OLYMPIANS took over the internet at the 2024 Summer in Paris, France in fashion as they spent the better part of July and the first few days of the global sport event posting videos of themselves unboxing their sponsored kits and gear by sports and fashion brands on their social media.
Unboxing videos are relatively common but this year’s Olympics are seeing athletes do it en masse for the first time as brands and their marketing departments have surely been scrambling for months to push their brand identity and capitalise on the global reach of the international event.
The athletes are also utilising their social media accounts to give fans and followers rare looks into their journey and life in the Olympic Village, repurposed residential complexes serving as their living quarters.
Comparing the videos with those during the 2020 and 2022 Olympics, this year’s videos are seemingly more “intimate”, particularly on TikTok.
Launched in 2016, the app’s popularity in video-form content slowly made its way into the Olympics, beginning with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and is in full swing with Olympians this year, particularly with content creation from the athletes themselves.
However, the trend has not caught on with Malaysia’s Olympic contingent.
