Several licensing and collaboration agreements pairing athletic footwear brands with fragrances have resulted in new or expanded product ranges of late. Brands with roots in sneakers have been extending into fragrances for decades, with varying levels of success, as a natural part of their evolution into sportswear and active lifestyle brands.
Some examples of recent initiatives:
• Last week, Puma announced a 10-year global licensing deal with Interparfums, with the first scents planned for release in 2027 and the contract extending through 2037. The partners have not released any details about specific products yet. Puma released its first fragrances with Wella in 2002 and was with Procter & Gamble from 2003, when P&G purchased Wella, through 2014. L’Oréal served as its licensee from 2015 through 2019.
• Fila and Coswell released their latest product, a shoe-care line consisting of detergent, waterproofing and deodorant foams, and cleaning wipes, in the spring this year, developed with Coswell’s household detergent brand, Vim. Coswell secured the license for Fila in the fragrance category in 2016, when it launched Fila Fragrances with Fila Man and Fila Woman. The line now encompasses eau de toilette, eau de parfum, shower gels, deodorants, and body mists.
• Onitsuka Tiger, the Japanese brand that is in the process of being spun off from ASICS, launched its first fragrances in December 2025, in partnership with perfumer Mark Buxton. The first four eau de parfum releases are dubbed One, Two, Three, and Four. According to the partners, the scents integrate craftsmanship and contemporary design, a combination also associated with the footwear brand, as well as a sense of stillness that allows wearers to reconnect with their essence.
• In September 2024, Adidas launched the Adidas Vibes collection, its first full line of scents with its long-time licensee Coty. Associated with different moods to match with different activities and dayparts, the scents were designed in collaboration with a group of perfumers, each of whom developed one of the releases. The initial line-up included Full Recharge, Happy Feels, Chill Zone, Get Comfy, Energy Drive, and Spark Up, with four more fragrances, as well as a four-product expansion into hair and body mists, added to the line last year. Adidas has been releasing individual scents regularly with various partners since 1985, working with Coty as its primary licensee for health and beauty since the early 1990s; their latest renewal came in 2023. Their 2001 scent, Adidas Ice Dive, is the top-selling fragrance under the agreement and is still on the market. This partnership is regarded as the most successful in the athletic footwear–branded scent space to date.
• New Balance released two novelty fragrances in December 2023. The Distilled series consisted of two scents called Original and Court that were designed to smell like new, right-out-of-the-box sneakers, featuring notes of leather, suede, rubber, cotton socks, and, respectively, freshly mowed grass and hardwood floors. New Balance’s partner for this very limited release, available in Australia only, was Australian scent maker Perfume Playground.
Note that a Spanish company, De Ruy, has offered an extensive Nike line of fragrances and other beauty products since 1929, but there is no connection with the Nike athletic brand. De Ruy owns the trademark in the category globally, preventing Nike and its Swoosh from entering the space.
As athletic footwear brands expand beyond shoes into the sportswear and lifestyle sector, fragrance is a logical step. In some ways, however, there is a disconnect between property and product, as these brands are still strongly associated with their core business, sneakers, which bring to mind smells that are the opposite of what one might want in a fragrance. That said, the number of new launches and expansions, along with the success of some of the brands that are long-established in this category, demonstrate that there is a market for the right collaborative products.
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