On Friday August 5th the Olympics will roll into Rio de Janeiro, bringing its lycra-clad festival to the carnival city. A couple of months later, the Paralympics follows. Amidst the heavily muscled bodies, the face-painted fans, the tinkling of medals and the army of drug-testers, there will also be brands. Because as this blog has written about before, big sport means big money and big money means big luxury brands.
With over 1 million visitors expected to travel to Rio and Sao Paulo over the course of the Games, plus the billions watching on TV and online, the Olympics creates a global market like no other. So as expected, there are your MacDonalds, P&Gs, Samsungs and Coca Colas et al. But as usual on this blog, we’re a lot more interested in what the luxury sector has to offer and, in particular, what lesser known Brazilian brands will be on display. First, let’s look at some of the luxury brands continuing their Olympic involvement from London 2012.
Stella McCartney is back, teaming up with Adidas once more to kit out the British team in what looks suspiciously like brightly coloured gym-gear. Ralph Lauren, again responsible for clothing Team USA, has combined Californian and preppy themes for a look that only American athletes can really pull off.