sport

As women’s sports continue to gain mainstream traction, beauty brands are shifting from short-term campaigns to sustained partnerships that deepen brand equity, unlock new audiences, and drive long-term growth.

Designer Jide Osifeso will shape the creative direction of Reebok Basketball as the brand seeks to re-establish itself in a performance category it’s been absent from for more than a decade.

The sportswear brand announced Wednesday its plans to improve sneaker technology to help Kenyan track star Faith Kipyegon break a women’s record by running a mile in under four minutes.

The multi-year partnership is the latest collaboration in the growing intersection of fashion and sports.

According to its annual report, Nike produced 50 percent of its footwear and 28 percent of its apparel in Vietnam in its 2024 fiscal year.

Sales of the Nike Dunk are expected to drop 70 percent over two years as new CEO Elliott Hill scales classic sneakers back to make way for new designs. Hill seeks to remedy Nike’s inventory problem by renewing its longtime strategy of maintaining enough supply scarcity to boost popularity among consumers.

The activewear brand’s shares dropped almost 5 percent after CFO Matthew Friend said he expects fourth-quarter revenue to decline by more than analyst expectations in Nike’s third-quarter earnings call. Nike’s turnaround effort faces weak consumer spending and fallout from President Donald Trump’s escalating trade war.

India’s most idolised sportsmen have the potential to be powerful marketing vehicles for global fashion brands but only if partnerships don’t distract players from the game or cast them as elitist figures in the eyes of their diverse fanbase.