Red Bull is also getting into alpine skiing

The Red Bull presence in Winter Sports has never gone unnoticed. Consistent with an image initially linked to extreme sports or more wild and non-conformist activities compared to traditional sports, Red Bull was mainly associated with snowboarders, then freestyle snowmobile riders, off-piste skiers, and skeleton athletes. However, the Austrian company has now shifted its focus to more traditional winter sports, particularly alpine skiing. The presence of the Red Bull logo in World Cup races can easily be found on billboards, inflatables, helmets, and suits. Not to mention Red Bull's sponsorship of the most famous and successful athletes, as well as their entry into the equipment market by developing, in synergy with skier Marcel Hirscher, Van Deer, a brand of alpine skiing equipment.

The Red Bull takeover, however, is not just a commercial matter but also opens up to an ideological revolution. In short, Red Bull is trying to take over alpine skiing to change and transform it from a sport in which athletes compete individually representing a federation, to a sport in which athletes will continue to compete individually but representing private teams. A possibility for all those athletes who are unable to obtain technical and commercial exemptions from their federations and are effectively forced to change nationalities.

In Italy, for example, there is discussion about the case of Lara Colturi, an Italian skier born in 2006 who has chosen to represent Albania, while in the male field, the most striking case on the subject is that of Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, a Norwegian skier who won the World Cup in slalom in 2023, retired in October 2023 due to commercial disputes with the federation, and returned to competition in October 2024 after being naturalized Brazilian. In both cases, these are Red Bull-sponsored athletes but more generally, it is in this context of changing nationalities that the Austrian company has inserted itself by financing the preparation of these athletes and consequently becoming the main sponsor of small federations that effectively become private teams.

Leaving aside this new skiing trend towards player's empowerment led by Red Bull, the fact that a stronger bond is being cultivated with alpine skiing can be seen as another move to create an image that is increasingly distant from extreme sports. Or at least an image that is less wild and more inclined towards elegant aesthetic standards. A trend that can also be seen through other examples, such as the partnership with Prada Linea Rossa, which has led to a series of initiatives to bring together innovation, style, and sportswear. 

This has also happened in Formula 1 with the introduction of the AlphaTauri brand, the fashion house founded by Red Bull itself, whose mission is to bring aesthetics and style to the world of sports excellence. AlphaTauri, among other things, has also entered the world of football thanks to its collaboration, in a sense, with Red Bull Salzburg. And it is precisely in football that Red Bull's next stylistic challenge lies, namely the partnership with the Arnault family, and therefore with Louis Vuitton, in the ownership of Paris FC. A long-term project in which the French fashion house will oversee the aesthetic vision and brand positioning, thus influencing Red Bull's brand image, while the sports side will be supervised by Jurgen Klopp.