Advertisement
breaking news:

NFL schedule release is here! See all 272 games planned this season

US women's national soccer team leading the way yet again with new online store | Opinion

nancy armour, usa today
·4 min read
2

The days of having to scour the Internet, often fruitlessly, to find merchandise for the U.S. women’s soccer team are over.

In yet another sign of the growing economic power of women’s sports, the U.S. Women’s National Team Players Association is launching an online store Thursday. In addition to jerseys, the site will sell everything from custom T-shirts to tote bags to kids’ merchandise to Megan Rapinoe figurines.

“This is just us continuing to invest in ourselves,” Annie Reid, the USWNTPA’s director of strategic partnerships and business, told USA TODAY Sports.

“We put this out there so people can have one-stop shopping as opposed to going to various outlets and having 40 different carts open,” Reid said. “No one likes that.”

What fans like even less is not being able to find any kind of merchandise, long a problem for the USWNT and other women’s teams and athletes.

PHOTOS: Megan Rapinoe, Simone Biles receive Presidential Medal of Freedom

A sampling of items available at the U.S. Women’s National Team Players Association online store.
A sampling of items available at the U.S. Women’s National Team Players Association online store.

The retail market, much like media coverage and sponsorship, has long been skewed almost exclusively toward men’s teams and male athletes. With only so much shelf space and production capacity, it has been near-impossible to find merchandise dedicated to women’s sports and the athletes who play them – even as they have grown in popularity.

Angel City FC co-founder Kara Nortman has told the story of coming up empty in her hunt for jerseys of specific USWNT players during the 2015 World Cup. Ahead of the 2019 tournament, the USWNT’s jersey wasn’t available in the cut bought most often by men.

Recognizing there was unmet demand, Alex Morgan, Kelley O’Hara and Allie Long created T-shirts ahead of the 2019 World Cup and sold them online. In less than 30 days, they generated more than $1 million in sales, Morgan told the Wall Street Journal.

And after the USWNT won the 2019 title – their second in a row and fourth overall, for those counting – Nike struggled to keep pace with the demand for merchandise featuring the fourth star.

“You’re hearing more fans asking for this. You look in social, it happens all the time and has been really prevalent and acute the last few years,” Reid said. “During an event, the No. 1 question you’re seeing in social spaces is, 'Where can we find the gear?' Or, 'How come we can’t find merchandise?'"

'WHERE THE HECK ARE THE WOMEN?': Why women's sports could see financial boon in future TV deals

SPORTS NEWSLETTER: Sign up now to get top sports headlines delivered daily

A look at the U.S. Women’s National Team Players Association online store.
A look at the U.S. Women’s National Team Players Association online store.

The U.S. women won the rights to their “name, image and likeness” as part of the 2017 collective bargaining agreement and joined forces with what is now OneTeam Partners, the group licensing company that began as a joint venture between the NFL and Major League Baseball’s players associations. (The NWSL Players Association announced Wednesday that it, too, has signed with OneTeam.)

Within the first year of having its NIL rights, the USWNTPA signed deals with 30-plus licensees. It currently has partnerships with the likes of EA Sports, maker of the popular FIFA video game; Fanatics, which sells customizable jerseys; Panini, maker of trading cards; and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

A t-shirt available at the U.S. Women’s National Team Players Association online store.
A t-shirt available at the U.S. Women’s National Team Players Association online store.

USWNT merchandise will still be available through all the individual licensees, Reid said. The online store simply increases the market.

“This is meant to be additive to what’s out there,” Reid said. “We don’t want to narrow the spaces where fans can find things, we want to expand on it. There’s just not enough retail space out there. … We want to make sure there are more places fans can find what they want.”

The online store also will allow the USWNTPA to react quickly during big events and produce merchandise specific to a game or a moment. Had it existed during the 2019 World Cup, for example, you can bet there would have been mugs featuring Morgan sipping tea after the USWNT’s semifinal win over England. Or T-shirts with Rapinoe doing her now trademark goal celebration.

Already, there is merchandise touting the USWNT as “America’s Futbol Team” and, in a nod to their long fight for equal pay, T-shirts and sweatshirts emblazoned with the slogan, “Pay Women.”

That is the point, after all.

While the site will be a convenience for fans, particularly with next year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, it is also another way for the USWNT to show its worth and maximize its value. In addition to the base compensation they receive from licensees, USWNTPA members will get additional royalties for all products sold on the site.

Commercial rights specific to the USWNT are still new, so Reid said she can’t give a dollar estimate for how much the players stand to make from the site. But the anecdotal evidence suggests it will provide a significant revenue stream.

There is money to be made off women’s sports. There always has been. There just hasn’t been the means or the inclination. Leave it to the USWNT to show how it can, and should, be done.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour. 

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: USWNT soccer bets on itself once again with new online store