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J. Crew just revealed its apparel collection with the U.S. Ski & Snowboard teams for the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. Its an ode to retro ski aesthetics that even the most amateur athlete (or viewer) can get behind. The 26-piece collection, which includes everything from graphic sweatshirts and refined knitwear to ball caps, wool socks, and cozy leggings, is the first installment of J. Crews three-year-long partnership with U.S. Ski & Snowboard, announced in March. Prices for the entire J.Crew U.S. Ski & Snowboard collection range from $49.50 to $498. It will be available online and in select J. Crew stores starting January 8. Each product collection is inspired by vintage logos and archival Olympic patches, blending touches of sportiness with laid-back, aprs-ski leisure. To package that aesthetic with this first launch, J. Crew has created an advertising campaign called Alpine People, featuring members of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard team in a lighthearted spot that feels like Wes Anderson dropped onto the slopes in the ’70s. [Photo: Courtesy of J. Crew] Its a refreshing approach to Olympic-branded gear, which has been most closely associated with Ralph Laurens buttoned-up take on Americana aesthetics since that brand started designing Team USAs ceremony outfits in 2008. Where Ralph Laurens Team USA collection for the 2026 Games has a more polished, preppy vibe, J. Crews collection feels both effortlessly casual and aspirationala balance that can be tricky to achieve in a sport with a reputation for elitism. Vintage references offer a new route into chalet core In recent months, weve seen other brands put their own spin on ski apparel, including Nike x Jacquemuss futurism-meets-80s Aprs Ski collection, launched in late November, and North Face x Skims sporty, neutral-chic line, launched in early December. J. Crews interpretation, with its charmingly retro design and loungewear focus, feels like the best collection for hunkering down in a chalet with a hot beverage, even if youve never put on a set of skis in your life. To conceptualize the new skiing collection, J. Crews team started by consulting archival imagery of both ski apparel brands and Olympic games past. “We spent a lot of time immersed in the archives, both our own and U.S. Ski & Snowboards,” says Olympia Gayot, J. Crews creative director of womens and childrens design. “We traveled to their headquarters and poured through historic imagery of the team and past Olympic moments, everything from old uniforms and outerwear to pins, patches, and ephemera that captured the spirit of different eras of the sport.” Details like the collections recurring red, white, and blue stripes and U.S. Skiing” shield patch have a clear tie to vintage Olympic patches, which often featured the same color scheme and motiftypically alongside imagery like a torch, the Olympic rings, and, for skiing events, an illustration of an athlete descending the slopes. [Photo: Courtesy of J. Crew] Dynamic athlete illustrations star in their own right across multiple items in this collection. One sleek line drawing shows a skier zooming down the slopes, which features on a comfy graphic tee and crew neck; as well as another of an athlete with their skis crossed mid-jump. “While we always start with our archives and brand DNA, the real inspiration for this collection comes from the sport itself, the skiers, the Olympics, and the energy of elite athletes,” Gayot says. Typographic call backs to American ski resorts of yesteryear The whole J. Crew Olympic skiing collection, and its accompanying campaign, is tied together by an ultra-70s sans serif typeface, complete with blocky letterforms, bold curves, and a funky combination of caps and lowercase letters. Examples of this typeface appear in the apparel collection almost everywhere theres lettering, as well as in the bright yellow, Wes Anderson-style captions that appear on the Alpine People campaign video. The typeface callsback to similar styles used in vintage ski apparel and destinations, including the Sugarloaf Ski Resort in Carrabassett Valley, Maine, which once had a groovy wordmark with a near-identical look. “Youll see the vintage references reinterpreted in a way that feels timeless but also unique for this moment,” Gayot says. “Those elements show up across the collection as embroidered patches, knit-in graphics, and printed details, creating a through line that connects the heritage of both brands to the pieces in a way that feels thoughtful, nostalgic, and distinctly our own.”
