SPORTS [fem.]
A very demure Olympics, women x sports x fashion, and a brand spotlight on Oiselle
Sorry, I am still thinking about the Olympics. If you know me, you know that I live for this stuff – The community raw-raw that has everyone gathering around one, fun cultural moment and talking about it at work the next day (the solar eclipse, Manhattan Henge, etc). Especially during an election year, I loved seeing our country come together during this year’s Paris Olympics to root for Team USA and celebrate all of the moments, big and small. In general, this year’s games stood-out to me for feeling very human and relatable. TikTok was a huge enabler for this, giving all of us an inside look at the Olympic Village cardboard bed frames and chocolate muffins, and making the athletes seem like they were just a bunch of (super hot, insanely impressive) kids at (a very expensive, high performing) sports camp.
The social media amplification and NBC’s very strategic celebrity sponsorships helped elevate this year’s Olympics into the center of culture and conversation that followed on the heels of a lackluster 2020 Tokyo games. This year, Paris saw a combined average of 30.6 million viewers across NBCU's platforms, an 82% increase in viewership compared to Tokyo. Paris also earned its cultural cache with its comparatively lower $9 B budget and impressive ESG commitments; they chose to rely on 95% existing or temporary infrastructure rather than investing in gigantic new arenas that would never again see the light of day – very demure – and use its games as a stage for promoting gender equality: This was the first year there have been 50-50 equal spots for male and female athletes. Paris also went out of its way to create moments like the women’s marathon that followed the route of the historic women’s march of Versailles in 1789. Capitalizing on this femme energy, GOATs like Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky helped secure over half (67) of Team USA’s medals to win the games with 126 total medals. A note on this from
:
Paris ‘24 tailed on an amazing year for women and sports, in general. From Taylor Swift helping secure the NFL’s highest regular season female viewership (which is likely connected to its 7% boost in overall viewership), to Caitlin Clark’s $28 M Nike contract, people are finally starting to recognize the economic value of female athletes. Peacock understood this going into the games, giving Alex Cooper her own Olympics interview show following her ceremonial Red Sox pitch that amassed a large, screaming crowd of female baseball fans of all ages.
The value is clear according to Fitt Insider (an awesome health/wellness/fitness newsletter that everyone should be reading):
Women’s pro leagues will generate $1 Bn+ in revenue this year
Female athletes are boasting 2x the engagement of their male counterparts on social media
Adidas, PUMA, Nike, and Vuori’s women’s campaigns were 69%, 62%, 16%, and 8% more effective than their average broadcast ads, respectively.
Of course, with women taking center court, it’s interesting to look at the resulting gender politics at play. As Women’s Health mentions, what women wear during competition is inextricably wrapped-up with “fashion, politics, money, power, and the patriarchy.” Furthermore,
highlights how fashion and aesthetics are an undeniable factor of the women and sports movement, serving as a crucial component of the female athlete’s financial success. She writes in her Substack, The Sweat Lookbook:“The idea that players, especially women, need to look ‘good’ on the court is baked into the sport. Their appearance has long been a form of currency: The right combination of beauty and talent can translate to millions of dollars in sponsorships… As I watch Wimbledon cataloging skirt lengths and hairstyles, I do so with a conflicted heart. I wish that fashion could exist in a vacuum, to be consumed for its visual value and nothing more. But, the pressure these players face to perform both athletically and aesthetically is one to which many women can relate. And it’s a pressure that only feels magnified with the always-on presence of smartphone cameras and social media.
Clearly, designing women’s sports apparel is no easy feat, which Nike learned once again during its unveiling of the 2024 women’s track and field uniform (I need to stop harping on Nike, I know...) But to their credit, we’ve come to witness the many gender-biased Olympics uniform rules that make it difficult for brands and designers to navigate.
With this, Left on Friday stood-out for its deign ingenuity in creating the first single shoulder strap uniform for the women’s beach volleyball, signing a three year contract to serve as the official sponsor of the Canadian women’s beach volleyball team – An incredible feat for the young indie swimwear brand.
On the topic of women x sports x fashion…
A brand spotlight on Oiselle – An amazing company that aims to amplify female athletes through its beautiful running apparel designed specifically for women, by women. The brand recently launched its Fall ‘24 collection in partnership with the first-ever Women’s Decathlon World Championships that took place on August 3rd and 4th in Ontario:
“As a women-founded and led brand, Oiselle has a long-standing commitment to creating running apparel thoughtfully tailored to fit the needs of women in running, and to address gender discrepancies in sport. Their recent partnership embodies this commitment; as title sponsor for the Women’s Decathlon World Championships, which takes place at the same time as the Men’s Decathlon in Paris to highlight the omission of Women’s Decathlon at this year’s Games.”
I love seeing young, smaller brands on the world stage through these types of activations. Let’s get Oiselle to the next Olympics!
Parting thoughts…
Please comment what you’re watching now that the Olympics are over. I need a buffer between pole vaulting —> DNC viewing
I’ve over-rotating on Kristen Faulkner’s path from a venture capitalist, spin studio-going New York girlie to a cycling gold medalist in Paris. This gives me SO much hope. What’s our strategy here, guys?!
I can’t stop listening to Kavinsky’s Nightcall… The most Shazam’d song in history thanks to the closing ceremonies (would not have been my guess, but I’m not sure what would have…)