What Does Tommy Hilfiger Know That We Don't?

Why Tommy Hilfiger is Investing so Much in Sports Right Now

Mar 31, 2025

Thank you for being here. You are receiving this email because you subscribed to Idée Fixe, the newsletter for curious minds. I’m Toni Cowan-Brown, a tech and F1 commentator. I’ve spent the past five years on the floor of way too many F1, FE, and WEC team garages, learning about the business, politics, and tech of motorsports. I hope you’ll stick around.

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Women Changing the Sports Sponsorship Game

The sports world is undergoing so many changes, and it’s being powered, in large part, by women. From sold-out stadiums for women’s soccer finals to record-breaking viewership of NCAA women’s basketball, women’s sports are booming. Major brands and media are responding in kind: A new Deloitte report projects that women’s sports revenue will hit a record high of $2.3 billion in 2025. In North America, sponsorship deals in women’s sports have surged by double digits, growing about 12% year-over-year, outpacing the men’s side by nearly 50%. Advertisers more than doubled their spending on women’s sports in 2024 to $244 million, a 139% spike from the year prior.

This investment reflects a broader shift: female fans are increasingly driving the sports economy, demanding attention from sponsors that once focused almost solely on male audiences. In Formula 1, and I’ve spoken about this at length, we’ve seen an explosion of interest among women in the past five years. Women now comprise roughly 41% of F1’s global fan base. That’s up from just a few years ago, and the fastest-growing demographic of F1 fans worldwide is young women aged 16 to 24. Female fans are flexing their consumer muscle, and brands have taken notice.

The rise of the female sports fan is reshaping the sponsorship landscape. Brands that historically overlooked women’s sports are now scrambling to get in on the action and for good reason. Studies show that women’s sports fans tend to reward those who support their series. Nearly one-third of women’s sports fans report they’re more likely to purchase from brands backing women’s sports, a figure that climbs higher among younger female consumers. Even more compelling, a recent survey found that 86% of sponsors said their investments in women’s sports have met or exceeded return on investment expectations. In other words, investing in women’s sports is not charity - it’s smart business.

Traditional sports heavyweights like Nike have long been present, but now non-traditional sponsors are entering this space, attracted by the passionate and growing female fanbases. It’s telling that in the new all-female F1 Academy racing series, one of the inaugural sponsors isn’t an oil company or a tech firm, but a makeup brand: Charlotte Tilbury. Likewise, financial services giant, American Express, has joined to support the women drivers of F1 Academy, recognizing the social and marketing value of elevating female talent. These partnerships reflect a broader truth: as the face of the sports fan evolves, so too do the types of companies seeking a piece of the action which will in turn create better opportunities for the young female athletes.

Against this backdrop, one iconic fashion brand has been making especially bold moves: Tommy Hilfiger. So my question is - Why is a classic American fashion label doubling down on sports sponsorships, from Formula 1 race tracks to sailing races, and even tennis courts? The answers lie at the intersection of changing fan demographics, savvy marketing strategy, and a bit of old-fashioned passion for sport.

Tommy Hilfiger’s Quiet Sporting Heritage

To understand Hilfiger’s current play, it helps to know this isn’t the designer’s first lap around the track. Tommy Hilfiger’s affinity for sports goes back decades. In the early 1990s, Hilfiger was one of the first fashion moguls to put his brand on a Formula 1 car, sponsoring Team Lotus from 1991 to 1994. Then, in 1998, he made headlines by becoming the first non-automotive brand to sponsor Ferrari’s F1 team, even designing the team uniforms worn by legends like Michael Schumacher. This was a first of its kind crossover at the time: a luxury fashion name emblazoned on the scarlet red of Ferrari. That partnership ran for several seasons and set a precedent - Hilfiger demonstrated that fast cars and high fashion could mix, opening the door for other lifestyle brands to consider similar moves.

The brand’s DNA has always had a nautical streak, inspired by Tommy’s lifelong love of sailing (even the Tommy flag logo was inspired by nautical signal flags). In 2003, Hilfiger sponsored American skipper Brad Van Liew in a solo round-the-world yacht race. These weren’t just token sponsorships - they reflected Hilfiger’s personal passions and a recognition that the aspirational lifestyle embodied by sailing resonated with his brand’s preppy, all-American image.

The brand also flirted with the world of tennis. In 2015, Tommy Hilfiger famously signed Spanish tennis icon Rafael Nadal as a global brand ambassador, launching the partnership with a splashy exhibition event in the heart of New York City. Nadal played a lighthearted “strip tennis” match in Bryant Park – peeling off layers of Tommy Hilfiger suits and underwear each time he lost a point – giving the brand viral media exposure.

