Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.

BoF Insights Gathers Industry Leaders to Explore What AI Can Teach Us About Sportswear Challenger Brand Strategies

In New York, leaders from VF Corp, Ugg and more joined BoF Insights, The Business of Fashion’s data and advisory team, to explore a new AI-powered social listening analysis on how challenger sportswear brands are outrunning the competition.

How sportswear challengers are winning through lifestyle, according to AI. — Industry leaders gather at BoF Insights' New York community event. (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

BoF Insights

18 July 2025

It’s no secret that sportswear upstarts are giving their incumbent counterparts a run for their money when it comes to customer engagement. This is reflected in the growing market share of challenger brands, as well as the exponential growth of players like On, which has grown its sales 50 percent annually between 2019 and 2024.

Please sign in to ensure you can read our agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice. Or get in touch at support@businessoffashion.com if you experience difficulties.

In This Article

Topics

Marketing

Series

BoF Insights

Organisations

Everyone Wants a Piece of ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2′

The rollout of the movie has been one big promotion party for the fashion industry — with participation from everyone from Walmart to Dior — showing fashion and Hollywood’s appetite for partnership is only growing.

Perfecting the Art of Pre-Marketing

Brands are turning launches into months-long narratives, building waitlists and dropping hints for consumers to decode ahead of time. But the strategy only works if they know when to stop teasing and start delivering.

Not All Creators Convert. Here’s How to Find Those That Do.

New tools and platforms have made it much easier to measure what influencers are driving sales. That reality is reshaping which creators are in high demand, and what sort of creator network brands need to build.

Can Gap Keep Up Its Hot Streak?

Gap’s brand strategy is leading on culture but trailing on the fundamentals that endure beyond marketing moments, according to the latest analysis by BoF Insights.

Building Connection Through Luxury’s Sensory Evolution

Luxury fragrance house Amouage, together with The Business of Fashion, convened leading creatives for an evening of open dialogue on the evolution of the luxury industry — from visual symbol to deeper emotional connection.

The BoF Podcast | Inside Dries Van Noten’s Venice Manifesto

After stepping back from his namesake brand, Dries Van Noten has opened a foundation in a Venetian palazzo dedicated to craft, beauty, and the things made by hand and soul. BoF's Tim Blanks speaks with the designer about why, in ugly times, making something beautiful is the only real form of protest.

Chip Wilson Keeps Lululemon’s Proxy Battle Going

The proxy battle at Lululemon continues as founder and ousted former CEO Chip Wilson pushes investors to vote for his preferred candidates in the company’s annual shareholder meeting.

Coty’s Perfume Business Takes Another Knock With David Beckham Fragrance Lawsuit

Beauty brand Coty is facing a lawsuit from DB Ventures, the company behind former football star David Beckham’s eponymous fragrance, for what the lawsuit describes as flagrant material breaches of the license agreement, court documents show.

The Business of Fashion