Fashion Brands Try Out Styling Women's Sports Teams

Photo Courtesy of Gotham FC

OONA MILLIKEN, HOST:

Before watching your favorite athletes compete, you may have seen them walk down what’s called a fit tunnel. That’s the sports version of a fashion runway, where they can show off their designer outfits. Now, there’s a new trend hitting the fit tunnel. As Hannah Lorenzo reports, when pro women aren’t in their uniforms, they’re being styled by fashion brands.

HANNAH LORENZO, BYLINE: During the WNBA playoffs last year, New York Liberty player Breanna Stewart rocked Dior for one of her fit tunnel looks. She has a sleek black outfit with a cap, loafers and handbag to match. Her v-neck top even has the Statue of Liberty and the New York City skyline outlined in white. Here she is talking about her look with ESPN’s Hannah Storm.

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LORENZO: Stewart is part of a growing trend. According to Statista, the women’s sports apparel market is worth an estimated 40 billion dollars globally. And fashion brands—the ones that don’t specialize in activewear—want a piece of that.  So more are looking to partner with women’s sports teams. But not just by putting their logos on players’ jerseys. Instead, they’re styling players’ entire looks. One example—the Gotham Football Club which represents New York and New Jersey—has been working with Aligne—a UK designer. The brand styled Gotham’s latest kit—which is the team’s uniforms for this season. Laura Petro handles marketing for the team.  

LAURA PETRO: We decided to make the story more about, again, the styling, like how you would wear the kit in everyday life. And that's what led to the idea to partner with Aligne on the kit reveal.

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LORENZO: Gotham posted scenes of that kit reveal photoshoot on the team’s Instagram. In one video, upbeat music plays. You can see the players posed on the steps outside of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They’re wearing jerseys in their team’s signature Sky Blue color. And some players are even pairing them with matching denim.

PETRO: What you ended up with was like, I think a really unique and kind of differentiated shoot, where you saw, you know, the jersey, but styled with like trench coats and blouses underneath. 

LORENZO: Petro says the partnership worked. Compared to last year, Gotham’s kit sales increased. Even luxury fashion brands are getting involved. Prada is working with China’s national women’s soccer team. Togethxr [Together] is a marketing and sales company focused on women’s sports. Betsy Morgan is with the company. She says brands used to just focus on designing a team’s kit.  

BETSY MORGAN: You see brands on all sorts of kits, you know, in many different sports. That's a very kind of traditional way for brands to advertise their business, sort of through sport.

LORENZO: But Morgan says brands are getting more creative. Like an apparel collection created by Togethxr [Together] and Nike. It shows off Togethxr’s [Together’s] slogan—“Everyone Watches Women’s Sports.” 

MORGAN: People wear it with pride. They wear it, in a little bit of a sort of mission based way, as a real statement piece. And it's really fun to go to lots of sporting events, not just women’s sporting events, and see the shirt turn up.

LORENZO: Morgan says fashion brands can appeal to more than just sports fans. According to YPulse—a market research firm—almost sixty percent of females ages 13 to 39 in the U.S. are more likely to buy products from their favorite athlete—if the brands they partner with relate to their own style or values.   

MORGAN: All of these high fashion brands and new fashion brands that are saying, "Hey, what is Coco Gauff wear off the tennis court?" She represents fashion, and I can represent fashion too.

LORENZO: After three years playing for the Gotham Football Club, Michelle Betos recently announced her retirement as goalkeeper. She says that sponsorships for athletes are changing.

MICHELLE BETOS: Global brands are seeing that women’s sports are on the rise, that, you know, if you want to make an investment that's going to, going to do you well, it's gonna be in women's sports.

LORENZO: The UK fashion brand Aligne’s next chance to score big will be April 13 during Gotham’s match against North Carolina Courage. Fans will have a chance to show off their own outfits. And as for the players, they’ll show off their looks in the fit tunnel. Styled—of course—by Aligne. 

Hannah Lorenzo, Columbia Radio News.