Retail overlaps and sponsorship opportunities in the world of women’s sport have soared in recent years, with collaborations such as Glossier partnering up with the WBNA and tennis star Emma Raducanu securing luxury brand deals with the likes of Dior and Tiffany & Co. Moreover, not only did the Paris Olympics 2024 feature more female athletes than ever, but various beauty brands competed for attention through sponsorships and collaborations throughout the Games. 

In a recent episode of our Retail Therapy Podcast, Nicola Conway, Senior Associate in the Retail & Consumer Group, was joined by the Co-Heads of the Women’s Sports Group, Lereesa Easterbrook and Georgie Twigg, to discuss the trends and opportunities that women’s sport presents for the world of retail. We summarise some of the insights from the podcast below.

Collaborations 

• Retail brands are realising the commercial value of using female athletes as their brand ambassadors and spokespeople, following the shift in consumer expectations towards more authentic and reliable brand representation and away from more traditional celebrity influencers and endorsements.
• In terms of why this might be, brands are more conscious of the potential reputational risks that can arise from choosing the wrong person to collaborate with. If a brand ambassador acts inappropriately, it can harm both parties reputationally, financially and possibly legally. Even after ending a partnership, any negative press concerning the brand ambassador, as well as any statements linking that person to the brand, can easily be found online. Therefore, brands need to carefully choose affiliates who align with their values and reputation. Increasingly, athletes (and female athletes in particular) are preferred due to their perceived authenticity and trustworthiness. 
• Athletes must also consider their own personal brand and will want to partner with brands and feature in commercials and campaigns that align with their values so as to enhance their reputation and avoid controversy. However, while there have been good advances in pay for female athletes in recent years, many female athletes still rely heavily on sponsorships and other commercial revenue streams as their main income, meaning that they might not have as much power as their male counterparts when it comes to negotiating terms with brands.
• There are many mutual benefits of these collaborations, such as increased brand exposure and fan engagement. However, it is not all plain-sailing. For brands in particular, caution should always be exercised when it comes to contracting. Without strong contractual provisions, brands may lack control over what influencers post or say about them and this can ultimately alter how consumers perceive the brand. Furthermore, poorly drafted contracts can make it difficult and costly to terminate the relationship.

Sponsorship Opportunities

• With the surge in popularity of women’s sport, the types and nature of sponsorship deals in the sporting sphere are evolving. This is because women’s sport audiences often differ from typical men’s sports audiences, offering brands (including those that have not previously invested in women’s sport) an opportunity to widen their customer base and gain exposure to a larger, more diverse audience. Recent examples include Charlotte Tilbury’s collaboration with the F1 Academy and Glossier’s collaboration with the WNBA. 
• The increase in popularity and growth of women’s sport has also resulted in a shift towards valuing women’s sports rights independently rather than as add-ons to men’s rights, ensuring clear value attribution in sponsorship packages.

New products

• The increased popularity of women’s sport has also seen the lines between retail, sports, and lifestyle blur, offering new areas for growth and engagement. For example, many cosmetic brands are now creating sport-focused cosmetic products, such as waterproof mascaras for swimmers and post-workout products for athletes. 
• In these product offering expansions, the legal risks of unsubstantiated health claims and the importance of making accurate claims about products cannot be overstated. For example, claiming that a product “rebuilds muscles” after a workout is a medicinal or physiological claim that requires strong scientific evidence, whereas saying it “soothes tired muscles” is a lower risk cosmetic claim. Regulators are cracking down on unsubstantiated health claims, and it goes without saying that brands will want to avoid the time and cost associated with regulatory investigations and enforcement actions being brought against them.

Female Specific Sports Kit

• For too long, sports kit has not been designed specifically for women but has been based on a smaller version of men’s sportswear. Not only is this an issue of equality and comfort, in that it does not take into account the differences in women’s bodies, but it is also an issue of safety. For example, a recent BBC Sport questionnaire found that most equipment used by elite female British athletes was not specifically designed for women, leading to discomfort and performance issues. It has also been reported that many female footballers experience discomfort from ill-fitting boots and that there may be a link between this and the high number of ACL injuries in female footballers. Moreover, female-specific boots are often expensive and not widely available, which highlights the systemic inequalities in sport research and design.
• The good news, however, is that consumers and athletes are increasingly challenging brands to deliver functional and comfortable products that are designed especially for women, and these efforts are achieving results. For example, Lululemon launched their FURTHER initiative earlier this year, which involved Lululemon co-creating a range of new innovative products with ten of their female athlete global ambassadors for the brand’s first-ever women’s ultramarathon. The products (which have also been made available to the general public) include the beyondfeel Women’s Running Shoe; Support Code Bra; Runsie; Cooling apparel and accessories.  
• There has also been collaboration between brands and research institutes in relation to female specific products and requirements. For example:
  • SPRHRA is a female-specific sports clothing company aiming to disrupt the market. They are collaborating with the University of Notre Dame to produce a study on female athletic performance. It aims to gather valuable insights into how elite female athletes think and feel about, and perform in, their sportswear. 
  • Klarna have collaborated with Sports Innovation Lab on the Rep Her study which looks into sports clothing from a fan perspective. The study found that buyers of women’s sports merchandise are 60% more likely to have trouble finding a style than buyers of men’s sports merchandise. Greater awareness of the remaining issues holds promise for greater improvements moving forwards.
  • Prior to the 2020 Olympic Games, the UK Sports Institute teamed up with the University of Southampton and lingerie company Panache to review the performance and effectiveness of sports bras for team GB’s female athletes. This resulted in 120 athletes having bespoke sports bras that were designed to enhance health and performance. The sports bras are now available for all women through Panache. 
• There have also been positive changes implemented by sports governing bodies and organisations in terms of their rules on female kit. For example, the All England Club has relaxed its ‘all white’ kit rules and England Hockey now allows players to choose between skorts and shorts. This is a welcome change from a few years ago where Norway’s beach handball team were fined £1,300 for wearing shorts instead of bikini bottoms at the 2021 European Championships. Following four months of global outrage, the International Handball Federation updated its rules to remove the need to wear bikini bottoms. 

If you’d like to continue the conversation, please reach out to Lereesa Easterbrook, Intisar Abdi or Catriona Hodgson, or your usual Bird & Bird contact.