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E-Commerce
The countdown is on for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.The torch relay is already underway and some of the top athletes are already making headlines. There are 16 sports in all, including some never seen before, and 116 gold medals are waiting to be awarded when competition begins in less than a month.This will be the most spread-out Winter Games in history: The two primary competition sites are the city of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, the winter resort in the Dolomites that is more than 400 kilometers (250 miles) away by road. Athletes also will compete in three other mountain clusters besides Cortina, while the closing ceremony will be in Verona, 160 km (100 miles) east of Milan.Get ready for all of the events with this guide of things to know! Key dates to know Competition runs Feb. 4-22. Here are some of the big days to mark on your calendar:Feb. 4: Competition begins (curling).Feb. 6: Opening ceremony.Feb. 7: First gold medal events.Feb. 8: Gold medal, women’s Alpine skiing downhill.Feb. 13: Gold medal, men’s figure skating.Feb. 18: Gold medal, women’s Alpine skiing slalom.Feb. 19: Gold medal, women’s figure skating. Gold medal game, women’s ice hockey. First gold medals in ski mountaineering, a new Olympic sport.Feb. 22: Gold medal game, men’s ice hockey. Closing ceremony. How to watch Dozens of countries will stream or air each day’s events, with some delaying broadcasts until primetime depending on the time zone. That will be the case in the U.S., where Eastern time is six hours behind Milan and Cortina. NBC will carry showcase events at night while streaming sports on Peacock. Top storylines Athletes to watch: Two of the most decorated Alpine skiers in history, 41-year-old Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin, opened the World Cup season in dominant form, raising American hopes of a golden run in Cortina. Eileen Gu is back in freestyle skiing, as is Chloe Kim in snowboarding. NHL players are back on Olympic ice for the first time since 2014 so watch for the likes of Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid.Venues: All eyes are on the hockey arenas in Milan, which were still under construction in December; the main rink will be about 3 feet shorter than NHL and PWHL players are used to. And the athletes’ village in Cortina is a set of more than 350 mobile homes.Russian athletes: Some sports federations are deciding whether to let Russians compete as neutral athletes but only after they are cleared by an independent review to ensure that they have not publicly supported the war in Ukraine and are not affiliated with Russia’s military or other forces.What’s new: Ski mountaineering will make its Olympic debut while skeleton has added a mixed team event, luge has added women’s doubles and large hill ski jumping added women’s and men’s super team events. AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics Associated Press
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E-Commerce
If you’ve been noticing that cobalt-hued water bottles have started to pop up everywhere you’re not alone. The water has recently made an appearance on shelves at major retailers including Whole Foods and 7-Eleven, starred in viral social media videos created by fitness influencer Ashton Hall, adorned on tables at the Golden Globes, and beginning this week, will star in a fresh new advertising campaign featuring WNBA point guard Skylar Diggins. All of these marketing efforts represent a more expansive pitch by Saratoga Spring Water that the brands premium-priced water isnt just for fine dining– which has been the brands core focus for the past several years — it’s for everyone. From fine dining to cultural signal We have an opportunity to speak to a lot more people than I think we thought we did, says Kheri Tillman, chief marketing officer of Saratogas parent company Primo Brands, in an interview with Fast Company. Consumers love the blue bottle and want to engage with it in many different places, as opposed to just fine dining. Its a bit of an affordable luxury. Saratogas total points of distribution has swelled by 69% during the first 11 months of 2025 compared with the prior-year period, the brand told Fast Company, citing data from market researcher Circana. While partnerships with Michelin-starred chefs like Buddha Lo are still important, Saratoga felt it had room to stretch to a wider audience and has done so through a pop-up speakeasy at a 7-Eleven in Los Angeles held in November, a brand partnership with BMX star Nigel Sylvester, and water-food pairings at fancy restaurants developed with water sommelier Martin Riese. It creates, dare I use a water pun, fluidity between the partners, says Christi Lazar, head of The Lab, the in-house creative agency at Primo Brands that vets external partnerships. She says the throughline through each of these relationships is a connection to water that feels as authentic as possible. A new face for a broader audience The brands next big new moment is an ad campaign starring Diggins, which debuts on January 5 just days