In 2018, after a 17-year hiatus from Formula 1, the brand struck a multi-year deal to become the official apparel partner of the all-conquering Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team. At the time, Mercedes was fresh off four consecutive world championships, led by superstar Lewis Hamilton, and Hilfiger’s red-white-and-blue logo found a home on the Silver Arrows’ cars and team kit. “From the first time I attended a Formula One race, I was completely fascinated by the world of motorsports,” Tommy Hilfiger said on re-entering F1, calling the partnership “an incredible way to fuse fashion and Formula One”. Under that deal, Hilfiger outfitted everyone from the pit crew to the hospitality staff (over 1,500 personnel) in branded attire, turning the F1 paddock into a catwalk. The company even launched limited-edition Tommy x Mercedes streetwear capsules, timing drops around Grand Prix weekends to blur the lines between team merchandise and high fashion. The message was clear: sports, style, and pop culture were converging, and Tommy Hilfiger wanted to lead the charge.

Looking at this timeline, two things jump out to me. First, Tommy Hilfiger’s sports investments have ramped up sharply in the past couple of years, focusing on partnerships that go beyond slapping a logo on a billboard. Second, a pattern emerges: recent deals skew toward inclusive, emerging properties (like an all-female racing series and a nascent international sailing league - the US SailGP team) rather than the more established sports marketing routes. There’s a strategic calculus at play here, one that aligns perfectly with the shifts in fan demographics we are seeing.

Betting on a More Inclusive Future: F1 Academy and Beyond

Perhaps the clearest signal of Tommy Hilfiger’s savvy is its embrace of F1 Academy. While Formula 1 has boomed in popularity, the top echelons of motorsport remain almost entirely male. F1 Academy aims to change that by providing young female drivers a platform to develop their talents on the road to, hopefully, Formula 1. In late 2023, Tommy Hilfiger announced a landmark partnership with F1 Academy, becoming an official partner of the series for the 2024 season.

This partnership marked Tommy Hilfiger’s first major sponsorship of an all-female sports league, and it speaks volumes. “Tommy Hilfiger is fully invested in our mission to improve female representation in motorsport,” said Susie Wolff, the managing director of F1 Academy and a former racer herself. Wolff noted that having such a globally recognized lifestyle brand on board would help F1 Academy reach new audiences beyond the traditional racing fanbase. Indeed, Hilfiger’s involvement brings fashion media and female lifestyle consumers into the conversation around women’s racing - an avenue that pure racing sponsors might not access. Hilfiger is bridging two worlds: the die-hard motorsport community and a broader pop culture audience that follows fashion and celebrity. It’s a clever way to broaden the appeal of F1 Academy while also putting Hilfiger front-and-center with a demographic that other F1 sponsors covet.

For 2025, Tommy Hilfiger has inked a deal to sponsor Alba Hurup Larsen, a 15-year-old Danish karting phenom. Larsen, notably, won the FIA Girls on Track Rising Stars program in 2023 and even caught the attention of Ferrari’s driver academy. By signing her, Hilfiger is doubling down on its bet that supporting the pipeline of female talent is both good for the sport and good for business. “Having this support at such a pivotal stage in my career means the world to me,” Larsen said. Tommy Hilfiger himself framed it as a commitment to innovation and inclusivity in motorsports: “With F1 Academy, we’re breaking barriers and paving the way for a more inclusive and dynamic future in racing”.

Hilfiger seems to recognize the business upside of this alignment. Formula 1’s overall sponsorship revenue has been skyrocketing as the sport gains new fans in new markets. Nielsen Sports reports that the average F1 team sponsorship deal is now worth 56% more than before the pandemic (2019), a jump attributed in part to the influx of fresh demographics like women and Gen-Z fans. Hilfiger’s move into F1 Academy positions the brand as a “first mover” in blending lifestyle with a female-focused motorsport property, potentially reaping outsized benefits as the series grows. In plain terms, Tommy Hilfiger is betting that today’s overlooked women’s series could be tomorrow’s mainstream hit - and getting in early is both cheaper and yields greater influence on how the partnership is shaped.

Setting Sail: Fashion Meets High-Tech Sailing

Tommy Hilfiger is also steering into another dynamic sport: SailGP. This global sailing league, launched in 2019, features nation-based teams racing cutting-edge foiling catamarans at freeway speeds. SailGP prides itself on being an “adrenaline-fueled” sport with iconic venues. It’s an upstart property, but one with big ambitions to modernize sailing and attract a broader audience, including younger fans and more women. For Hilfiger, SailGP checks multiple boxes: it ties into the brand’s seafaring heritage and represents the kind of innovative, internationally minded platform that aligns with fashion’s global reach.

