Brands are beginning to understand the business implications of failing to meet women’s sports fans’ demands. Klarna is a founding sponsor of Angel City FC in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and noticed the disparity between the men’s and women’s sports merchandise its partners could offer customers. It approached Sports Innovation Lab about putting together a report highlighting those inequities and used its own shopping data to help build the case.
“Our goal has always been to put the fans at the heart of what we do and elevate the fan experience and provide more access,” said Megan Gokey, Klarna’s head of B2C marketing in North America and the United Kingdom. “This includes shopping for merch to support their favorite teams and athletes.”
The merch matters
Angela Ruggiero has represented the United States as an ice hockey player, winning gold in 1998 and taking either silver or bronze during each Olympic appearance through 2010. She is enshrined in both the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame and the Hockey Hall of Fame and Museum in Toronto and, at 256 games played, has worn the Team USA uniform more than any other men’s or women’s hockey player.
However, those jerseys weren’t always available in women’s sizes throughout her career. The only jerseys she saw on fans with “Ruggiero” on the back were her old jerseys worn by her family. Fans who wanted her jersey had to customize their own.
Now the CEO and co-founder of Sports Innovation Lab, Ruggiero added this latest report to her group’s series of Fan Project reports highlighting the buying power of women’s sports fans.
“Why do I have so much passion for this? I lived it,” Ruggiero said. “I was a pretty good hockey player, but no one knows, and no one even saw me play. The women of my generation didn’t have that same visible platform. I’m trying to change the paradigm for the next generation of athletes to have opportunities I didn’t have.”
But progress has been slow. Even players who did have their jerseys produced struggled with availability, sizes and variety.
Before winning two World Cups, an NWSL title and Olympic gold, Krieger began playing in Europe professionally in 2007 as a member of FFC Frankfurt (now Eintracht Frankfurt). One day, while signing autographs after a match, a fan asked Krieger if she could sign a replica of her jersey. It was the first time she’d seen her name on a jersey not worn by a family member and was comforted that she was “motivating someone else who was just as passionate about the beautiful game as I was.”
