Inside Tommy Hilfiger's Aggressive Sports Push
A new partnership with Travis Kelce represents the brand's intention to dominate the intersection of sports, fashion and entertainment.
Hi everyone, welcome back to SportsVerse, my twice-weekly newsletter that tells stories you can’t find anywhere else about the intersection of sports, fashion, business, and culture.
When Lewis Hamilton left Mercedes at the end of the 2024 Formula 1 season, it dealt a major blow to one of the most valuable fashion partnerships in sports.
That season also turned out to be Tommy Hilfiger’s last as a partner of the Mercedes F1 team. Whether Lewis’ departure was the causal link which spelled the end of the partnership was never disclosed, but the seven-time champion’s close friendship with Hilfiger himself, his global ambassador role with the brand and his well documented love of fashion were central to the partnership’s existence to begin with. Tommy Hilfiger at Mercedes no longer felt quite right.
(This is the reason why I have long been fascinated with the sports and fashion intersection: because of how frequently performance developments and strategic sporting considerations can affect high value contracts on the fashion side of things.)
Back then, it could easily have been perceived as a major blow to Tommy Hilfiger, the brand behind one of the most transformative fashion partnerships in the modern era of Formula 1. The departure from Mercedes was also significant because of Tommy Hilfiger’s deep involvement in sports long before it became fashionable. The brand had had various commercial dealings in Formula 1, such as driver and team sponsorships, dating back to 1991.
But since the end of its Mercedes partnership, Tommy Hilfiger has pursued an aggressive marketing strategy — entering a wider range of sports and channels than ever before — that has placed the brand back at the forefront of the modern sports-entertainment landscape.
January marked the splashy launch of the brand’s landmark partnership with Liverpool FC, which has already proved to be a fruitful, forward-looking collaboration, helping to evolve the concept of the pre-game tunnel walk in the Premier League.
Tommy Hilfiger was also swift to ensure it wasn’t out of Formula 1 for too long, and signed a deal to become the apparel partner of Cadillac F1, forming an all-American partnership ahead of the team’s inaugural season on the grid. The brand also played a central role in the F1 movie, for which it acted as the official apparel sponsor for the fictional APXGP team and was the fashion partner to the high-budget production in general.
Then, this week, the brand revealed its latest play in sports, in the form of a partnership with NFL player and soon-to-be husband of Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce. Kelce has become a global brand ambassador and “creative collaborator”, whose impact will be felt in a “series of campaigns, collaborations and events spanning fashion, art, music, entertainment and sport,” the brand said in a release.
The brand added that “the multi-season partnership will showcase co-designed menswear and accessories refreshing ‘Prep Made Current’ through Travis Kelce’s vibrant lens.” (I have no idea what this means, so if anyone knows, let me know.)
Aside from making me wonder who writes these brand press releases, the partnership with Kelce is yet another smart play by the all-American brand. The NFL is a fast-growing cultural entity with increasing relevance and connectivity to the fashion industry, as February’s Super Bowl demonstrated. A partnership with the league itself is not possible currently since that designation is filled by another all-American mass market label, Abercrombie. But the tie-up with Kelce allows Hilfiger a smart (and most likely, cheaper and less complicated) entry point to speak to the NFL audience in the absence of a league-wide deal.
Kelce’s proximity to the entertainment industry also feeds into the brand’s strategy of having its products and ambassadors sitting at the nexus of sports, entertainment and fashion (e.g. the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Zendaya and Damson Idris, or the brand’s role in the F1 Movie).
Kelce’s proximity to Taylor Swift no doubt played into Tommy Hilfiger’s desire to sign him as the new face of the brand. The partnership also represents a savvy way for the brand to benefit from coveted exposure, thanks to the new relationship with Kelce, one of the league’s highest profile names in the NFL’s increasingly visible tunnel walk tradition.
Critics of this deal could point to the fact that Kelce may not be the first person someone thinks of when considering athletes with a natural affinity for fashion. But his profile and status represent everything that Tommy Hilfiger is going after with its new sports strategy: high-profile, big-ticket partnerships that allow the brand to speak to the largest consumer audiences out there, focusing on those attracted in equal measure to the worlds of sports, celebrity and entertainment.
That’s all for today, friends. Thanks for coming along for the ride.
See you next time,
DYM