Women's Football Continues to Rise. Where Are the Fashion Brands?
Welcome back to SportsVerse, my twice-weekly newsletter that tells stories you can't find anywhere else about the intersection of sports, fashion, business, and culture. Powered by OffBall.Today, we are back with a short newsletter talking all things Women’s European Championships. Switzerland put on an incredibly successful tournament. Over 650,000 fans attended what was the most popular Euros on record, smashing the total for the record-breaking 2022 edition. 29 out of the 31 matches were sell-outs. More than 16 million viewers in the UK tuned in to watch England lift the trophy for the second time in a row. All this to say, women’s football continues its insurmountable cultural and commercial rise. Yet major fashion brands remain largely on the sidelines. Why? Feeling like your wardrobe could use a little boost? SportsVerse has partnered with a bunch of other great newsletters to give away a $1,000 Nike Summer Shopping Spree. It’s super easy (and free!) to enter.Head right on down to this site;Enter your email for a chance to win; andFind out if you're the winner on August 8. And make sure you send pics of your haul if you win! Enter Now. The largest fashion houses have generally stayed away from women’s football, even in recent years, as stadium attendances and TV viewership for the game’s biggest international tournaments and domestic teams have rapidly swelled. There are, as always, exceptions. Prada signed a deal with the China National Women’s Team ahead of the Women’s World Cup in 2023. Stella McCartney (up until recently an LVMH-owned brand before the designer bought back her stake in her eponymous label) famously collaborated on a collection for Arsenal Women FC in 2022. Gucci at one point courted Arsenal and England icon Leah Williamson, but rumours of her becoming an official brand ambassador never seemed to materialise for one reason or another. Ahead of the Euros this time around, there was a flurry of activity from smaller brands looking to make a splash on the big stage. Danish brand Rotate, for example, announced it had become the official formalwear provider for its country’s national team in a deal that runs through to 2026. ROTATE and Denmark collaborated for the most Scandinavian collection ever.Meanwhile, the England team collaborated with Bazanetti to create a collection of handcrafted, Lionesses-inspired jewellery for use at the tournament in off-field moments. Michelle Agyemang, aka the tournament’s breakout star-girl, modelling England’s jewellery collection.But despite the clear growth in the women’s game over the past few years, both in Europe and North America, I was disappointed (but not surprised) to see that none of fashion’s larger powerhouses decided to work with their home national teams to create compelling collections, for either on or off-field use. It seems nonsensical that luxury brands would pass up on the opportunity to align themselves either with individual players (or whole teams) who make for trailblazers in the sport and would be ideal aspirational ambassadors for these fashion houses, especially given that the bulk of their sales come from womenswear.Fashion brands were initially tentative to enter men’s football, but were ultimately enticed by the sizeable global audience to whom they could market through team and player partnerships. There’s no doubt that women’s football still generates less eyeballs and revenue than men’s football for now, but brands need to be aware of the game’s growth potential. Sometimes, being a brand that is able to point to the fact that you were part of a sport’s growth story, is more valuable than piling on after it got popular. It’s exactly this first-mover advantage that Glossier achieved with its WNBA partnership, which is still paying dividends to this day.The same goes for Women’s AFCON (African Cup of Nations) which passed with little to no mention or coverage in mainstream media — despite it being a thrilling tournament. So much of the game’s talent comes from Nigeria and Ghana (whether they are playing for those national teams like the former’s Michelle Alozie, or are members of the diaspora, like England’s breakout star Michelle Agyemang, originally of the latter). These are women with avid global followings of fans and consumers over whom they hold considerable sway. The first major brands to finally realise this will no doubt find themselves in the driver’s seat. If you work at a brand and you’re reading this, it’s time to start laying out your strategy for the World Cup in 2027, taking place in Brazil.That’s all for today, friends. Thanks for being here.See you next time,DYM
