Balenciaga Embraces Sports. Will Sports Return The Love?

Good morning, friends! Welcome back to The Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for reading today. I appreciate you giving me a bit of your time.

Hope your week is going well and that you’re heading into an even better weekend. We have more details on the upcoming NikeSkims Air Rift — set to release on Jan. 26th. The brand released official images of the shoes, and they look as sleek as we all thought. They retail for $150, which feels fairly steep for such a barebones shoe. But I guess the added Kim K tax is doing some heavy lifting here, huh?

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Can Balenciaga’s New Sports Strategy Work?

The big fusion of sports and fashion continues in 2026 through Balenciaga. The brand unveiled its new Pre-Fall 2026 collection on Thursday.

What’s included: It had the usual staples of a commercial lookbook, but tucked away in the reveal of the entire collection was the reveal of something else: Balenciaga is coming with legitimate athleticwear in 2026.

The details: The Business of Fashion’s Robert Williams dove deep on the house’s latest Thursday, detailing Piccioli’s vision of combining sport with sartorialism. The collection comes with legitimate athleticwear pieces in what it calls its “TechWear” line. (It also includes a collaboration with the NBA, which isn’t very good. But it’s there).

The big picture: This isn’t necessarily Balenciaga’s first foray into sports. The brand has previously launched its own sporty collections. It’s also partnered with different sportswear brands like Under Armour and Puma to create unique collections.

But this is different. Most of that was just sports-themed. What Piccioli created is built for performance — not just aesthetics.

The why: Piccioli sees the way Gen Z constantly fuses athleticwear, streetwear and formalwear together, Williams writes, and wanted in on that moment. Plus, he seems to really believe in the idea of sports as a cultural equaliser.

Williams writes:

In addition to feeding Balenciaga’s merchandising needs, Piccioli says the insistence on sports throughout the collection is meant to function on several levels. First, there’s a documentary intention: a desire to speak about the way young people are constantly mixing-and-matching formal, street and athletic wear throughout the day. (That non-prescriptive styling feels like an echo of Celine — both Hedi Slimane’s Spring/Summer 2021 homage to Gen Z or more recent efforts to expand its definition of individual style under Michael Rider. The key difference for Piccioli, however, is that where many designers are talking about changing modes of dress through curation of existing wardrobe staples, he and his team are relying on fresh design.)

Piccioli is also drawn to the idea of athletic achievement as a great equaliser, erasing social boundaries. ”Sports is a way to express values like integrity and equality. When you go out on the field or the court, you can break the rules of social statement, of identity, of culture. You only have the way you play, with your own individuality. You don’t bring a heritage or anything else with you.

Between the lines: Piccioli is taking a bit of a risk here. The aesthetics of this collection are brighter, full of colour and less cynical — a huge departure from the dark, brooding, ironic themes of the house under Demna. Balenciaga’s edginess hasn’t worked as well as it did during its peak years, but it’s become the brand’s vibe. Moving away from that and including sports in the package is quite a swing.

Does it matter?: This is the question that I’m left with, ultimately. It’s nice that Piccioli has this vision and that he sees sport as a gateway to a new consumer with different needs than the typical Balenciaga buyer. But I wonder how effective this will ultimately be.

• Looking at some of the set photos and seeing models lifting a bar with no weights in heels or posing inside a white room with the smallest dumbbells makes me wonder just how serious this is.
• I also wonder if younger consumers interested in sportswear will actually be interested in this. Is there a real market for TechWare? Why buy Balenciaga when I can buy Vuori, Alo Yoga or Lululemon? The house isn’t competing against other major houses anymore — it’s competing against those activewear brands, too.

Ultimately, it’s an ambitious move that deserves respect from Piccioli. But time will tell us how effective it is.

Jumping Into The Mainstream

One of the big questions for the new year was which sports would find ways to stick out as fashion and sports continued to work in concert. For the last couple of years, racquet sports like padel and pickleball have stuck out in that regard.

From the look of it, the trend will continue in 2026.

What’s new: The biggest stars in pickleball and padel just signed two endorsement deals with huge sportswear brands.

