The playing field
Which sports team is LVMH going to buy?
Back in 2022, there were rumors - quickly refuted by Antoine Arnault - around the LVMH’s acquisition of AC Milan. Antoine instead went on to found 22 Montaigne, an entertainment arm of LVMH - because, really, what is the difference?
Sport is entertainment.
It is a large untapped field of intellectual property, from national teams to clubs to individual players to content of the games.
LVMH is in the IP management business, and the sports stories to be told (and trademarked and copyrighted) are endless. So are the franchises: an LVMH-owned soccer club, for example, would be a vast creative territory for design collaborations with all LVMH brands; LVMH celebrity friends would attend the matches and vice versa: soccer stars would be seated in front rows and featured in campaigns; the color palette of the stadium would be a mix between famous LV check and local colors; the merch program would be a luxury collection; and the team would be impeccably dressed off and on the pitch.
The Olympics are the closest LVMH got to this scenario, as a premium partner of the Games. The sponsorship is a blockbuster, as commercial as it is entertaining. Mix the two, and you get a lucrative IP model with infinite business opportunities.
This models revolves around everyone being a brand: athletes, teams, clubs, stars, events, even fans. It also revolves around everything surrounding these brands being intellectual property: sport styles, team colors and codes, symbols and history, chants, heritage and archives.
LVMH capitalized on the entertainment shift in modern culture, but it didn’t invent it. The shift was already happening. It is well-described in “The Big Flat Now,” the influential 032c essay from 2018, and frequently reflected in late Virgil Abloh’s work. Skate, sports, surf, hip-hop, streetwear, or art codes are all in the same playing field. Expect more blokecore, more tennis vibes, more cycling styles in the years to come. My favorite fashion brand at this moment is Ferrari.
Remix of fashion and sports’ intellectual property doesn’t have much to do with LVMH’s sponsorship of the Games nor the desire of fashion brands to expand their audience. It has more to do with culture where everything is simultaneously a canvas for creative expression AND also a content, merch, celebrity, entertainment, or a brand.
Soccer got there first. AC Milan is now a lifestyle brand, but the blueprint has been set at least 25 years ago, when Dirk Bikkembergs created sneakers for his Sport Couture show. The show grew into collaboration with Inter and Bikkembergs also bought and designed uniforms for FC Fossombrone, an amateur club. In 2016, Dolce & Gabbana featured a Maradona-like Napoli jersey for their Alta Sartoria show (it was not received well by Napoli fans).
In the past decade, the examples of designer uniforms, partnerships, limited editions and collaborations proliferated. Paris Saint-German has been working with labels from CIVISSUM to Koché, Inter with everyone from Moncler to Canali, and Juventus with 032c, among many others. This summer, Highsnobiety partner with Red Star on a capsule, an exhibition space, and an event during Paris menswear fashion week. At the same event, Prototypes fashion brand tapped into the aesthetics ultras, famously disruptive soccer fans, for their collection. Martine Rose, Wales Bonner, and Stella McCartney have long featured soccer aesthetic in their collections and collaborations (McCartney most recent one was with Arsenal), and perhaps the most exciting partnership launching this year is between the Italian sportswear brand, C.P. Company, and Manchester City’s men’s team. The partnership includes exclusive clothing for players, coaches, and executive management, and is a mix between C.P. Company’s and Manchester City’s brand colors and logos. The timing is right: English Premier League’s first creative director debuted in 2023.
Athleisure planted the seeds of urban sport. “I like the technical performance of sportswear. When I design a collection, I try to apply the same level of ease to everyday clothes,” notes Louise Trotter, creative director of Carven and formerly of Lacoste. At Lacoste, Trotter captured both functionality and savoir-faire of the modern wardrobe: “I mean, there was a time when looking good was, like, standing still and smoking a cigarette and drinking red wine. But today, looking good is also about feeling good and having an active life and looking after yourself and being much more aware of how you are feeling – physically as well as mentally.”
At its best, athleisure introduced comfortable, durable, breathable and casual materials and make them the standard beyond sport. Clothes that are made to be worn have since become the blueprint of modern urban wardrobe - from Fear of God to Tory Burch, brands offer athletic wear: meant to be worn during a commute, a newspaper run, or while lounging at home as much as they can be dressed up for other occasions. Ferrari’s recent resort collection encapsulates urban sport to perfection: it features driving shoes for urban settings, leather joggers, and soft car coats. Gorpcore elements are modern fashion codes; and outdoor activity is today as much of an urban concept as going to work.
Identity. Sport teams are hotbeds of belonging, differentiation, self-expression, and community. Communal bonds are forged out of the shared live experiences and enriched through exchange of information, knowledge, social bonds, skill, and emotion.
Like the most successful fashion brands, sport clubs - and sports individuals - reflect our aspiration. Unlike most fashion brands, aspiration doesn’t expire when trends change: sports clubs have longevity and continuity that go beyond the current team.
A sport’s history, heritage, icons and images, colors, crests and symbols, provide a reliable backdrop for both our current and aspirational identities. Telfar’s Liberian Olympic uniforms could not have been done by anyone else. Wales Bonner’s Adidas partnership is a celebration of the Jamaican football culture.
Read the rest of this analysis on The Sociology of Business.