Designer brands Coach and Miu Miu seek women athletes to promote new collections

The GIST: The overlap between luxury fashion and women’s sports continued this week with two designer-driven deals that recruited popular women athletes. On Wednesday, Coach revealed its athlete roster for its latest sneaker campaign, while New Balance (NB) furthered its Miu Miu collab the same day by debuting a Coco Gauff collection. Fit for a queen.

The Coach campaign: The brand’s “Not Just For Walking” campaign, which touts its new Soho Sneaker, features Auburn Tigers men’s hoops player Tahaad Pettiford, WNBA player Satou Sabally, and NASCAR driver Toni Breidinger.

• Coach CMO Joon Silverstein said these athletes are “shaping culture in their own way at the intersection of sport, music, and fashion,” something brands like Coach are recognizing, especially in basketball. The brand recently announced an extensive WNBA partnership that included styling for five 2025 WNBA Draft picks, including Paige Bueckers. Money.

The Miu Miu collection: In the upcoming collab, Gauff will sport Miu Miu and NB’s latest co-branded clothing and footwear in upcoming tournaments in Rome, Berlin, and Cincinnati. The collection features colorways connected to each tournament and a reimagined version of Gauff’s CG2 shoe, which has its own fascinating marketing history.

• NB has strategically released new colors of Gauff’s signature CG1 and CG2 kicks that correspond with specific tennis moments, like last summer’s “Grey Days” CG1 for the French Open and this spring’s CG2 Coco Delray that matched her Indian Wells and Miami Open looks.

• Playing with color and style is all part of NB’s strategy: The Delray is an affordable, lifestyle-forward shoe, and Gauff is the perfect one to model it. The Gen Z tennis star also aces social media, which helps her win over the sport’s young, diverse fanbase and elite brands, like the ones she sported in her recent Vogue spread.

Zooming out: Teaming up with these popular athletes makes sense for high fashion houses, especially when considering the proven success of hype drops. Per Fanatics, 20% of people buying from these collections were first-time Fanatics customers, illustrating how the fashion connection can bring new customers to the sports space.

• And it’s even better when women athletes — who are often elite brand ambassadors — sport these looks on social media and garner sky-high engagement. Athletes like Breidinger and Gauff have a built-in social following that makes advertising lifestyle pieces a breeze. Come for the slay, stay for the play.