Who will be the biggest winner of UTMB 2026? The brands have already started racing

When the first runners set off around Mont-Blanc on August 24, 2026, not everyone will be watching the same thing.

Some will follow the favorites, the gaps and the times. Others will wait for their favorite athlete to come through. And then there will be those watching the logos.

Because behind the UTMB's sporting battle, another competition is playing out: the one between brands. HOKA, Salomon, Suunto, Shokz, Dacia, Näak, Buff… the UTMB has become a particularly interesting playing field for outdoor players.

But which brand will be the biggest winner of UTMB 2026? Not necessarily the one with the biggest stand. Not necessarily the one with the most athletes. Not even necessarily the most visible one. The real winner might be the one that manages to turn a few days of exposure into a story practitioners will still be telling months later.

A race, but above all a communication platform

The HOKA UTMB Mont-Blanc runs from August 24 to 30, 2026, and remains one of the major stops on the UTMB World Series circuit. But the event goes well beyond the few hours of racing between Friday evening and Saturday. For a week, Chamonix becomes a massive stage for brands: village, stands, product testing, athletes, social content, activations, media, spectators.

And the setup doesn't even stop on the ground anymore. In 2026, the circuit is livestreaming ten of its events, with partners such as L'Équipe, DAZN, Eurovision Sport, iQIYI, FloSports and Tencent: a broadcasting strategy designed to reach an audience well beyond trail running's longtime followers.

For a brand, the UTMB is therefore no longer just a place to showcase a product. It's a content-production machine. And that's exactly where sponsoring gets interesting, a question that ties back to one I was already asking myself when wondering whether the UTMB should keep growing: the bigger an event gets, the more it becomes a brand platform in its own right, with its own rules.

HOKA starts with a head start

Let's start with the most obvious. HOKA is today the title partner of the UTMB World Series circuit and lends its name to the Chamonix event, the HOKA UTMB Mont-Blanc, as part of a partnership extended through 2028.

From a marketing standpoint, it's hard to be more visible. The brand's name is tied to the race's: in every article, every result, every Google search, every conversation about the event. HOKA doesn't just sponsor the event, it's part of its name.

But that's exactly where it gets interesting: is visibility enough? Seeing HOKA everywhere doesn't necessarily mean the public will remember a specific campaign, story or innovation. The brand's real challenge is turning that omnipresence into brand preference. And that's a different story.

Salomon doesn't need naming rights to be associated with trail running

Salomon represents a different case. The brand has very strong historical legitimacy in trail running, without needing to attach its name to the UTMB's for practitioners to immediately identify it with that world.

That's the whole difference between buying visibility and building legitimacy. One brand can invest massively in an event. Another can have spent twenty years building a community, developing products, supporting athletes and telling stories, a bit like how the regions hosting these races have learned to turn their appeal into a long-term strategy rather than a one-off spotlight. And sometimes, the second approach creates a far more natural association with the sport.

That's also why sports sponsoring is never just about the size of a logo.

Suunto and Shokz: when the product becomes a character in the story

Tech brands have an interesting advantage: their products can fit directly into the race's narrative. Suunto is the official technical partner and GPS watch of the UTMB World Series circuit, alongside Shokz, official headphone supplier, and supports runners with navigation features designed for training and competition.

A shoe can be photographed. A stand can be filmed. But a watch can tell the story of the race: a screen can show elevation gain, a data point can illustrate how hard a section is, a map can become part of the narrative, an athlete can explain how they use their product. The product is then no longer just displayed: it becomes a character in the story.

And what about Dacia?

This is probably one of the partnerships that interests me most from a marketing standpoint, because Dacia isn't historically a trail running brand. And yet, it's the main partner and official automotive partner of the circuit's European events, notably supplying a fleet of vehicles to organizers.

Why would a car brand take an interest in trail running? Because the communication territory is actually fairly obvious: adventure, freedom, nature, mobility, exploration. Dacia can tell an outdoor story without selling a pair of shoes. And that's exactly what makes the partnership interesting.

Sponsoring isn't only there to say "we're a partner of the UTMB". It needs to answer a more important question: why does this brand belong here? If the public naturally understands that answer, the sponsoring becomes much more powerful.

Näak and Buff: loyalty as a strategy

Not every brand is after the same thing. Näak, a sports nutrition brand, has become a premium partner of the UTMB World Series circuit and supplies bars, waffles and energy drinks at the aid stations of every event, including the UTMB Mont-Blanc. Buff, for its part, has supported the UTMB Mont-Blanc since 2007, one of the event's oldest partnerships, worn by countless finishers on the podium over the years.

Two strategies opposite to naming or product storytelling: building a presence over time, year after year, until it becomes a given rather than news.

Athletes have become media

A few years ago, sponsoring an athlete mostly meant putting a logo on their gear. Today, their role is different: they have a community, produce content, tell the story of their training, their doubts, their travels, their races, their failures, their wins. They give a brand a human face.

That's why partnerships between brands and athletes have become just as strategic in the outdoor world. A brand no longer just buys visibility: it associates itself with a story. And that's probably where part of UTMB 2026's marketing battle will play out, especially since trail running isn't just about performance or the ultra distance either, and the best brands know it: a community is built as much with the top performers as with those just discovering the sport.

So, who will win?

If I had to play the little game of marketing predictions:

• Visibility: HOKA. Hard to compete with a brand that lends its name to the event.
• Trail legitimacy: Salomon. An association with the sport that goes well beyond any single event or campaign.
• Product storytelling: Suunto and Shokz. Two brands whose products can naturally fit into the athletes' and the race's narrative.
• Most interesting marketing bet: Dacia. Because the partnership lets the brand step outside traditional outdoor sponsoring and work a different brand territory.

But this ranking is obviously subjective. And above all, it doesn't say who the real winner will be.

The real winner might be the one people are still talking about in December

This is where the subject becomes, in my view, much more interesting. A brand can be extremely visible for a week: a huge stand, thousands of visitors, hundreds of pieces of content, athletes on site, millions of impressions. But what's left afterward?

Do practitioners remember the campaign? Do they still associate the brand with an emotion? Did they discover a product, start following it, want to buy it? Or did they simply retain a logo?

The best sponsoring might not be the most visible one. It's the one you still remember several months later.

And that's ultimately the whole difference between being present at an event and telling a genuine story.

What if the best strategy was to make people forget the marketing?

That might be the paradox of sports sponsoring: the more an activation looks like an ad, the more it's perceived as one. Conversely, when a brand manages to blend naturally into the runner's, the spectator's or the region's experience, it can become almost invisible. And paradoxically, that's sometimes when it becomes most effective.

A watch that helps a runner navigate. A car that supports the organization. A shoe worn during a race. An athlete telling their story. A brand that lets you live something rather than simply asking to be watched. Outdoor marketing may work better when it brings a story to life rather than just showing it.

Personal takeaway

What strikes me most about all this is that UTMB 2026's marketing battle looks like that of any brand trying to last: visibility can be bought, legitimacy has to be built, and memory can never be decreed. HOKA, Salomon, Suunto, Dacia and the others are each playing a different part, and that's exactly what makes the subject fascinating to watch from the outside.

And since I should offer one prediction that has nothing to do with marketing this time: I'd mostly like to see a French podium. Because before being a battle of brands, the UTMB is still, after all, a race. And maybe that's what makes everything else interesting.