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Dior’s love affair with sports keeps getting stronger. You wonder why. After a coldly received athleisure collection presented during Paris Fashion Week, the French brand on Oct. 14 unveiled a capsule collection designed by Kim Jones in collaboration with Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time world Formula 1 champion. It was inspired by one of Hamilton's favorite pastimes: winter sports.

At first glance, the collection has potential and some items could become popular collectibles. You have a Dior 8 Backpack with a flap and Messenger Rider 2.0 in ultra-resistant materials. Footwear includes futuristic B44 sneakers that sell for €1,200, with some in limited editions. Organic or recycled textiles were used for many items and the technical clothing was produced by Japanese ski apparel maker Descente, which collaborated with Dior when it launched its ski capsule collection in 2020.

“Virtuosity, functionality, luxury” were some of the key words used to describe the new collection. You would expect the campaign to communicate these messages clearly. Think again.

The concept of the campaign revolved around snowboarding, one of Hamilton’s high-octane passions. It should have been a great opportunity to create a highly engaging narrative and story. However, judging by the images that have been released, the campaign feels flat and unimaginative. Hamilton is shot against a seemingly fake backdrop of a blue mountain range wearing a multitude of the collection’s pieces. The pictures look like pages of a commercial catalog and lack the energy you would expect from such a collection.

Louis Vuitton’s ad campaign, featuring tennis superstars Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal and shot in the Dolomites by Annie Leibovitz, was much more consistent with the brand’s story and conveyed its values far more clearly.

The fashion industry could benefit from expertise from sportswear specialists, but fashion creative talents tend to be self-centered, arrogant, haughty and omniscient when it comes to creating content. Without expertise in the field, the risk is to fall flat like the Hamilton x Dior campaign images. The collection also features a new dynamic logo – the word Dior is written in the same way as the Captcha letters you need to click to confirm you are a human on computers. However, it has not been used on communication tools such as ads posted on social media. Such lack of consistency dilutes the message.

To be fair, the way celebrities are used in campaigns by the fashion industry feels quite basic and unimaginative. Many think that a celebrity wearing a brand’s products and associated with a logo is enough to create desire. It’s rare to find campaigns with celebrities that are really integrated into the brand’s narrative and engage the consumer.

What’s surprising with this Dior campaign is that it was produced by a stellar cast. Rafael Pavarotti, a photographer celebrated by the young creative generation, shot the campaign. The art director was Ronnie Cooke Newhouse, wife of Conde Nast’s mogul Jonathan Newhouse and a long-time collaborator of Kim Jones. It also had input from Melanie Ward, the legendary style maker who has worked with many talents and shaped the iconic image of Helmut Lang in its heyday.

On paper, they form a dream team. The reality is that they are all specialized in fashion and have little experience with the dynamics of movement and energy that sports and athleisure photography should express.

As a matter of fact, the Hamilton campaign is complemented by a set of totally different images, focused exclusively on the shoes, shot by French experimental photographer Gabriel Boyer. While the mood of this additional content feels somewhat disconnected from the main campaign, the outcome is far more dynamic and better suited to communicate the energy that the collection wishes to convey.

Previously, Hamilton worked extensively with Tommy Hilfiger, arguably becoming synonymous with the all-American affordable luxury retailer. Hamilton is evidently trying to elevate his personal image. Next year, the Formula 1 racer will move from Mercedes to Ferrari.

His decision to collaborate with Dior seems a natural evolution. An in-store event with Hamilton and Jones was held at the London Dior store on October 10 to launch the collection.

LVMH AND SPORTS

Dior’s venture into sportswear has been irregular for some time. The French brand dressed Celine Dion and Lady Gaga for the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris. These were powerful moments and in line with the brand’s DNA. However, Maria Grazia Chiuri's inclusion of athleisure in her latest fashion show contributed to dampening her entire seasonal collection and generated a downpour of negative comments in social media.

In 2021, Dior signed a multiannual sponsorship with the Paris Saint-Germain football team to dress the team. From a product standpoint, the most successful sports collaboration was the Nike Jordan 1 x Dior limited 2019 edition sneaker. It was followed last year by the Nike Low Barons x Dior sneaker.

During the presentation of Chiuri’s 2022 cruise collection in Athens, the brand also introduced a separate “Dior Vibe” capsule collection of sporty bags and sneakers, as well as branded sports equipment in collaboration with the specialist Technogym. In 2023, Kim Jones created a limited collection for the Gran Turismo World Series Finals race that did not go on sale and was only distributed to attendees. Such capsule sports collections seem extremely short termed.

Dior’s parent LVMH has been investing vast sums in the sports universe recently. It was omnipresent during the Olympics, on which it spent €150 million. This month it announced an unprecedented 10-year global partnership with Formula 1 valued at a staggering $1 billion.

“The people, the quest for excellence and the passion for innovation are at the heart of the activity of our maisons and Formula 1,” LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault said in a statement about the deal. “Both in our workshops and on circuits around the world, it is this incessant search to break boundaries that inspires our vision, and this is the meaning that we want to bring to this great and unique partnership between Formula 1 and our group.”

On Thursday, Agache, the Arnault family investment company, said it was in exclusive talks to acquire a controlling stake in the Paris FC football club. “Our family has always been close to the world of sport, to sportsmen and women, and to the young women and men who seek to surpass even themselves,” Antoine Arnault, who is to sit on the Board of Directors of Paris FC, said in a statement released by LVMH.

Overall, Dior’s attempts to expand into sportswear and athleisure do not seem to follow a coherent brand extension plan. The result is a series of marketing initiatives that appear poorly coordinated and without a common objective. Obviously, the separation between Dior Homme by Kim Jones and Dior Femme by Maria Grazia Chiuri does not help.

Dior’s venture into sports and new product categories risks confusing consumers and damaging brand equity. Sport is not part of Dior’s heritage. The brand needs to find a more balanced and long-term approach on how to make these collections fit seamlessly with its story and rich heritage.