before the Golden Globes, an event that Saratoga sponsors as its official water. The ad spot will run across broadcast television; Instagram, TikTok and other paid social channels; and print titles including paid social channels including Instagram and TikTok, and print titles including Vogue and Travel + Leisure. [Photo: Primo Brands] Skylar was really interesting, because she was this great mashup of super high-end, with a great look that you would expect from Saratoga, but then also just this every day work, hard grit that you would need to be to be a professional athlete, as well as a mother, says Tillman. Diggins tells Fast Company that the campaign is a good fit for her own brand because obviously, as an athlete, hydration is extremely important. But, she adds that the campaign, which ends with Diggins appearing in front of flashing paparazzi cameras on a bluenot redcarpet appearance, represented her life off the court thats more style, elegance, and how I like to dress. Letting virality do the work The viral moment with Hall skewed more male. Tillman says that Saratoga opted to allow that cultural moment to play out without any interference from the brand. You cant plan a viral moment, but what you can do is make your brand relevant enough, to certain people, to make them want to have it by their side, says Tillman. Primo Brands says it grew the companys audience on Instagram by 77% in 2025. Primo Brands is a relatively new entity, formed late in 2024 through the combination of Primo Waters, whose brands included Mountain Valley and Crystal Springs, and BlueTriton, the water purveyor of Saratoga, Deer Park, and Poland Spring. [Photo: Primo Brands] The combined company now sells one out of every four plain water bottles in the U.S., according to beverage industry publication Beverage Digest, easily making Primo Brands the most dominant seller of branded plain bottled water. Private label plain bottle water accounts for 62% of the market, while soda giants Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Keurig Dr Pepper are all in the single-digits, Beverage Digests data shows. Premium waters crowded next chapter Duane Stanford, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest, tells Fast Company that premium-priced water brands like Saratoga and Smartwater have reported growth thats outpaced the total plain bottled water industry, which in total reported a volume increase of 27% over the past decade through 2024. Saratoga, he says, elevated the brands positioning through a focus on distribution to fine dining restaurants, hotels, and other hospitality channels. They made a conscious effort to do a lot more with that brand and premiumize it and take advantage of that blue bottle, adds Stanford. Primo Brands says that the companys premium portfolio, which includes Saratoga and The Mountain Valley Spring Water, posted a 126% increase in retail sales for the first 11 months of 2025 versus the same period a year ago, citing retail scan data from Circana. But the category is competitive and rival brands have also rolled out major ad campaigns in 2025. Coca-Colas Smartwater reunited with pitchwoman Jennifer Aniston for a new campaign as macroeconomic pressures have dampened some demand for pricy water. Around the same time, ival Sanpellegrino, which is owned by Nestle, debuted an ad spot with The Sopranos stars Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa. Primo Brands has also leaned on celebrities for its advertising, including the Saratoga-Diggins spot and an advertising campaign starring Perfect Pitch actresses Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson to promote the Splash Refresher brand. Tillman says it is key for Primo Brands to differentiate the marketing strategy for the glass adorned Saratoga and Mountain Valley from the regional water brands like Poland Spring and Deer Park, a portfolio of six names that focus on more hyperlocalized marketing and particularly leverage a sponsorship with Major League Baseball. Some of those brands are big sellersPoland Springs is a billion dollar brand thats only sold in six statesbut, the intention is to keep them regional, says Tillman. Saratogas fine dining efforts are also continuing through the work the brand does with Riese, a German-born water expert who created his first menu to explain regional variations and flavor in his home country in 2005. When it comes to water, our most important beverage on this planet, were treating it as a commodity, Riese tells Fast Company. He works with restaurants like Gwen, the Los Angeles Michelin-starred restaurant by chef Curtis Stone, to cultivate a water menu with selections from nine different countries, including Fiji from the Fiji Islands and Frances Evian. Saratogas sparking water has enough fizz that it can be enjoyed with appetizers as a champagne replacement, says Riese, who works with Primo Brands as a paid partner. I dont see water as hydration, says Riese. And I think, especially here in America, a lot of people don’t understand and don’t know it yet, that there’s an epicurean side to water.
Category:
E-Commerce
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