they wore, they extended their performance beyond the action. They didn't give themselves a platform to follow.
The draft days function like runway shows with rookies using their moment in the spotlight to brand themselves before joining a team. The walk from the car to the changing room on game day was transformed into a daily photo op, which gave rise to such accounts as LeagueFits and SlamKicks.
When the camera is always on and the product is moving, the legend gets made.
Every waking moment is an image-making performance about what you are wearing, the products you use and how that gets shared.
The rise of social media has allowed for direct communication between stars and fans, but it has also led to audience confusion. The reason there aren't mega-movie stars anymore isn't that actors are less charismatic or less talented, but because the viewing public has been a niche.
Mr. Grede said yes. He said that celebrity may be the only unfair advantage in consumer culture. Skims benefit from that. He's an enterprise in the same way Kim Kardashian is an enterprise.
Mr. Brady, Mr. Beckham, and Ms. Williams have more than 13 million followers on social media.
Sports heroes and their fashion brands are more popular among young people than other industries are. Both sides would like to make money.
The backer of Artists Equity said that individuals are now intellectual property. The birth of the Air Jordan brand is likely to be the subject of the first film from their production company.
The direct-to-consumer model has changed the landscape in terms of individual opportunity. Athletes and celebrities used to depend on one of a few mega-brands to distribute their lines. It's not anymore. They can make money from their own brand equity instead of lending it to another brand.
The New York Islanders merchandise is sold at the Isles Lab store in Elmont.
The idea that the brand is also the star is being worked on by teams. The team is a brand. The word is "lifestyle" A team with roots in brands like Burberry is behind Isles Lab, a store that sells luxury hockey gear, including a $2,500 varsity jacket.
Teams come with a ready-made fan base that all brands want, and any community gravitates towards advertising its identity and membership via t-shirts. There is no reason for a logo T-shirt to be thin. Sitting courtside has become such a luxury signifier that tickets to big games are so expensive that it is striking that the clothing that symbolizes allegiance hasn't kept up. Designers come in.
The Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty owner said that Mr. Villaseor's appointment at the Knicks will be a trend.
It is only a matter of time before luxury starts looking at teams and athletes in a more entrenched way if they are looking to luxury as a strategic model. As sponsors, but also as owners.
There were rumors this year that AC Milan was going to be bought by LVMH. You can understand where the idea came from. The designers could fill their front rows and marketing campaigns with LVMH athletes and the luxury hotels could be put next to a stadium.
They could own a franchise. The playing field could change in the future.
Keywords: Lionel Messi, Argentine national team, brand, World Cup trophy
Source: www.nytimes.com