Above: Puma and Formula 1: 75 Years of Speed special collection for Spring 2025
The growing Formula One craze is turning drivers into style icons and inspiring partnerships with brands in categories from skincare to tequila to footwear. And with the movie F1 starring Brad Pitt set to hit theaters next month, the F1 effect is likely to pick up even more speed.
What’s fueling the trend? One of the driving factors is the long-running Netflix docuseries Formula 1: Drive to Survive, now filming its eighth season. Another is the recent addition of three American races to the official F1 calendar—the Miami Grand Prix, the Las Vegas Grand Prix, and the United States Grand Prix in Austin. Supporter demographics might surprise you: F1 is drawing throngs of young enthusiasts, many of them women. In fact, an estimated 40% of F1 fans are female.
Not only are celebs like Sofia Vergara, Anna Hathaway, Matthew McConaughey, and Chris Hemsworth wont to show up trackside, but the racing aesthetic is finding its way into fashion. Actor Damson Idris (Pitt’s costar in F1) wowed the crowd at the Met Gala in May with head-to-toe racing apparel on the red carpet. A month earlier, Jennifer Lopez donned a pink racing ensemble and matching pink heels at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit F1 Grand Prix in Saudi Arabia, where she was a guest of Team Ferrari. British born driver Sir Lewis Hamilton has been lauded by Vogue as an arbiter of fashion. French up-and-comer Pierre Gasly seems to be following in his footsteps, showing up at the most recent Paris Fashion Week in Louis Vuitton, also an official Formula One partner.
Not surprisingly, Formula One–related merchandise is a hot commodity. Here’s a look at major footwear brands making the most of the F1 fashion fusion fad:
- Puma has had an association with F1 for decades and became the official supplier at Formula 1 races in 2024, which gives the brand exclusive rights to sell F1 fanwear around the race circuit for all 10 teams. Earlier this year, Puma unveiled a special collection to mark F1’s 75th anniversary, as well as a Formula 1: Drive to Survive apparel collection in partnership with Netflix. The brand recently hit a home run through their partnership with Ferrari on merchandise: After Lewis Hamilton joined the Scuderia Ferrari HP team for the 2025 season, sales of Ferrari merch jumped 400%.
- This year Adidas entered the Formula 1 race by signing a multi-year partnership with the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team. The brand unveiled its first collection for the team (drivers, engineers, mechanics, etc.) as well as fanwear in January and rolled out a summer collection in April in honor of the Miami Grand Prix F1 race in May.
- In 2022, K-Swiss and McLaren Racing sealed a multi-year partnership, making the footwear brand an official partner of the McLaren Formula 1 Team starting in 2023. They’ve created performance-based footwear worn by McLaren pit crews and engineers at race events as well as footwear and apparel for consumers.
With so much buzz—not to mention sponsor spending on Formula One for 2025 projected to exceed $2.9 billion, up 10% year-over-year—F1 is a sport worth keeping an eye on for both retailers and brands.
Above and below: Adidas and Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team 2025 Summer collection
K-Swiss Impulse Tubes Lite x McLaren F1 Team sneaker, available in men’s and women’s
K-Swiss x McLaren F1 Team Slide Sandal, available in men’s and women’s
Puma and Formula 1: 75 Years of Speed special collection for Spring 2025
