Medaling in Olympic Fashion

When the 2024 Summer Olympic Games open on July 26, national teams from around the world will be more fashion-forward than ever, as befitting the Games’ location in the fashion capital of Paris, France. A large number of fashion brands, from luxury labels to sportswear companies to streetwear brands, are pairing with national Olympic committees and sports federations to outfit athletes. Given the patriotic nature of the event, the fashion partners are typically headquartered in the same country as the team they are outfitting.

Brands—many of them long-time partners for Olympicwear—are designing not only uniforms, but clothing for media interviews and medal ceremonies, outfits for the opening and closing ceremonies, casualwear for hanging out between events, and more, along with consumer capsules in some cases. Deals usually extend to the Paralympic Games as well as the Olympics.

This trend has been intensifying for some time, with designs becoming more nontraditional, trendy, and personalized with each Olympic cycle. The fashion companies also work increasingly closely with large numbers of athletes, as they want to ensure that the participants’ performance needs are met and that the designs capture their fashion preferences and are meaningful to them in some way.

Here are some of the designers and labels that are creating fashion for their home team this year:

• Stéphane Ashpool, designer of the streetwear brand Pigalle, is leading France’s design team as artistic director and has created cutting-edge pieces that would be at home on a Parisian runway. Ashpool is working with French sportswear brand Le Coq Sportif to design the team kits for all 60 sports in which France will compete, as well as off-the-field wear. Much of the collection, which includes white suits, ombre tracksuits, active wear, and bomber jackets, is made in France. Separately, Team France paired with Berluti, along with French fashion personality Carine Roitfeld, to design the outfits for the opening ceremonies, which include blue tuxedos with red, white, and blue ombre on the lapels, leather loafers, and silk skirts.

• Alexa Fairchild, a Belgian fashion designer and equestrian who competes in dressage, is partnering with Belgium for both team uniforms and clothing for travel, closing ceremonies, and other occasions. The pieces, manufactured by Peak Sport, feature a specially created “Embrace” logo that depicts intertwined ribbons in the colors of the country’s flag. Technical sportswear for individual teams, made by other manufacturers, will include the same Embrace design. Opening ceremony garb is being created by two additional Belgian designers, Caroline Bliss (women) and Café Costume (men).

• Ralph Lauren is the official outfitter for the USA Olympic teams, as has been the case since 2008 and will be the case for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles as well. (The brand has already released some limited items for the latter, distributed in select company-owned stores.) In addition to supplying the athletes for all of their appearances on and off the field, the label plans to release a consumer capsule collection inspired by its Paris Olympics gear.

• Local and family-owned brand Sportscraft is the official supplier of Australia’s opening ceremony and formal wear, continuing a three-decade-long partnership involving nine Games. The Australian Olympians’ oath is embroidered inside the breast pockets of the blazers, while the linings feature the names of the country’s 301 past Olympic champions. The team uniforms, meanwhile, are being manufactured again by Japanese sportswear label ASICS. The green and gold uniforms feature artwork by Australian boxer Paul Fleming and Torres Strait Islander artist David Bosun and integrate both a traditional Indigenous print as well as, somewhat controversially, a Japanese Yagasuri arrow pattern reflecting ASICS’ heritage. The casual wear includes dresses for the first time.

• Irish designer Laura Weber of LW Pearl created the fashion for the opening and closing ceremonies for Ireland, including custom-embroidered jackets featuring shamrocks and the names of the athletes’ counties. Irish sportswear brand McKeever Sports, meanwhile, is the supplier of both performance and leisurewear for the country’s teams, as well as a wide range of fan gear.

• EA7 Emporio Armani will outfit the Italian team, as it has since 2012. The first designs were introduced during the Emporio Armani Men’s spring/summer 2024 collection presentation. The look is Armani blue with green, red, and white highlights reflecting the Italian flag. Lyrics from the national anthem are printed inside shirt collars and jackets. A consumer capsule collection inspired by the outfits will be available at retail as well.

• Vancouver-headquartered Lululemon is making the gear for the Canadian team, after doing the same at the 2022 Beijing winter games, when it replaced long-time partner Hudson’s Bay Company. The deal includes uniforms, opening and closing ceremony outfits, apparel for medal ceremonies and media appearances, and casual wear for daily life during the Games, including bomber jackets, short and shirt sets, crop tops, and other pieces. The uniforms are made from red-patterned fabrics, some of which integrate the maple leaf motif of the country’s flag. Some of the pieces are available for purchase by consumers in Canada.

• British lifestyle brand Ben Sherman is designing apparel for Britain’s team to wear for the opening and closing ceremonies, in the partners’ third Olympic collaboration. The designs feature the flowers of the four nations that make up the United Kingdom (English rose, Scottish thistle, Welsh daffodil, and Northern Irish shamrock) in the logo, along with a deconstructed interpretation of the Union Jack flag, among other elements. Adidas produces the British team’s performance wear.

• Portugal-based Decenio is working with Team Portugal again for pieces to be worn at the opening and closing ceremonies and for other formal and informal events. Some of the items, including polo shirts, feature an all-over, hand-drawn pattern inspired by Portuguese traditional crafts, which is meant to disseminate a message of love during a time of war.

• Netherlands-based denim label Denham is working with the Dutch Olympic Committee and Dutch Sports Federation for the apparel to be worn at the opening and closing ceremonies. Separately, the country’s breaking team (a new Olympic sport) partnered with another Dutch label, The New Originals, which specializes in “performance wear for creatives,” to create track suits in the country’s bright orange signature color, among other pieces.

As The New Originals’ case illustrates, individual teams in each country are often outfitted by different partners from the national teams, including some independent labels as well as some the biggest players in fashion. Often they are selected for their expertise in the specifics of a given sport, their existing promotional agreements with the team, or other factors, rather than their local ties. A few examples among many range from Cariuma, which is supplying three national skateboarding teams; Left on Friday, which is outfitting Canada’s women’s beach volleyball team; J. Lindeberg, which is designing gear for the U.S. men’s and women’s golf team; and Prada, which is clothing the Chinese women’s soccer team.

Nike is designing uniforms across various sports for teams in the U.S. (including track and field), Germany, Kenya, South Korea, and other nations, creating lots of different pieces to give athletes options to maximize performance and reflect their personal style. Nike also created some lifestyle looks created by teams of athletes and designers, including Serena Williams with Chitose Abe of Sacai, British sprinter Kina Asher-Smith with Martine Rose, and fencer Bebe Vio of Italy with Yoon Ahn of Ambush, among others.

LVMH, headquartered in France, is a sponsor of the Olympic Games as a whole, and many of its fashion and lifestyle brands—of which French team designer Berluti is one—will see activations throughout the event, from designing medals to participating in the torch relay.

It should be noted that fashion and sports pairings have been on the rise in general, including both collaborations and in-house collections inspired by styles associated with football/soccer, basketball, tennis, and other sports. Thus, while the Olympics is always and primarily a key opportunity to raise a label’s global profile, this time around it is also emblematic of broader fashion industry trends. That may contribute to the fact that a greater-than-ever number of labels want to be involved with the event, the athletes, and/or the national teams in some way.