I walked into Kyle Field on Saturday and felt the ground hum—more than 107,000 of us shoulder to shoulder, a living wave of maroon that didn’t ebb until the final whistle. When you see that kind of commitment up close, it’s obvious: fans are a brand’s best and most loyal customers. Texas A&M’s home has a listed capacity of 102,733 and has hosted a record 110,633 fans for a 2014 game, cathedrals of devotion built to hold identity at scale (ESPN, n.d.; Wikipedia, n.d.). That intensity translates into commerce: across 100 sponsorships in seven markets, Nielsen found an average 10% lift in purchase intent among exposed sports fans—proof that passion reliably converts when brands show up meaningfully in the fan’s world (Nielsen, 2022).
If brands want to turn occasional buyers into lifetime loyalists, the play is to double down on “super fan” engagement—building experiences to live, not just products to buy. Fashion Tech is the connective tissue. Nike’s NBA Connected Jerseys embedded NFC chips so fans could tap a phone to unlock highlights, offers, and exclusive content, turning apparel into a living platform that updates with every game (ESPN, 2017). While this trend may not have taken flight then, now is the perfect time to reconsider this type of technology to keep fans engaged and loyal purchasers. Augmented reality elevates the ceiling on spectacle and connection: the Carolina Panthers’ mixed-reality panther at Bank of America Stadium blended broadcast-grade VFX with in-stadium immersion, delivering a shared jaw-drop that keeps circulating online (Sports Video Group, 2021; Unreal Engine, n.d.). At SoFi Stadium, the Rams and Snapchat turned timeouts into oceanic AR scenes on the field—“wow” as a repeatable service for fans and sponsors alike (Adweek, n.d.; Disguise, n.d.; Los Angeles Rams, n.d.).
A masterclass in fashion–sport brand-building plays out every August in New York at the US Open. Polo Ralph Lauren has been the Official Outfitter since 2005, designing on-court uniforms for ball crew, chair umpires, and officials while anchoring the tournament’s fashion identity with seasonal capsules (United States Tennis Association, n.d.-a). American Express extends that identity into premium access and loyalty with the US Open American Express Fan Experience—cardmember lounges, on-site benefits, and interactive activations—showing how a services brand can lead experiential design in sport (American Express, n.d.; United States Tennis Association, n.d.-c). Wilson, the Official Ball since 1978, uses the Open as a stage for storytelling, limited drops, and on-site retail, spotlighting its 45-year partnership with special products and experiences (United States Tennis Association, n.d.-b; Wilson Sporting Goods Co., 2023). Rolex, Official Timekeeper since 2018, infuses luxury codes and heritage into every match moment (United States Tennis Association, 2018). And on the style front, the 2024 tournament again turned Arthur Ashe into a runway, with New York–inspired kits and collections from leading performance labels and collaborators—a blueprint for how fashion and sport fuse into culture-forward fandom (United States Tennis Association, 2024; Pro:Direct Tennis, n.d.; Women’s Tennis Association, 2024).
The audience tailwinds make this strategy even stronger. College football’s national championship drew roughly 25 million viewers in 2024, appointment viewing in a fragmented landscape (The Athletic, 2024). The NFL is expanding reach by meeting fans where they stream: Amazon’s Thursday Night Football averaged about 13.2 million viewers in 2024 and was the only NFL partner to grow year over year (SportsPro, 2025; Amazon Ads, n.d.). Even Netflix stepped in with live NFL Christmas games, averaging over 30 million global viewers—another signal that premium live sports will keep branching into new platforms and formats (Netflix, 2024). Year after year, sports dominate the most-watched U.S. broadcasts, underscoring their unique power to aggregate mass attention and deliver brand impact at scale (SportsPro, 2025).
I’ve seen this first-hand beyond College Station, too. Through my work planning Formula 1 events with Lenovo, I’ve watched how tech-forward partners amplify both operations and fan connection. Lenovo is a Global Partner of Formula 1 and supports the heavy-lift computing behind racing, media, and at-event production—the unseen infrastructure that makes innovation visible to fans (Lenovo, 2022; Lenovo, n.d.). The audience is vast and dynamic: in the U.S., ESPN platforms reached nearly 30 million people for F1 in 2024, tying the second-best average per race; globally, 2023 saw around six million in-person attendees—ideal conditions for connected apparel, NFC-enabled access, and AR overlays that can tie telemetry, drivers, and sponsor stories into an immersive second screen over the track (ESPN Press Room, 2024; SportsPro, 2024).
Looking ahead, I’m also working on upcoming FIFA World Cup activations where we’ll apply the same playbook—designing for scale, sensory richness, and continuity between physical venues and digital experiences. The context is compelling: the 2022 FIFA World Cup Final reached close to 1.5 billion viewers worldwide, demonstrating unmatched global gravity (FIFA, n.d.). FIFA also piloted an in-venue AR layer in Qatar, FIFA+ Stadium Experience, which let attendees hold up their phones to see real-time overlays and alternate angles—an instructive blueprint for elevating live matches as much as broadcasts (FIFA, n.d.; Sports Video Group, 2022). And the growth trajectory in the women’s game, documented economic impact and audience ambitions around the 2023 tournament—shows the addressable base for Fashion Tech and AR is diversifying and expanding, especially among younger, digital-native fans (FIFA, 2024; Euromonitor International, 2023).
Here’s the takeaway I carried out of College Station: when you build for fans—really build for them—you’re not selling a SKU; you’re reinforcing an identity. The right strategy is a “super fan stack” that turns merchandise into media (NFC-enabled apparel), timeouts into theater (on-field AR/MR), and attendance into access (tiered, data-driven loyalty across in-stadium and streaming). The result is a loop where emotion fuels engagement, engagement fuels commerce, and commerce funds even richer experiences—exactly what I felt among the 12th Man at Kyle Field, and exactly what we can scale across F1 paddocks and upcoming World Cup fan zones.
I’d love to learn more about what you think of the potential of sports and fashion.