In June 2024, Tommy Hilfiger announced a multi-year partnership with the United States SailGP Team - marking the first time the brand sponsored a team in this league. The deal sees Hilfiger become the team’s official lifestyle apparel partner, meaning the U.S. SailGP squad will sport Tommy Hilfiger-designed uniforms and gear. The Hilfiger logo will also be prominently featured on the American team’s F50 catamaran, emblazoned on each side of the high-tech boat as it skims above the waves at up to 60 mph. This is a full-court press to integrate the Hilfiger brand into the fabric of SailGP - both literally, via apparel, and figuratively, via storytelling and experiences.

He praised SailGP’s mix of intense racing and international glamour, saying he’s “inspired by [the team’s] grit, determination and innovation” and sees an opportunity to “disrupt sailing and bring something new to fans globally”. That language - disruption, innovation, global - mirrors how tech startups speak, and it’s telling coming from a 73-year-old fashion legend. It suggests Hilfiger knows that to stay relevant, his brand must align with the cutting edge. By partnering with SailGP, Hilfiger taps into an emerging sport that could very well become a mainstream fixture (with sustainability and gender inclusivity as core values - SailGP teams have male and female athletes). It’s both a passion play and a calculated risk to capture the zeitgeist of a younger, environmentally conscious, tech-savvy fan community. And just a few weeks ago, the l'Oréal Group became a sponsor of the French SailGP team, adding to the mix of new kinds of sponsors in this space.

Game, Set, Match: Fashion’s New Love Affair with Sports

So why is Tommy Hilfiger leaning so hard into sports sponsorship now? In many ways, the timing couldn’t be better. The convergence of trends - booming female viewership, streaming-fueled global fan growth, and the blending of sports with lifestyle culture - has created fertile ground for brands like Hilfiger to make a splash. What Hilfiger “knows” is likely what forward-thinking CMOs across industries are also figuring out: that sports are not just sports anymore; they’re cultural touchstones. They are one of the few forms of content that can still command live, engaged mass audiences in an age of fragmented attention. They stir passion and loyalty in ways few other things can. They offer a narrative and community that brands can authentically plug into, if done right.

For a fashion brand, especially, sports provide a way to stay culturally relevant and reach consumers in new contexts. Hilfiger’s Chief Brand Officer noted during the Mercedes F1 deal that Formula 1 gave the company a platform to expand strongly in markets like China and Asia, where F1 has a huge following. It’s advertising by association - the medium is the message. A Tommy Hilfiger logo on a speeding race car or sleek sailboat sends a message that the brand is fast, modern, global, and not afraid to venture beyond the mall.

Another factor is the cross-pollination of streetwear, luxury, and sports merchandise. In recent years, we’ve seen luxury houses design NBA jerseys, streetwear labels partner with soccer clubs, and athletes become style icons sitting front row at Fashion Week. Tommy Hilfiger’s sports collaborations fit this mold perfectly. This appeals to young consumers who love limited drops and the idea of wearing something that has a story. It also turns fans into brand ambassadors - a Mercedes F1 fan wearing a Tommy Hilfiger team jacket is effectively a walking advertisement, and one who paid for the privilege. In a sense, Hilfiger sees sports sponsorship not as a cost center but as a product development and content marketing opportunity.

Finally, consider the emotional resonance. The title of this piece asks, half-jokingly, what Tommy Hilfiger knows that we don’t. The answer might simply be the timeless marketing truth: meet your audience where their passion lives. For millions today, especially a growing contingent of women and Gen-Z, that passion lives in sports. Tommy Hilfiger appears to understand that to keep his 40-year-old brand relevant for the next 40 years, it must continue to evolve with cultural shifts. Right now, that means being part of the sports stories that are captivating people. It means supporting women when others are just starting to pay attention. It means turning sponsorships into genuine partnerships that enrich the fan experience.

In the bigger picture, Hilfiger’s moves suggest that the walls between industries - fashion, sports, entertainment - are crumbling. We’re heading into an era where a fashion brand can be a serious player in a racing series, where an athlete can be a style ambassador, and where the clothes you wear can signal which sports communities you identify with, not just your taste in fashion. Tommy Hilfiger isn’t the only one recognizing this shift, but the breadth and visibility of Hilfiger’s sports strategy put it at the forefront.

As women’s sports continue their meteoric rise and fanbases diversify, expect more brands to emulate this approach. The days of simply slapping a logo onto something are fading; the future is about integrated storytelling and shared values. If the question is what does Tommy Hilfiger know that we don’t?, the answer might be: he knows where the cultural momentum is, and he’s getting there early. The rest of the marketing world would do well to pay attention - and perhaps, to follow suit (no pun intended).

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