LVMH has signed a deal to sponsor the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, which will see its brands lend their artisanal expertise and credibility to the event.
With its parent company now a Premium Partner for the games, LVMH-owned retailer Sephora will be a partner for the Olympic Torch Relay, proposing activations for the public all along the relay route, as well as at LVMH Group locations along the itinerary and at stops.
Beyond beauty, the group’s jewellery brand Chaumet will design the Olympic and Paralympic medals, while the Moët Hennessy wines and spirits maisons will provide their products as part of the event’s hospitality programmes.
Fashion houses Louis Vuitton and Dior, and luxury men’s footwear brand Berluti will be involved in different, as yet unspecified, engagements between now and the opening ceremony, the company added.
LVMH will also sponsor athletes such as swimmer Léon Marchand, who at the age of 21 is a leading medal hope for the French Olympic team.
On 23 July, Marchand shattered Michael Phelps’ 400m individual medley record during the 2023 World Aquatics Championships.
Finally, the conglomerate will team up with French charity and longstanding partner Secours populaire français, to support a programme facilitating access to sports for 1,000 children and young people aged 4-25 who live in vulnerable situations.
Bernard Arnault, LVMH’s Chairman and CEO called the deal an “unprecedented partnership”, adding: “The values of passion, excellence and inclusion championed by high-level sports are cultivated each day by our teams.”
“With its exceptional know-how, the LVMH Group will bring its immensely creative talent to this project and enable us to benefit from its extensive experience,” added Tony Estanguet, President of the Paris 2024 Olympic Committee.
“This partnership also sends a powerful signal that France’s leading businesses are behind the Paris 2024 Games, which will let our country shine brightly around the entire world.”
LVMH’s Olympics announcement comes amid the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in New Zealand, which boasts Unilever’s personal care brands as the official sponsors.
Unilever will also sponsor the men’s FIFA World Cup 2026 and the esports FIFAe Finals in a deal which will run until 2027.
Adding to the roster of luxury and beauty brand-owning giants backing sporting events in 2023 is Puig, which last month signed on to become a Global Partner of the 37th America’s Cup and be the Official Naming Partner of the inaugural Women’s America’s Cup.
The Spanish company said it hoped to promote “gender equality within the sport of sailing” by partnering with the regatta.