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Fashion takes the field as more women watch football and WAGs gain influencer status

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Fashion takes the field as more women watch football and WAGs gain influencer status

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On September 6, Taylor Swift, the most famous “WAG” in the world, strutted into Arrowhead Stadium wearing a Versace denim corset and Grlfrnd denim shorts. This was “very good for Gen Z’s No. 1 selling jeans brand,” said Craig Brommers, American Eagle’s CMO, citing NPD DecisionKey. American Eagle seized the moment by posting a similar look from its own collection (see below). The brand saw sales of the denim corset increase 112% week-over-week after the post went live.

It was a simple example of quickly leaning into pop culture, but the brand has since leaned further into football. This fall, it launched an NFL collection, including sweatshirts, T-shirts and hats. “We want to position ourselves at the center of youth culture, and, in recent years, that has been defined by music, influencers and streaming,” Brommers said. “But sports has emerged as a big trend this year. Fashion and fandom have intersected, and sports is now one of those pillars of youth culture.”

To promote the NFL collection, American Eagle tapped NFL quarterback Trevor Lawrence of the Jacksonville Jaguars and his wife, Marissa Lawrence. Marissa has 351,000 Instagram followers and is 25 years old. “Marissa’s NFL post generated 50% more sales than the brand’s top-performing posts during the same time period, Brommers said. “It just shows you the power of the NFL and the power of these WAGs. And it’s not just engagement and it’s not just brand love. These people are driving sales.”

Fashion and sports are intersecting in more ways than ever before. For example, brands including Abercrombie, Stoney Clover Lane, Staud, Baublebar, Veronica Beard and Lele Sadoughi have partnered with the NFL to offer team-specific merch. Notably, many of these companies are female-founded.

Kendall Glazer, co-founder of Stoney Clover Lane, noted that, while there have always been female sports fans, cultural factors such as Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s relationship have kicked up interest in football from female viewers. Last year, the NFL attained its highest regular-season female viewership since it started collecting data in 2000. According to research from business intelligence firm Morning Consult, the NFL has never been viewed more favorably among Gen-Z and millennial women than it is today. “Female buyers made up 47% of purchases on NFL Shop in 2023. And, during November and December in 2023, women made up 52% of buyers,” Renie Anderson, evp of partnerships at the NFL told Glossy.

“The NFL selects partners through a strategic process that ensures our brand shows up in all product categories fans desire while avoiding oversaturation,” Anderson said. “We align ourselves with other leading brands across different categories that can help expand the NFL’s portfolio, especially in growth areas. We look for brands with positive reputations that will resonate across the NFL ecosystem, creating value for the league and the partners while enhancing the overall fan experience.”

For its part, Stoney Clover Lane launched its NFL collection with signature patches for all 32 NFL teams in 2023. It also offers clear bags which have become a staple for game day outfits as they meet stadium requirements. Recently, Shopbop added the Stoney Clover Lane NFL-branded clear bags to its assortment. The retailer also carries sports-related merch from brands including Junkfood, Terez and Lele Sadoughi.

“Usually, people are a fan of [a certain] team for life, and people collect [merch] over time. To be able to have more options is amazing,” Glazer said. “It makes it more accessible for people to become a casual fan.”

At the same time, the growing influence of WAGs has given brands like Gatorade an entry into spaces they haven’t played in before. In early September, the beverage brand tapped WAG and designer Kristin Juszczyk for a capsule collection of Gatorade merch rendered in her signature patchwork style. Juszczyk has 1.1 million Instagram followers and has herself been a beneficiary of the Taylor Swift effect, telling People Magazine, “I feel like she’s single-handedly catapulted my career.” Swift wore a custom jacket made by Juszczyk featuring Kelce’s number in January.

Of Gatorade’s partnership with Juszczyk, Marissa Pines, the brand’s senior marketing director, said, “We’re able to take this moment in time where there’s so much excitement around this intersection between sports, culture and lifestyle, and work with voices who can authentically speak about our products and our brand and reach a much broader group of consumers than maybe we’ve reached with some of our partnerships in the past.”

Likewise, when it launched a powder hydration booster in September, Gatorade tapped Claire Kittle (353,000 Instagram followers), wife of 49ers tight end George Kittle, to promote the product. “Claire has become this amazing lifestyle tastemaker, and with all the travel and the long days associated with the return to football, it’s a great time to showcase how this product works and the right times to use it,” Pines said.

For Lisa Sadoughi, founder and chief creative officer of the accessories brand Lele Sadoughi, the entrance into sports products came via the MLB, which reached out to her looking for “higher-end brands for the front two rows,” Sadoughi recalled. The resulting collab, a collection of headbands, launched in the summer of 2023. From there, sensing the opportunity, Sadoughi reached out to the NBA to collaborate. She then secured an NFL license — a collection of over 80 SKUs, spanning NFL team-branded hats, headbands, bows and scrunchies launched on Lele Sadoughi’s e-commerce site this week. “The NFL is definitely the prize license to get, as far as sports. But it also requires more of a commitment,” said Sadoughi. “You work with a minimum [product quantity] guarantee, so there’s more of a commitment on my end to amplify it and make it a good assortment that will be profitable.”

“There’s been a lot of excitement because there hasn’t been much higher-end sports gear,” Sadoughi said.

That’s quickly changing.

On Monday, fashion brand Veronica Beard launched a capsule collection featuring its $998 Dickey Jacket customized for all 32 NFL teams. “We saw an opening in the industry for elevated gameday style options,” said Veronica Miele Beard, co-founder of Veronica Beard. “We’ve always had a love for sports and know our customers do, too. The NFL Dickey Jacket can be a transitional piece in our customer’s wardrobe – it can be worn to the stadium, running errands or even to the office.”

