The GIST

Designer brands Coach and Miu Miu seek women athletes to promote new collections

The overlap between luxury fashion and women’s sports continued this week with two designer-driven deals that recruited popular women athletes. On Wednesday, Coach revealed its athlete roster for its latest sneaker campaign, while New Balance (NB) furthered its Miu Miu collab the same day by debuting a Coco Gauff collection.

April 25, 2025

Pro Padel League CEO Mike Dorfman discusses the sport’s marketing allure

Last month, Pro Padel League (PPL) — the top U.S. professional padel league — raised a $10M seed round led by Left Lane Capital, a VC firm backing other startup leagues like LOVB and Shaun White’s Snow League. This week, we spoke with PPL CEO Mike Dorfman about why investors and sponsors are seizing the padel opportunity in the U.S.

April 25, 2025

Aflac plays on brand success in closing the gender wage gap in women’s sports

Yesterday, insurance company Aflac detailed the expansion of its existing WNBPA partnership, which includes increasing the prize pool at WNBA All-Star competitions this summer. Aflac’s creative — and visible — campaign illustrates the continued opportunity for brands to benefit from making big plays to close the gender pay gap.

April 18, 2025

Luxury and elevated retail brands cater to WNBA and NWSL fans with timely partnerships

While luxury retail brands have long been drawn to sports with affluent fanbases like tennis and golf, the industry is now seeing opportunities in women’s sports leagues like the WNBA and NWSL. Let’s take a closer look at two recent sponsorships that illustrate why it's smart to target women’s basketball and soccer fans.

April 14, 2025

Sports Illustrated and Scripps Sports capitalize on women’s sports spend through new competition

On Wednesday, Sports Illustrated (SI) announced the creation of the SI Women’s Games, a six-sport competition scheduled for this fall. The tournament aims to capitalize on the surging popularity of women’s sports and exemplifies media companies working together to innovate ad packaging and scale up advertising inventory in the space.

April 11, 2025

The Ultimate Women’s Hockey Watch Party Playbook

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The Ultimate Women’s Hockey Watch Party Playbook

This feature is brought to you by Smirnoff, the perfect spirit for gathering your crew to watch women’s hockey the right way — with great drinks and even better company.

April 07, 2025

Emerging brands and platforms make a splash in latest SponsorUnited NIL report

On Wednesday, data insights platform SponsorUnited released its 2024–2025 NIL Endorsements Report, which affirms what we already know: Women athletes, especially basketball players, are consistent winners in terms of engagement, hence their skyrocketing NIL deals.

April 04, 2025

Sports Business

Imminent U.S. trade tariffs have damaging effect on sports apparel industry

April 04, 2025

The impacts of President Trump’s U.S. trade policy have officially gone from bad to worse. On Wednesday, Trump announced that the U.S. will apply a 10% baseline tariff on all imports, with a higher rate for nations that the U.S. considers to be unfair trade partners. Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” proposal has created enough worrisome sentiment to spook the stock market.

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The GIST of It Podcast

Ep #454

It’s PWHL expansion time

April 24, 2025

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It’s happening!

The PWHL is officially growing. Yesterday, the upstart pro women’s hockey league announced it’s expanding to Vancouver for the 2025-26 season, delighting local fans who turned out in massive numbers during the PWHL Takeover Tour’s stop in the city.

On this episode of The GIST of It, co-hosts Steph Rotz and Lauren Tuiskula dig into why Vancouver was chosen as the league’s first expansion team and what that means for the future of the PWHL. Let’s do that hockey.

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