Last year’s US Open generated 690% more online coverage than New York Fashion Week. Not because of a preference, but because of a gap in cultural relevance that is steadily widening.
To be fair, Fashion Week remains an industry event. But it is now in tennis that the broader symbolic status brands so keenly seek from a catwalk is being built.
The most attentive luxury brands stepped in straight away. Moët Hennessy, Rolex and Ralph Lauren have been courtside rather than front row for years. Gucci has dressed the players. So has Balenciaga. This dynamic is particularly relevant in branding for luxury companies, where every cultural association helps to build status, desirability and perceived value. Tennis absorbed the aesthetics of luxury without asking fashion’s permission, and fashion realised that this was the right place to be. But will everyone else arrive in time?
Why tennis, and why now
The Challengers effect (Luca Guadagnino’s 2024 film starring Zendaya) only accelerated something that was already under way. Tennis has a quality few sports manage to build: it works both as an aspirational space and as an entertainment space. It is individual, so it produces recognisable heroes. It is international, so it belongs to no single market. And for decades it has been associated with a certain aesthetic that luxury has always found comfortable.
In short, it works. And more and more people are noticing.
Sinner’s win at Wimbledon, his rivalry with Alcaraz and the constant presence of Coco Gauff have produced a continuous media cycle. Every tournament generates a conversation that cuts across sport, fashion, lifestyle and pop culture. It is the kind of momentum Fashion Week generated in the 1990s, but no longer does (which may also explain the flop of The Devil Wears Prada 2).
Why? It is simple: because people want to find their symbolic status in spaces where something real happens. A fashion show is a curated spectacle. A match, by contrast, is a contest. The uncertainty of the outcome produces a kind of emotional engagement that no fashion event can replicate. And where emotions go, money follows.
What changes for those who govern a brand
Is tennis for everyone?
No. Definitely not. And indeed, not every brand should rush into this trend now.
Still, there is a lesson here for everyone. Real value today lies in how an aspiration is presented, shown: brought to life. The space where the cultural association we had grown used to was once built has moved. And that calls for a deliberate response.
Continuing to concentrate one’s presence on the seasonal shows without occupying the new spaces of relevance is the worst choice that can be made right now. Should Fashion Week be abandoned? No, but nor should it be treated as the only place in which to build identity.
The most delicate issue is integrity. Tennis has a precise aesthetic and a history. A brand that enters without understanding its culture risks looking opportunistic. Louis Vuitton courtside works because there is coherence between the brand’s image and the image of tennis. A fast-fashion brand courtside would produce a different effect. The space has shifted: coherence of identity remains the condition of entry.
New Connections (FAQ)
Has Fashion Week really lost its cultural relevance, or is it still an essential fixture for brands?
It remains essential for the trade press and for industry buyers. What it has lost is the ability to generate the broad cultural conversation it did in previous decades. Audiences outside the fashion industry follow Fashion Week as a distant spectacle. The US Open draws the same audience into real competition, with recognisable characters and unpredictable outcomes. The two spaces serve different functions: Fashion Week as an industry stage, tennis as a cross-cutting cultural arena.
How can you tell whether a sports sponsorship is consistent with your brand?
The choice should not rest solely on the popularity of the sport or the size of its audience. It means assessing the discipline’s cultural codes, the values associated with its athletes, its aesthetic, the communities involved and the role the brand can take on without appearing out of place or opportunistic. Bliss analyses these territories as part of its positioning strategy, testing the coherence between brand identity, audience and sporting context. Sponsorship thus becomes a recognisable extension of the brand, supported by content, partnerships and activations that last beyond the single event.
After tennis, what will be the next space of cultural relevance?
The right question is not where the next trend will move: it is understanding the structure that makes certain spaces culturally relevant. Tennis has worked because it combines unpredictable competition, athletes with recognisable personalities and a strong visual aesthetic. Formula 1 is already on this trajectory, driven in part by the series Drive to Survive. Athletics, after Mondo Duplantis’s dominance and Marcell Jacobs’s return, has the same characteristics. Brands that understand the structure can anticipate these spaces before they become saturated.
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