It isn’t just his tenacity and grit on the field that Australian Football League star Isaac Quaynor takes pride in.
“My favourite thing for anyone to say ever [is], ‘You smell good’,” the 24-year-old Collingwood Magpies defender said.
By his own admission, Quaynor is “obsessed” with fragrances, to the point that he dreams of one day having his own perfume cellar. Niche brands are his favourites: in a recent post on Instagram, where he frequently shows off his scents, he displayed two bottles from Xerjoff and one bottle from Initio Parfums Privé on his hotel bathroom sink, collectively worth some $1,000 or so, packed for a short trip.
He’s not the only one with an obsession: NBA stars past and present like Devin Booker and Victor Oladipo have spoken about their love of the cult labels Le Labo and Creed, while Liverpool F.C full-back Trent Alexander-Arnold is a fan of Byredo and Xerjoff, per GQ.
In theory, stars like Quaynor are perfect ambassadors for indie fragrance brands. Roman Di Somma, who is head of international talent at Creative Artists Agency and has brokered fragrance deals for clients like Real Madrid’s Eduardo Camavinga and Tottenham Hotspur’s Son Heung-min, said male athletes are often more relatable to a broad audience than other celebrities such as actors, with a wider-ranging appeal that crosses age and income groups. That reach could be useful particularly for niche brands, which can be popular with a small group of hyper-engaged shoppers but might otherwise struggle to reach a large cross-section of consumers.
But while major fragrance labels have tapped sports stars for years, smaller brands have remained reluctant due to the costs and a desire to maintain a more exclusive image. Athletes have also yet to become proven tastemakers in beauty, according to Sable Yong, a writer and co-host of the fragrance podcast Smell Ya Later.
Those perceptions could soon change. Some of sports’ biggest names are increasingly presenting themselves as connoisseurs in fields like fashion, showing off their knowledge of cult streetwear or obscure designer labels. Often they embody qualities that dovetail with the ethos of indie fragrance brands, whose limited distribution, high price points and esoteric notes convey status and singularity.
As more brands of all kinds look to sports teams and athletes as partners, it may only be a matter of time before indie fragrance labels follow suit.
“Those who do jump on the movement [soon] will reap the most benefits,” Yong said.
Evolving Perceptions
Athletes represent an immense opportunity for fragrance makers to connect with new customers, as young men in particular present a burgeoning new market. In investment bank Piper Sandler’s latest semiannual survey of US teens, annual spending on fragrance amongst teen boys grew 46 percent to $110 compared to the previous year’s survey. Boys as young as 11 are showing interest in premium perfumes, with niche brands like Creed and Bond No. 9 especially popular.
Historically, sports stars may have preferred to work with established mass brands to get a bigger lift to their own visibility, and to ensure they weren’t alienating fans who couldn’t afford or weren’t aware of smaller, less mainstream lines. In fragrance, that meant brands from fashion houses usually came out on top, especially if a scent had a simple, memorable name, an inoffensive scent profile and a moderate price.
But the fragrance industry is changing. As it has become more saturated with indie brands, and as male customers have started to consume more of them, it’s created more of an emphasis on individuality, exclusivity and collectability.
Yong said Gen-Z shoppers in particular were especially motivated by being early adopters of fragrances. “They want to be the one who discovers [the next big thing],” she said, adding that many of the athletes she sees on social media are clearly hunting for niche brands. “These guys know a thing or two … they’re not buying Polo by Ralph Lauren.”
That interest combined with the changing perceptions of athletes as not only masculine, confident and successful but also luxury enthusiasts and fashion aficionados should make them ideal ambassadors for fragrance brands.
But even if brands are interested, attracting the right athletes and creating the most productive relationships requires careful calibration, and an understanding of how the modern athlete should be approached.
The Modern Athlete
When CAA’s Di Somma began at the agency in the early 2010s, many of the athletes he worked for on fragrance deals had far less of an interest in the category as they do today. At the time, he’d been enlisted by Coty to help the company build out a roster of footballers for the upcoming World Cup cycle.
“Back then, a lot of these players would turn up on set without having even smelled the perfume or the fragrance,” he said. “Now, this doesn’t happen. The players want to try the product, they want to know that they’re putting their name next to something that they believe in.”
If the brand isn’t right, he added, they just won’t do it.
Because players have become more selective and sophisticated about the partnerships they enter into, brands may have to work harder to sign them up. That can mean laying the groundwork long in advance of making commercial approaches, introducing sports stars to their world by seeding products, inviting them to events and educating them on the fragrances themselves.
For now, Quaynor has been learning on his own. He can identify the top, middle and base notes in a scent, he said, and has developed a better understanding of what he likes. On a recent trip to New York, he chose to pick up Amouage Guidance, a light pink bottle of juice described as a feminine scent with notes of pear, hazelnut and vanilla.
If the right opportunities don’t come along for today’s talent, they may just decide to create them themselves. Quaynor said while he’d love to be an ambassador, his goal is to have his own fragrance business, and development is already underway. He hopes to launch his first scent by fall 2025.
“I’ve got a lot of friends with big followings like me … [I can] skip some of the marketing expenses,” he said.
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