The celebrity endorsement isn’t dead, but the simple logo slap is.
In August 2025, Christian McCaffrey left Nike. A year later he came back with equity (not just another celebrity endorsement), co-founding While on Earth and spending thousands of hours designing its new trainer himself.
Signing a famous name to a campaign still works, and it still moves product if done the right way. Nobody is pretending otherwise, but this week made the shift hard to ignore. Ilona Maher didn’t trow up a Burn Boot Camp ad on socials and walk away, she became its “Brand Champion” with a shared mission she was already living. Lululemon skipped the merch table in Sydney and built a record shop where attendees could create personalized “record” (very on the nose, but it worked) sleeves with personal mantras printed to make it unique and memorable. Athlos paid female runners a 2.1 million dollar purse and moved the whole meet to London to protect their season. Even Peloton, mid-reinvention, tied its new treadmill to an artist—hey Miley!—who was mid-reinvention of her own.
The talent used to lend the brand its face, but now it’s asking for a seat at the table.
1 · Miley x Peloton
Peloton launched "Let Yourself Run," fronting its first foldable treadmill, the Tread Flex, with Miley Cyrus and a short film scored to her new album. A brand mid-reinvention borrowing a star mid-reinvention.
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2 · Ilona Maher x Burn Boot Camp
Burn Boot Camp named Maher its newest "Brand Champion." The female-first strength franchise pairing with the athlete who made strength a whole personality: the rare deal where the talent + mission were already aligned.
3 · While on Earth x Christian McCaffrey
McCaffrey left Nike to help build While on Earth as co-founder and investor, and dropped The CMC, his first signature trainer a year in the making. Not as an endorsement, but an equitable. The clearest sign yet that athletes want a seat at the table, not just another campaign.
4 · Athlos
Alexis Ohanian's women-only meet crossed the Atlantic to head to London. Sporting a $2.1M purse (up from $773K), and wins from Sha'Carri Richardson and Keely Hodgkinson. (It also scrapped its NY date rather than run athletes into the ground)
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5 · Lululemon x Sydney Marathon
Lululemon built a record Shop for Sydney Maraton weekend. DJs, printed personal mantras, coffee, and a print shop for custom record sleeve, instead of a product wall. The best part? Everything is free.
Every athlete, artist, and creative team behind the work we feature has a name. We credit where we know it. If we've missed someone and you know who made it, tag them below or send us a DM and we'll fix it. Nobody should be uncredited in their own industry.