Influencer marketing platform Lefty has published a new report on why luxury fashion houses are increasingly turning to sports stars over Hollywood actors for brand partnerships - and where the biggest investments are being made.

The shift is significant: LVMH committed roughly $166 million to become a premium partner of the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympic Games, and followed this with a 10-year global partnership with Formula 1 starting in 2025, reportedly worth over $1 billion - dethroning Rolex after more than a decade as F1’s official timekeeper.

From endorsement to ambassadorship

• The nature of athlete deals has fundamentally changed. Rather than appearing in a print ad, athletes now sit front-row at Fashion Weeks, star in cinematic brand films, design co-branded collections, and wear bespoke luxury outfits during pre-game tunnel walks and post-match press conferences.
• When Gucci signed Jannik Sinner, it worked behind the scenes with tennis governing bodies to gain official approval for Sinner to carry a custom Gucci duffle bag onto the court at Wimbledon - transforming him into a global style icon while positioning Gucci as a brand breaking century-old sports traditions.
• Dior elevated Kylian Mbappé from brand ambassador to what incoming creative director Jonathan Anderson called “the voice of a generation”, with multi-year creative partnerships that have nothing to do with sport itself.

Where luxury is placing its bets

• Tennis and golf still anchor luxury’s sports strategy, accounting for the largest number of athlete ambassadors. Basketball is a growing category. Football has become luxury’s biggest new territory, driven by global reach: Mbappé for Dior, Bellingham for Louis Vuitton, and Vinícius Júnior fronting a Hugo Boss fragrance campaign.
• Dior has also signed boxer Estelle Mossely, skateboarder Louise-Aina Taboulet, and judoka Clarisse Agbegnenou. Louis Vuitton’s newest addition is figure skater Alysa Liu, following her breakout performance at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
• In 2023, Prada partnered with China’s women’s national soccer team, adding to a growing roster of Chinese female athlete partnerships including basketball player Yang Shuyu and water polo player Xiong Dunhan.

Why sports is becoming luxury’s favourite channel

• Football, F1 and Olympic sports reach audiences luxury has historically struggled to convert - younger, more global, and less tied to old-money codes. LVMH’s F1 deal gives it a direct line into USA and Asian growth markets that tennis and golf, with their more Eurocentric fan bases, do not cover as efficiently.
• Gen Z trust athletes’ authenticity and consistency more than one-off celebrity campaigns. Athletes’ reputations are built on measurable performance rather than a manufactured image - which is harder to fake and harder to cancel.

Female athletes are still underrepresented

• Female athletes make up just 24.5% of the ambassador rosters tracked by Lefty, yet generate only 19.2% of total EMV. The gap is not a volume problem - female ambassadors post more often on average than their male counterparts, yet earn 79% less value per post ($147.5K vs $264.7K).
• Closing the gap requires the same investment logic brands already apply to men: signing rising talent before she becomes a headline, building multi-year campaigns rather than single moments, and giving female athletes the same content cadence and cultural real estate as their male counterparts.
• Women’s sport viewership is climbing and Gen Z audiences already over-index on it - the demand exists. The question for luxury brands is whether they are willing to invest in female athletes the way they already do in men.

For more information, visit lefty.io.

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