Over recent years, the boom of the fashion industry and the subsequent consumerism within the sporting world are not something to be ignored.
According to the BoF-McKinsey report, sportswear is the fastest-growing fashion segment, outpacing the wider apparel market by 3 to 6 percentage points. As an athlete myself, I have noticed the increase in fashion and style being adopted by various sports: influencers show off the latest trends, and everyday brands like H&M, Zara and ASOS now create sportswear ranges.
At the end of the day, it’s mostly about money. The sport industry benefits from big fashion brands reaching out for sponsorships, as do individual athletes. You have your typical sportswear brands like Nike, which brought in $46.4 billion in fiscal 2026, flat on the year, with footwear at $29.5 billion and apparel at $13.4 billion. Then you also have luxury brands like LVMH, which signed a 10-year global partnership with Formula 1 in 2025. Another crossover example is the Dior x Jordan 1 sneakers, which sold out instantly. Altogether, the combination of influencers, microtrends, money and a large market for fashion has contributed to the increasing entwining of fashion and sport.
So, is this a good or a bad thing? I for one believe the commercialisation of sport through fashion is ultimately negative. Brands like Adanola and Tala have risen aggressively in recent years, and they embody a world of trends, influencers, and artificiality. But sport has never been about what you wear. It’s about how it makes you feel: the discipline it builds, the shared love of a game, the pain of a hard session with your mates. I’ll admit that looking good can make you feel good, and the fashion industry has clocked onto that. Still, when the kit starts to matter more than the sport, we risk forgetting why we play in the first place.
Photo by Bibesh Manandhar on Unsplash under the Unsplash license.
