Good morning! College presidents convene on a challenging political climate, Revolut’s U.K. CEO wants to go global, and J. Crew gets into skiing.
– On the slopes. When J.Crew partnered with USA Swimming last summer on a collection ahead of the Paris Olympics, the retailer was blown away by the response. It saw a 10% spike in new customers year-over-year in the first week and a double-digit increase in website traffic, and added a second collection to meet demand.
Those results convinced J.Crew Group CEO Libby Wadle that sports—and especially Olympic sports—were a promising area of collaboration for the J.Crew brand as it continues to find its post-bankruptcy footing in this decade and cement itself as a classic, enduring American brand. (J.Crew Group also includes Madewell.)
Today, J.Crew announced a collaboration with U.S. Ski and Snowboard. That organization has a parallel goal of its own: to engage more with the lifestyle side of ski culture, capitalizing on après ski fashion and vibes, rather than focus exclusively on the elite side of the sport.
Their three-year partnership, which Wadle calls the “biggest we’ve ever done,” will kick off next week with a J.Crew “warm-up station” at a ski final in Sun Valley and lead up to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. (With its USA Swimming partnership, J.Crew found a way to be part of the Summer Games without becoming an official Olympic sponsor.) “We really anticipate this being not only about the product, but a very important brand platform for us to amplify J. Crew as a great American brand on a global platform,” Wadle says.
To design men’s, women’s, and kids’ collections, the brand tapped the U.S. Ski archives to find vintage patches and other elements to incorporate. There will be sweaters, loungewear, and winter accessories. “I don’t think any sports transcend into lifestyle like snow sports,” argues U.S. Ski and Snowboard president and CEO Sophie Goldschmidt. The two partners haven’t named any athletes who will be part of the collaboration yet; some of the sports’ biggest names include Mikaela Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn, who just began a professional comeback.
Over the past year, the J.Crew brand has launched some creative and unexpected campaigns, including the revival of its print catalog and photoshoots with writers like Patrick Radden Keefe. This one, however, Wadle sees as a continuation of the brand’s own legacy. “We have a real history with our iconic catalogs of doing incredible locations in the winter—not with performance gear, sometimes tuxedos on a chair lift,” Wadle says. “But we have a real history with the mountaintop.”
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Higher ed. NYU president Linda Mills and Grinnell College president Anne Harris, alongside others, sat down with Bloomberg to talk funding, potential mass layoffs, enrollment gender splits, and more under President Donald Trump. Also, the Trump administration announced that it paused $175 million in funding to the University of Pennsylvania for having trans athletes play women’s sports. Plus, Columbia is reportedly nearing an agreement with Trump, looking to avoid losing $400 million in federal funding.
- Revolut revolution. Revolut’s U.K. CEO Francesca Carlesi said that the fintech company’s push to become a fully operational U.K. bank is part of its larger expansion plans. She wants the company to be the Amazon of financial services, available around the world. And, while not confirmed by Revolut, industry insiders expect an IPO in 2026. Wall Street Journal
- Attention on the Americas. Ana Botin, executive chairman of Banco Santander, is focusing on business in the U.S. and Latin America, although she does see “a lot of potential over the next few years in Europe.” The bank recently launched its digital bank Openbank in the U.S., and has been hiring as well. Bloomberg
- Paying the pink tax. Reps. Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas) and Brittany Pettersen (D-Colo.) reintroduced a bill this session calling for an investigation into the “pink tariff.” This is the name for the higher tax placed on women’s goods, which could cost women $2.5 billion annually. The 19th
- Today’s news. TheSkimm, the newsletter company cofounded by Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin, has been acquired by Ziff Davis. TheSkimm will lean into its health and wellness coverage as a part of Everyday Health Group, Ziff Davis’s health content arm. Axios
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Rebecca Kujawa, president and CEO of NextEra Energy Resources, will be retiring after 18 years at the energy company.
Dairy company Organic Valley named Shawna Nelson CEO, making her the cooperative's first female chief executive. Most recently, Nelson was the company’s EVP of membership. She started at the company 20 years ago as an intern.
AdvancedMD, a healthcare software provider, named Amanda Sharp CEO. Sharp most recently served as president and started her career at the company as an intern.
ThoughtSpot, an AI intelligence platform, appointed Micheline Nijmeh as CMO. Most recently, she was CMO at JFrog.
OpenX, a supply-side platform, appointed Jeanne Leasure as chief people officer. She was previously the company’s VP of people.
ON MY RADAR
‘Moon to Mars—That’s our outlook’: NASA astronaut Suni Williams on her hopes for the future Fortune
She may be the most powerful producer working in theater New York Times
Breonna Taylor’s mother remembers The 19th
PARTING WORDS
“I learned that I needed to stand up and, when I believed something and when I thought something, that I needed to be heard.”
— Jeni Britton, founder of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream, on taking charge as a leader