• 18-year-old pickleball phenom Anna Leigh Waters has reportedly signed a multi-year sponsorship deal with Nike, according to The Athletic. Waters is the No. 1 pickleball player in the world.
• A week before this report, Swiss sportswear brand On announced that it signed 23-year-old padel phenom, Arturo Coello, to a new sponsorship deal itself. Coello is the youngest No. 1 player in padel history.

The big deal: This is a huge moment for the niche sports that have taken the world by storm over these last few years. Sports like pickleball and padel have passionate niche followings, burgeoning leagues and interesting personalities anchoring all of that. But seeing these two brands — particularly Nike — invest in these sports in such a major way shows a clear shift in strategy.

Be smart: Are we going to suddenly see signature pickleball shoes and gear coming from Nike? No. Absolutely not. The sport isn’t big enough for that. Same with On and Padel, though the brand reportedly plans on launching a padel sneaker in the coming years.

But through these endorsements, these brands have firmly established themselves in these sports as they continue to grow in popularity.

Nike Sits Out The Super Bowl

For last year’s Super Bowl, Nike launched one of the most anticipated commercials in recent memory with its “So Win” commercial. You won’t see anything like that this year.

What’s new: Nike has confirmed it won’t be releasing a Super Bowl spot this year, according to the latest reporting from AdWeek.

Be smart: This is really a return to business as usual for Nike when it comes to the NFL’s big game. Last year’s ad was the first Super Bowl commercial Nike released in nearly 30 years. That was more unusual than the brand sitting this one out.

Why it mattered: Last year’s Super Bowl ad was one that Nike needed. It was a crucial moment in time for the brand.

• Elliott Hill had only recently taken the job as the company’s CEO at the tail end of 2025. This commercial was the company’s first big front-facing moment under his reign.
• It was also arguably the moment that Nike’s comeback first began. Nike made sports its priority again and this commercial put its best and brightest athletes on the biggest stage.

Why it doesn’t anymore: While a Super Bowl commercial would be a flashy way for Nike to remain in the zeitgeist and in front of the people, I’m not quite sure how necessary it is for the brand at this point.

Nike doesn’t need to be flashy right now. It needs to produce.

• The company is in the “middle innings” of its rebuild, Hill said on the company’s last earnings call, and is looking for real wins in terms of growth and revenue.
• Nike’s “Sport Offense” strategy has produced modest growth so far, but the company is still lagging behind in certain areas. Converse is a problem. China is still a problem.

The big picture: Figuring out the right steps to take as the brand moves forward seems to be Nike’s priority — not generating hype for itself, which is essentially what a big Super Bowl commercial is. Nike will be all over the field anyway with the brand sponsoring the league’s apparel.

While it certainly would be fun to see a new Nike Super Bowl spot, fans should be happy that the company is searching for a big more substance now.

The First Multi-Colour 3D-Printed Shoe Is Here

When we talked to Cornelius Schmitt of Zellerfeld last year, one of the next big steps he was touting for the company was the push to finally create multi-coloured 3D-printed shoes.

• Typically, in 3D printed design, the product took on the same color as the materials and parts it was made from.
• That’s a bit of a hurdle in footwear because part of the appeal of a good sneaker is all the colours that it could potentially come in.

What’s new: The moment has arrived. Zellerfeld and Nike are launching what they say is the first multi-coloured 3D-printed shoe on the market. The brand shared pictures of a new multi-coloured pair of the Air Max 1000 — Nike’s first 3D-printed sneaker released in 2024.

What you’re seeing: The picture above shows a 3D-printed prototype of the multi-coloured Air Max 1000. The upper portion of the shoe is black while the bottom is a purple colour instead of the typically monochromatic look the model comes with.

It’s still all one piece. The colour is printed directly into the shoe itself, according to Nike, creating the two-tone look that we see here.

Why this matters: This is yet another step forward for 3D-printed footwear that could make the product more appealing as it scales to larger audiences. It makes the sneaker feel more like a sneaker and less like a science fair project.

We’ll see how audiences react to this. Regardless, it’s nice to see the technology taking another step forward.

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