For LVMH, the Olympics Are Welcome, but Not Without Risk

Among the dozens of sponsors of this summer’s Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, one will be by far the most visible and influential: LVMH, the French luxury goods conglomerate. The company has invested 150 million euros ($163 million) in the 2024 Olympic Games, a gamble for a brand that has long marketed its goods to the upper echelons of society. And the company isn’t just putting its name on the event. It is putting its products … well, pretty much everywhere.

Louis Vuitton created the trunk that carries the Olympic torch and the medal trays for the victory ceremonies. Various other LVMH companies are involved as well. The jeweler Chaumet designed the medals, all of which will include a piece of wrought iron from the Eiffel Tower. Berluti, together with the French fashion editor Carine Roitfeld, designed the outfits the French team will wear during the opening ceremony. And Louis Vuitton and Sephora are in charge of the Olympic torch relay, which started on May 8 in Marseille and ends on July 26 in Paris, when the Games begin.

“This is the biggest event of our life in terms of commitment,” Antoine Arnault, who is in charge of image and environment at LVMH, said at a conference about sports and fashion organized by The New York Times in Paris this month. Mr. Arnault is the chairman of Loro Piana and the oldest son of Bernard Arnault, the chairman and chief executive of LVMH.

“We decided not just to sign a check,” Mr. Arnault said. “We decided that if we were going to do it, it was going to be new. It was going to be something that was never seen before.”

But becoming not just a sponsor but what the company calls the “creative partner” in the 2024 Olympics, and turning what is seen as a national showcase into a luxury advertisement, comes with risks.