The luxury market is counting on the Milan 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games to deliver a much-needed boost after luxury spending dropped by up to 3% in 2025 to $1.7 trillion, according to Bain. Hot off the heels of January’s Milan Fashion Week, where the world’s leading luxury brands gave their first 2026 showing, legacy luxury brands like Valentino and Dolce & Gabbana are gearing up for a windfall, most especially those synonymous with Milan.
Home-town brands will open their arms to international guests, including Prada, Gucci, Versace, Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi and Salvatore Ferragamo. Moncler and Giorgio Armani will command an even brighter spotlight, with Moncler dressing Team Brazil and Giorgio Armani’s EA7 Emporio Armani sports brand outfitting Team Italy. The quintessential American luxury brand, Ralph Lauren, is joining the party, suiting up Team USA in the opening and closing ceremonies. And Lululemon, not quite in the luxury sphere but aiming for it, is dressing Team Canada.
Yet the most compelling Olympics fashion story won’t come from the legacy luxury names, but from rising-star niche brands redefining the Games with casual style and looks that can cross over from the ski slope to the street.
“With this year’s Winter Olympics taking place in Milan, the home of luxury fashion, it’s not just the anticipated surge of activity in the luxury market that is fascinating,” shared Jon Copestake, EY’s global consumer senior analyst. “We also expect to see the democratization of skiwear, with the emergence of more affordable options as Gen Z and Gen Alpha eschew ‘old’ luxury in favour of ‘new premium.’”
Why Is Gen Z Moving Away From Traditional Luxury In 2026?
The average Olympian is in their mid-twenties to early thirties, making them members of the Gen Z and trailing-edge Millennial generations. As has been widely reported, these younger consumers have a totally different fashion sensibility than the generations that came before, and it is playing out in sports, just as it is in the office or on the street.
Copestake observed that traditionally, Winter Olympics viewers—who tend to skew 35 years and above—have focused on the traditional Alpine downhill skiing and jumping events, where skin-tight technical performance design gives athletes the edge.
“Traditionally, the Winter Games are all about who can get to the bottom of the hill fastest,” he quipped. However, younger generations are more focused on freestyle events where the athletes’ creative performances and daring aerodynamic moves are the draw. For those events, athletes favor the streetwear look.
“On one side, we have tight-fitting spandex and on the other, we have baggy cargo pants,” he said. “This points to an interesting dichotomy within athleisurewear, which is becoming polarized between traditional sportswear and streetwear brands. The collision of these two different fashion cultures on the slopes will be really interesting to watch.”
4 Niche Brands To Watch At The 2026 Winter Olympics
Here are four niche brands to keep an eye on at this year’s Milano Cortina Winter Games that reflect the new Gen Z fashion ethos:
1. AlphaTauri For Team Austria
The quiet, near-luxury brand AlphaTauri is part of the Red Bull family of brands, famous for its energy drink. Privately owned Red Bull, founded by Austrian entrepreneur Dietrich Mateschitz in 1987, has a long association with sports. AlphaTauri, its only fashion brand, launched in 2016 and has been making a name for itself among athletes and fashionistas ever since.
This year will be its first as the official outfitter for the Austrian team. The fashion, developed in partnership with the athletes, will feature its cutting-edge performance fabrics in street-inspired styles.
Described by the company as a brand “where style meets function,” Olympic selections are available to consumers at accessible-luxury prices, ranging from around $100 for a T-shirt or scarf, $175 for a unisex fleece jacket, $400 for ski pants and $650 for a ski jacket.
2. Kappa For Team USA
While Ralph Lauren received Team USA’s call for the ceremonies, Italy-based Kappa got the nod as Team USA’s official technical apparel sponsor. Kappa sealed a multi-year partnership with Team USA in 2022 and will outfit the ski and snowboarding team through 2030.
Favored by athletes for its technical performance sportswear, Kappa isn’t restricted just to sports. “Kappa is recognized for its heritage of technical sportswear and a non-conformist blend of Italian technology and style,” the company stated.
Kappa is part of the BasicNet Group of brands, which also includes sister fashion brand Robe di Kappa, Sebago footwear and Jesus’ Jeans. Kappa and Robe di Kappa are presented in 1,200 mono-brand and shop-in-shop stores globally.
3. Le Coq Sportif For Team France
Founded in 1882 by French sports enthusiast Emile Camuset, Le Coq Sportif has kept grounded in the sports world for over 140 years. Le Coq Sportif has been dressing the French Olympics team since 2020 and before that in the 1970s and 1980s.
Le Coq Sportif’s 2026 Winter Olympics collection combines “technical expertise, performance, and French elegance,” in uniforms that play on the French flag’s blue, white and red palette in muted ice blue, cream and soft red hues.
The company hit a rough patch post-pandemic and was bought out of receivership by an investment group led by Franco-Swiss entrepreneur Dan Mamane in mid-2025, after which former Lacoste executive Alexandre Fauvet was named CEO. He is tasked with growing the company to $350 million in revenues by 2030. If consumers resonate with this year’s Olympic fashion, the brand could be well on its way.
4. Oakley For Canada And Finland Snowboard Teams
Famous for its eyewear and now part of Luxottica, which acquired the brand for $2.1 billion in 2007, Oakley was founded by Jim Jannard in 1975. He expanded his business selling motorcycle parts into designing equipment and technical apparel for motorcross.
His first product was a handlebar grip shaped to fit the rider’s hand and that led organically into sunglasses, motorcycle and ski goggles. A move into outerwear, sportswear and performance apparel followed in the 1990s, so the brand goes way back in equipping athletes and sports enthusiasts for extreme sports.
At the Winter Olympics its high-performance outerwear will be on full display. The Canada snowboard team will wear its designs engineered specifically to support athletes’ agility movements in the Snowboard Freestyle, Halfpipe, Slopestyle and Big Air events.
Finland’s snowboard team will also get the Oakley treatment in its Aura collection. While Finland-based Luhta is the official outfitter for the Winter Olympics team, the fact that the snowboarders went their own way to partner with Oakley says a lot about the brand’s appeal and performance credentials. Likewise, the same goes for Canada’s snowboard team choosing Oakley over Lululemon.
Eye On The Prize
While visitors to the 17-day Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games will be surrounded by luxury—seats for the opening ceremony start at around $700 with the premium hospitality package ranging over $10,000—the fashion action is not going to happen at the ceremonies. It will take place on the slopes, where Gen Z athletes will turn high-performance gear into street-ready style statements for their fellow Zoomers.
And while Ralph Lauren, Armani and other high-profile brands will put on a spectacular show in the ceremonies, Zoomers aren’t likely to tune in. They’ll be waiting for the candid moments captured on the mountains and shared across social feeds.
“The way younger audiences will experience the Games is completely different from historic viewing. Everything will be digested through short clips and moments that show up in a feed rather than through a linear broadcast,” concluded Copestake.
“That means people and moments that feel authentic will have the biggest impact. We see the brands winning in fashion-related social media engagement being those who spot and comment on trends happening on the sidelines.”
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