Should Athletes Hire Creative Directors?
Teams and leagues have increasingly looked to business-minded creatives to diversify their audience and visual aesthetic. Why not athletes?
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Over the past couple of years, creative directors have become an increasingly common fixture in the world of sports. At The Business of Fashion, I broke news of the first Premier League team to hire someone for such a role, and also asked the question, “Do Sports Leagues Need Creative Directors?” (the answer is yes) in a story that got a lot of traction after LA-based designer Guillermo Andrade was hired for Major League Soccer’s inaugural Leagues Cup.
It’s a role that has been around for a while in sporadic examples but is steadily becoming a go-to tool for sports teams and organizations to differentiate their look and feel, seek out fashion industry collaborations, and eliminate their corporate approach to communications and their visual identity.
Last year alone, the NWSL’s Washington Spirit hired Domo Wells as creative director, while FC Como Women, newly acquired by Mercury/13, hired Ines Rovira in a similar role as part of a wider growth strategy to align with the fashion industry. Meanwhile, sports creative director musical chairs began after the MLS hired Roman King as its first full-time creative director off the back of the results he yielded for the WNBA in that same function.
But strangely, an interesting frontier in sports that has yet to be broken is an athlete hiring a full-time creative director. Today’s newsletter unpacks the benefits such an appointment could unlock for innovative athletes willing to add to their already large support networks.
But first, here are three things my friends at OffBall and I are watching in sports culture this week.
Sales of the ubiquitous “Everyone Watches Women’s Sports” apparel line by Togethxr reached $6 million in 2024.
Amer Sports is flying. The company that owns Arc’teryx, Salomon, Wilson and many others reported bumper sales for 2024 after the former passed $2 billion in annual sales for the first time.
Diana Taurasi retired this week, and the basketball world is mourning. This tribute video that her team posted for her last year is doing the rounds again and will make you cry for sure.
Also, please don’t forget to refer your friends to SportsVerse for insights and good times they can’t get anywhere else.
The Age of Athlete Empowerment
These days, athletes are multi-million (sometimes billion) dollar brands and media businesses in their own right. It’s not to say that they weren’t before, but the freedom athletes now have to engage with and build their own fanbases directly via social media has dramatically shifted the balance of power between them and the businesses they work with.
For example, French World Cup winner Kylian Mbappé’s 123 million Instagram following dwarfs that of Dior, the luxury label he has been an ambassador for since 2021. His teammate Jude Bellingham’s 40 million-strong following will soon surpass that of Louis Vuitton, which signed him as an ambassador last year. Meanwhile, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Instagram following is four times the size of Canada Goose’s, which he has repped and co-created products with since 2024. Lululemon has 35 million followers less than its latest ambassador, Lewis Hamilton. Angel Reese has a bigger online following than Reebok, which made her the face of its revamped basketball category in 2023.
Such deals have become an aspiration for many up-and-coming athletes who understand the unique opportunity that sports stardom brings to enter other cultural realms and broaden their fanbase and revenue streams beyond their day jobs. The one thing the above athletes all have in common is a masterful approach to sculpting their public personas beyond the sports they play, which has led to interest from a whole host of major brand names.
Increasingly, athletes are turning to stylists at the outset of their careers as they look to build their personal brand and make similar connections in the creative industries. The best stylists also often help their clients navigate the intimidating network of editors, PR agencies and designers who hold the keys to the fashion industry, which haven’t always been as accepting of the presence of athletes as they are today.
A Strategic Creative Advisor
It makes me wonder, given how much importance is now placed on an athlete's personal brand, why no one has gone one step further and hired a business-minded creative like a stylist, designer, or photographer as a full-time creative director. The role would allow athletes to create a 360° strategy to curate their personal style, visual branding, and communications and curate collaborations and partnerships across fashion and other creative industries that fit their personality and values.
Plus, the announcement alone that a top athlete was working with a creative director would probably be worth its weight in media exposure, let alone the long-term benefits if executed correctly with the right partner.
Traditionally, important decisions relating to an athlete’s personal image are handled by an army of different stakeholders—often with their own personal agendas—from managers to publicists to personal shoppers to stylists to agents to their girlfriends or boyfriends.
It can lead to muddled output, with certain deals or announcements not conducive to the image or reputation an athlete wants to achieve long term. For example, many athletes don’t realize that signing deals with fast fashion brands—while lucrative and exciting early on in their career—counts negatively down the line if they want to one day work with top luxury fashion houses or even attend their shows.
Hiring a singular creative director who could then build out their own team of experts attuned to the ambitions of the athlete, be they in fashion, music, art, or another creative discipline, could prove a more effective strategy. It may also be particularly useful for top athletes in lesser-known sports to bolster their appeal in the eyes of brands who naturally gravitate to big-name stars in basketball, soccer, and tennis.
From what I hear, it’s only a matter of time before we see the announcement that a major name in the world of sports is hiring a personal creative director. This will undoubtedly open the floodgates for a host of similar appointments.
I’m excited to see it play out.
That’s all for today, friends. Thanks for coming along for the ride.
Until next time!
DYM
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