For so long, fashion kept the sports world at arm’s length — and vice versa — despite the obvious connections the two industries have always shared. I wanted to see more coverage of those connections and how deep they run, so I stepped up and built the world I wanted to see.
My name is Mike D. Sykes, and I’m the author of The Kicks You Wear, a newsletter I launched in 2019 on Substack to cover the burgeoning sneaker industry. Through the years, the scope of the newsletter expanded. Sneakers became just one of many cultural manifestations of the fusion between the sports and fashion world. That brings us to this moment today. TKYW is coming to The Business of Fashion to rigorously cover that red-hot intersection and everything that comes with it.
I love sports. I’m a tried-and-true fan. I grew up in Maryland, just a few minutes away from Washington, D.C. The Washington Wizards were and are (unfortunately for me) my favourite team. I grew up loving Michael Jordan, hating the Los Angeles Lakers and wanting to be like Allen Iverson. I watched everything from baseball to tennis to football to soccer. I lived and breathed this stuff. I still do.
But sports have never been just about box score stats or winners and losers. The business behind these games we love runs so deep. Fashion is an integral part of that and it has been for decades. I realised that early on in my fandom. Knowing which players are signed to which brand has always been as important to me as knowing the score of the game last night. The trendy tunnel walks everyone loves these days have always been a key point of reference for me, even before Instagram existed.
We’re talking about a multi-billion-dollar industry. Today, more than ever before, the fashion world sees that. That’s why every player these days seems to have a stylist and every team seems to have a sponsor or two that comes from some sector in the fashion world.
The truth is that the sports world is a stage. Every day, millions of people tune in to watch their favourite teams and athletes play. Fashion sees that as an opportunity to put their products in front of that audience. That ranges from the traditional sportswear brands like Nike, Adidas and the like to top luxury labels like Louis Vuitton and even beauty giants like Sephora.
Subscribe here to TKYW, and you’ll get my reporting and hard-hitting analysis on what’s happening and what’s coming in the sportswear world, every Tuesday and Friday. You’ll get the whole gamut of incredible BoF’s sports coverage in one place. Sneakers, streetwear, sportswear, tech, beauty, athleisure. If it’s sports, we’re doing it. We’ve already started. You’ll see more articles like this one from my colleague Lei Takanashi on how basketball sneakers are getting a revival and more like this piece from Haley Crawford on how golf fashion is winning over Gen Z.
We’ll drill down on the biggest stories in the zeitgeist. We’ll be following Nike’s quest to restore its former glory through its athletes, and how the WNBA is using fashion and beauty to build on its recent momentum. We’ve also got eyes on the rise of soccer in North America and how it’s morphing people’s tastes everywhere, plus all the up-and-coming sports vying to be the next F1, or at least the next pickleball. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Yes, the newsletter will be filled with the same rigorous and high-quality work you’re used to from The Business of Fashion. But we’ll also have a bit of fun, too. I see The Kicks You Wear as a community that’s grown into something bigger than myself in the few years it’s existed. I want you to feel welcome in being part of that. We share sneaker and fit pics, we talk about weekly releases, and we crack jokes when jokes are necessary. It’ll be a great time.
The journey that has brought me here has been an unconventional one with a lot of twists and turns that I could never have predicted. But I’m glad it did because it brought me here to you. I hope you’ll join me in taking this thing even further.
The Kicks You Wear by Mike D.Sykes is a twice weekly briefing on how sports and fashion collide to create opportunities. Subscribe to it here.up-and-coming
