This Week: Fashion’s Biggest Sports Week Ever (Until the Next One)

Around this time last year, The Business of Fashion published an article headlined “Fashion’s Biggest Super Bowl Ever.” It’s some smart analysis, I recommend you check it out. If anything it understated just how thoroughly the NFL, and the sports world generally, had embraced fashion, and vice versa.

A year later, and fashion’s presence at the big game makes last year’s showing look quaint. Last year’s inaugural “GQ Bowl” included a runway show for Bode’s activewear line. This time GQ’s headliner is Thom Browne, and he’s showing his main line’s Autumn/Winter 2026 collection on Friday, instead of at New York Fashion Week, where he was the closing show last year. The next day, Abercrombie & Fitch will hold a presentation, one of many activations the NFL’s first official fashion partner has planned for the weekend.

There’s more. Bad Bunny released an NFL capsule collection ahead of his halftime show, the third year in a row the headliner has put out themed merch (or fourth, counting the red Loewe jumpsuit released by the brand after Rihanna’s 2023 performance).

And of course there are the ads, which may not be the cultural touchstone they once were, but are still guaranteed to be among the most viewed marketing spots each year. Newcomers include Tecovas, which is running an ad during the game’s stream on Peacock in the midst of a multi-year push to take Western wear national, and Oakley and Meta, which bought a spot to promote their smart glasses.

All this will be happening on a split screen with the Winter Olympics, which open in Milan on Friday. Fashion has also stepped up its marketing efforts around the Games, but summer sports have tended to lend themselves better to merchandise and brand tie-ins. Still, there’s been some spillover as Olympic organisers have relaxed rules about how brands and athletes can work together, and expanded sponsorship opportunities for both the summer and winter games. The host’s status as a fashion capital will likely amp up the style quotient, and skiwear is certainly having a moment.

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