logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2022
12m 56s

Why So Many Athletes Are Launching Fashi...

THE BUSINESS OF FASHION
About this episode

BoF’s Daniel-Yaw Miller unpacks why — and how — sports stars including Russell Westbrook and Megan Rapinoe are running their own labels, with full financial and creative control. 

Background: 

Athletes have long been part of the fashion conversation. In the past, they’ve capitalised on their influence by inking brand endorsements with the likes of Nike and Adidas. Now, stars like the NBA’s Russell Westbrook, soccer player Megan Rapinoe and runner Allyson Felix are taking it a step further and launching their own labels in pursuit of more financial and creative control. 

“A fashion brand can provide a revenue stream that will long outlast the playing career of an athlete,” said Daniel-Yaw Miller. “Athlete-run brands give their founders freedom they could not experience in a typical endorsement deal.” 

Key Insights:

  • Tennis champion Rene Lacoste’s namesake label is one of the earliest examples of an athlete starting a brand. One of the latest is NBA star Russel Westbrook’s Honor the Gift, which just showed its Spring 2023 collection at Paris Fashion Week. 
  • Founding a brand gives athletes more control over creative direction, finances and their future; whereas endorsement deals often mean athletes have little say, are restricted in what they can wear and will expire upon their retirement. 
  • Many athlete-founded brands are imbued with a sense of purpose. After leaving Nike, track star Allyson Felix founded footwear and apparel label Saysh — which just closed an $8 million funding round led by Gap’s investment fund — with a nod to her advocacy for maternity rights baked in, allowing mothers and pregnant women to trade in shoes as their foot sizes change. 
  • Though many athletes, including Westbrook and Felix, are pushing out brands toward the end of their playing and running careers, younger players are starting their careers with the mindset that they will eventually run fully-fledged businesses like Honour the Gift or Saysh.

Additional resources:

Follow The Debrief wherever you listen to podcasts. 



Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up next
Yesterday
How Fashion Learned to Love The Real Housewives
In nearly two decades since the first “Real Housewives” franchise debuted, reality TV has moved from the fringes of entertainment to become a major cultural force. Today, “Housewives” stars are influencing fashion trends, driving sales, and making inroads into luxury circles that ... Show More
21m 16s
Jul 3
Fashion Tech Boom 2.0
After years of disillusionment with fashion tech, investors are once again excited about its potential, but with a very different mindset to the hype-fuelled boom of the last decade.From AI-powered personal styling apps to virtual try-on tools and personalised search engines, a w ... Show More
27m 56s
Jun 24
The Jewellery Boom, Explained
As major luxury brands struggle to maintain momentum amid an industry-wide slowdown, one category is bucking the trend: jewellery. While demand for handbags and apparel softens, fine jewellery sales continue to rise, driven by consumer desire for lasting value, emotional resonanc ... Show More
23m 22s
Recommended Episodes
Mar 2018
Nike vs Adidas - Walking Billboards | 3
As long as there have been professional sports, there have been professional athletes, willing to accept money to wear certain brands, but the biggest endorsement deals were only made possible by a mid-20th century invention: the television. Fans realized they could tune in to se ... Show More
20m 42s
Jul 2021
Tokyo Olympics: Battle of the super shoes
As we head towards the postponed Tokyo Olympics, the world’s eyes will be on athletics. But huge controversy is brewing over a new type of super shoe which has led to a recent surge in track and field records. Ivana Davidovic asks whether runners' ability is becoming less and les ... Show More
18m 13s
May 2022
Benoit Pagotto: Fashion Brands Are Getting Community Building Wrong
At the BoF Professional Summit, RTFKT’s co-founder explained why he agreed to sell to Nike in 2021, and unpacked how brands can leverage web3 and associated technologies to grow  their communities. “A lot of brands are getting it wrong — they need to stop thinking about their bus ... Show More
22m 7s
Oct 2023
Fashion: The rise of sports brands
Twenty-five years ago Puma became the first big sports brand to collaborate with a fashion house. Since then all of the big players have been collaborating with celebrities, sports stars and high fashion brands. Hannah Mullane speaks to Heiko Desens, the creative director at Puma ... Show More
18m 18s
Jan 2024
The race for the perfect running shoe
The running shoe industry is worth around 50 billion dollars across the world, with more and more of us taking part in the sport. With more popularity comes more competition, so what are brands doing to keep consumers interested? We ask the chief marketing officer at Swiss sports ... Show More
18m 34s
Jul 2023
Why Brand Marketing Still Matters
What do Poolside FM and Isamaya Beauty have in common? Their founders have created brands with unique yet relatable identities. Background:  Isamaya Ffrench, makeup artist and founder of Isamaya Beauty, and Marty Bell, co-founder of sunscreen brand Vacation (and Poolside FM), bot ... Show More
22m 56s
Aug 2022
Greg Hoffman: Nike CMO on the role of emotion in design
Show notes: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/greg-hoffman There is probably no better training ground than Nike to learn about creativity as a team sport, and Greg Hoffman, former Chief Marketing Officer of Nike, shares this lesson—along with many other valuable insights—in his ... Show More
46m 42s
Mar 2018
Nike vs Adidas - Nike Air | 4
Every new Nike employee gets a list of principles that serves as the company’s philosophy. One: Our business is change. Two: We’re on offense, all the time. With those principles Nike sprinted from $29 million in revenue in 1973 to more than $850 million by 1983. But the biggest ... Show More
26m 40s
Nov 2019
Nike vs Adidas - Hommes-sandwich | 3
Depuis que le sport professionnel existe, des athlètes se sont fait payer par des marques pour porter leurs produits. Mais les sommes en jeu ont longtemps été symboliques, jusqu'à ce que la télévision commence à diffuser les évènements sportifs. Les fans de sports pouvaient alors ... Show More
21m 30s