The women’s sports apparel market in 2018 was valued at $26.8 billion, according to data from Euromonitor International. This wasn’t out of the goodness of our hearts, this was down to the opportunity that demographic offered, and still does. When leading Sports Marketing at adidas in 2016, the brand targeted the entire year's marketing – brand campaigns down to hero product stories – at the female athlete, including launching the first-ever female running shoe. The sportswear industry has long led the way in the sector in demonstrating an understanding and insight into the female consumer. A route for accelerated growth would be a focus on the female fan specifically. That is great for the wider appeal, but it does seem to ignore the fact that half the viewers, and the demographic most likely to offer absolute growth, are female. When looking at the fans of women’s formats the oft-quoted stat is a version of ‘ 51% of fans watching women’s are men’, and that (slim) majority is a considered a measure of success that the female format draws in a male fan. At Sport UNLIMITED we put human understanding at the heart of our thinking, and that means the fan, what makes them tick, and what are the emotional levers that drive their fandom. Now even though there is a roadmap to get us back to a level of normality, I would suggest those looking to quickly bounce back as we exit the pandemic must consider accelerating their long-term innovation plans to steal a march in a hugely competitive year and make up for the lost time. The pandemic has necessitated the acceleration of many trends that we were starting to see in sport digitally-enabled fitness and exercise communities (Zwfit, Peloton, etc) have boomed, and a lack of sporting competition has resulted in a greater share of sponsorship activation via individual athletes over more traditional rights.
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And recently, the WSL’s landmark domestic TV deal shared between Sky Sports and BBC is further good news, especially the 18 games per season to be shown free-to-air, showing that momentum is still there. USA semi-final at the FIFA Women’s world cup. However, the rapid growth made over recent years and success stories in women’s sport pre-pandemic are well documented Sky reporting a peak audience of 1.1 million for the Women’s World Cup cricket in 2019, 47% of the UK population tuned in for England vs. Many female formats bypassed even a conversation around postponement and moved straight to cancellation, partly due to their revenue/cost contribution and partly due to an inability to meet the required COVID testing protocols. The “Fit for You” campaign illustrates the more fitted and less boxy shirt styles that are available for women to wear on game day ads for this campaign were spotted in magazines like InStyle, Lucky, People, and even Sports Illustrated.There is no question that women’s sport has been hit hardest by the pandemic. Recently, the NFL women’s store changed strategies to offer more chic choices rather than just smaller versions of the men’s style. Now the option to find women’s shirts and jerseys in say, orange and navy blue, is a lot easier. While some women loved this idea, not everyone was on board. You could always find jerseys in pink and white with sparkly numbers and players’ names, instead of the traditional colors that are seen on the field.
Thankfully, some companies are getting the hint and are actually listening to women’s complaints about “pink it and shrink it.” A decade ago, the National Football League (NFL) applied this slightly offensive and inaccurate strategy to appeal to female fans.
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