The intersection of pro sports and the fashion industry has been strengthening for many years. One aspect of this trend that has been gaining more attention of late is the athletes’ “tunnel fits,” or pre-game outfits. Sports stars are intentional about these pre-game looks, photographers snap the players’ trend-forward outfits as they pass through the […]
Archive | Sports
Racing-related Eyewear Picks Up Speed
By Karen Raugust on September 18, 2025 in Accessories, Automotive, Corporate brands, Licensing, Sports
Racing in all of its forms has had a big presence in many product categories over the past few years, especially in the fashion realm. The properties in question include not only auto racing, which dominates collaboration activity in this space, but also increasingly bike, motorcycle, sailboat, and horse racing as well, not to mention […]
Starting the Semester in Fashion
As another school year begins, the Nikes and Adidas of the world are releasing fresh new items as part of their new and ongoing deals for collegiate sportswear and related merchandise. At the same time, streetwear and other fashion labels outside the realm of traditional collegiate licensing are increasingly pairing with universities for new fashion-forward […]
Women’s Sports Reach New Merch Milestones
Interest in women’s sports remains strong, as does demand for merchandise tied to women’s leagues, teams, and athletes. But product supply, variety, and quality continue to lag behind the men’s game. A few key milestones in the past year have contributed toward reducing some of these deficits, however: In July, the Orlando Pride of the […]
Characters in the Pit
Characters from TV, films, and gaming have increasingly been linked with racing—a high-profile sector within the licensing business these days—for promotional initiatives that, in some cases, include merchandise. Auto racing has been seeing growing interest from younger fans in recent years, and these collaborations serve to both take advantage of that fact and further the […]
The Fine Art of Football
Soccer clubs around the world have been creating collaborative jerseys and fanwear by pairing with nonsports properties, including an expanding range and variety of licensed IPs, from musicians to anime. Their partners also increasingly include artists, as some recent examples illustrate: In May of this year, the Frida Kahlo brand and its German agent Bavaria Media Licensing announced […]
Pickleball: More Players, More Products
Pickleball participation increased 56% in 2024, according to the National Sporting Goods Association, marking the third year in a row that the sport has seen annual growth of 50% or more. While the number of new pickleball-related licensed product initiatives seems to have died down a bit compared to earlier in the sport’s short lifespan […]
Fashion Labels Shoot and Score with Hockey
As is true of almost all property types, sports IPs have increasingly been collaborating with designers and fashion brands. These are collections that are more fashion-forward or otherwise innovative, and typically more premium-priced, than traditional licensed fanwear ranges. Hockey—which is, in North America, currently deep in the first round of the National Hockey League (NHL) […]
Anime Is a Hit at Baseball Games
Major League Baseball and its teams, whose 2025 season began late last month, have been increasingly teaming with a variety of Japanese pop-culture properties for products and promotions. Japanese-origin IPs from the worlds of anime, kawaii, videogames, and VTubers are a good fit with the sport in many ways. The league and its teams, especially […]
Game-Changing Gear for Girls
Women’s professional sports have large contingents of young female fans who look up to the athletes and often aspire to turn pro themselves one day. In fact, part of the mission of women’s sports leagues is typically to bring young girls into the sports community as players and fans, as well as to support and […]