Klarna, Sports Innovation Lab, Togethxr, and Ali Krieger team up to close gender gap in sports merch

The GIST: The gender gap in sports viewership and valuations may be closing, but there’s one area of the women’s sports ecosystem where supply is far behind demand: merchandise. On Wednesday, payment network Klarna and fan intelligence company Sports Innovation Lab (SIL) estimated the value of the women’s sports merch market at $4B. We’re going shopping.

The methodology: The report surveyed 1K sports fans across seven countries and analyzed purchasing habits of more than 50M U.S. consumers using Klarna data to identify key trends in women’s sports merch purchases.

Key findings: Purchases are often curbed because women’s sports fans can’t find what they’re looking for. More than 60% of those who intended to buy merch couldn’t because it was “out of stock,” 79% reported they would buy more women’s sports merch if there were more options, and 28% admitted they couldn’t find a style they liked.

• To further put things into perspective, there’s an overall 9:1 ratio between men’s and women’s sports merch offerings. The NBA has 9x more merch options than the WNBA, while the MLS has 6x more than the NWSL.

The market: The data proves the demand exists, and the merch world is only just moving to meet it. In March, Amazon signed an expansive deal to sell NWSL merchandise through its Amazon Fan Shop, while Dick’s Sporting Goods has made girls’ WNBA and Caitlin Clark apparel ubiquitous.

• Women’s sports media platform Togethxr has been in the women’s sports merch game from the jump, and it’s already paid off with viral celeb-backed marketing campaigns. In conjunction with this report, Klarna and SIL teamed up with the brand and soccer legend Ali Krieger to launch limited-edition merch.

• Krieger told The GIST last week that she experienced issues finding merch firsthand during the 2016 Rio Olympics when she tried to order the Olympic jersey of WNBA legend (and dear friend) Sue Bird. While Krieger did eventually get her threads, it was only with a little help from Bird herself. Friends in high places, huh?

The takeaway: Klarna, SIL, Togethxr, and Krieger are all using their unique superpowers to help bring attention to the merch gap. Klarna leveraged its consumer payment data, SIL built on its fan research background, and Togethxr used its merch experience to drive the convo forward, while Krieger lent her voice as a thriving broadcaster to get the message out.