She added, “By partnering with the NFL, we can tap into a wider audience of female sports viewers across the country, and we hope to convert them to brand loyalists in the process.” The jackets are available on Veronica Beard’s e-commerce site. The brand is seeding the style to WAGs, some of whom it has worked with before, and will partner “with many of them to promote the collaboration through social activations and events,” said co-founder Veronica Swanson Beard.

Regarding the Veronica Beard partnership, Anderson said, “We are steadily working to create more apparel options for our female fans, across all price points. The NFL x Veronica Beard Dickey Jacket speaks to our growing demographic of female fans through a timeless piece of sports fashion.”

Accessories brand Baublebar launched its NFL collaboration three years ago, well before Taylor and Travis started dating — or, at least, started making headlines, in September 2023. “We want to market to people who go to games and who want to dress cool for the games, but also want to be showing their team spirit,” said Baublebar co-founder Daniella Yacobovsky. “And so, wives and girlfriends are the obvious place to go. … They’re constantly posting what they’re wearing to the games.”

Yacobovsky said Baublebar often receives product requests from WAGs, which it fulfills. They also place traditional orders. “Brittany Mahomes reached out and asked us to make her a custom number necklace with Patrick’s number using our bubble font, which she just wore,” Yacobovsky said. She noted that, when Taylor Swift wore a Baublebar x Kansas City Chiefs necklace to a Sunday playoff game last year, the Baublebar site saw a 50% increase in site traffic, and by that Monday afternoon, the necklace was sold out.

“We are unique in that we sell officially licensed products for the league. … We can do logos, names, numbers — really fun things. Because we’ve seen so much appetite, we’re going to be launching our phone cases in a couple of team colors, too,” Yacobovsky said. Fans of the brand’s phone cases include WAGs Brittany Mahomes and famous-in-her-own-right Simone Biles, who is married to Chicago Bears player Jonathan Owens.

“The licensed products offer an introduction to the brand — and now all these wives are reaching out for non-NFL products from us, too,” said Francesca Mileo, Baublebar’s senior director of marketing.

Launch of the week: Lisa Eldridge’s Rouge Experience refillable lipstick

This week, makeup artist-turned-brand founder Lisa Eldridge launched a new collection of lipstick, and her first that is refillable. The hero shade, “Audrey,” was inspired by the original lipstick Audrey Hepburn wore in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” Below, a chat with Eldridge about the launch.

Tell us about this launch — how is it different from other lipsticks on the market and from your previous lipstick launches?  

“Five years ago, I made it my mission to create a beautiful, truly luxurious everyday lipstick with a world-first, recyclable mono-material refill. After multiple design and engineering iterations and many failed attempts, l began to understand why most refills are made with multiple materials, plastics or magnets, as they are much easier to produce. … But, ultimately, it renders them non-recyclable. Perseverance, determination and my stubborn streak paid off, and Rouge Experience is now here. Designed to be used and loved every day, you can replace or swap your Rouge Experience Refill shades as and when you like to suit your mood. It also features a brand-new formula: a lightweight creme lipstick that glides on comfortably with a soft, subtly luminous sheen and a lip-smoothing blur.”

You collect vintage makeup — how did that passion inform and inspire this new product?  

“Over the past 30 years, I have collected several thousand incredible and iconic pieces of the most historically significant vintage makeup, and although the tales of acquisition may vary — from Portobello Market to Christie’s auction rooms — I have always looked for the era-defining pieces of the time.  

I always take inspiration from my own collection. For the refillable lipstick, I took inspiration directly from the most iconic refillable lipsticks in my vintage collection. Rouge Experience is rooted in my appreciation of the past, but with a thoroughly modern approach.”

Tell us more about the Audrey Hepburn connection — how she inspired one of the shades and the charity component.  

“I have long been inspired by Audrey Hepburn. In 2017, I learned that Audrey’s beloved gold and sapphire lipstick holder would be auctioned at Christie’s. … It was made exclusively for Audrey in 1954. After an emotional rollercoaster of an auction, I walked away as the proud owner of a piece of beauty history that will always be the crowning jewel of my vintage makeup collection. When I collected it from the auction house, I was shocked to see that it still contained a small amount of Audrey’s lipstick. The shade was a beautiful true salmon pink — a hugely popular shade of its time and very reminiscent of Holly Golightly’s shade of choice in ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s.’ My love for Audrey and for this iconic shade inspired the creation of my own version of this late 1950s/early 1960s shade for my new Rouge Experience collection, which I have named Audrey. …

In 1988, Audrey became a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and, to continue her incredible legacy, I have committed to support UNICEF through a donation for every piece sold.”

Collab of the week

Colorescience x Savannah Boda

In collaboration with Savanna Boda (@thedallasaesthetician; 372,000 Instagram followers), Colorescience, known for its wide range of SPF offerings, has put out a lip kit with two shades of peptide-packed lip glosses with SPF 30.

“I knew [the collab product] would have to be a shade that worked with any skin tone and could be worn from the grocery store to a night out with your friends,” Boda said. “I am known for saying, ‘Reapply [SPF] ‘til you die,’ so I am pleased that we were able to make a shade that looks beautiful on everyone and provides broad spectrum protection to an area that is often neglected.” Along with the new collab shade, Savanna, the kit brings back a past popular shade, Plum.

“Savanna is so authentic on her platform and has frequently shared her love for our protective lip shines and color balms,” said Kara Lara, Colorescience’s associate director of global product marketing. “As experts in formulating with peptides and mineral sunscreen actives, we were able to introduce an amped-up formula that doubled the amount of peptides, while including all-mineral SPF 30 defense in gorgeous, glossy colors perfect for every occasion.”

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