How the WNBA Tunnel Walk Became a Fashion Marketing Gold Mine

Ultimately weekend’s recreation between the Chicago Sky and Indiana Fever, which featured two of the WNBA’s star rookies, Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark, the motion began even earlier than tip off.

Clark pulled as much as Chicago’s Wintrust Area sporting a grey Prada shirt dress and black boots, a part of her ongoing relationship with the model, whereas Reese opted for a brown corset top and miniskirt set sourced from Revolve, paired with matching knee-high heeled boots. Photographers have been readily available snapping the athletes arriving forward of the match up, which ended with the Sky successful a comeback victory in entrance of a sellout crowd that included Probability the Rapper, actor Jason Sudeikis and WNBA legend Sheryl Swoopes.

Tunnel stroll outfits have lengthy been a fixation of NBA followers and offered valuable marketing moments for manufacturers. However the unprecedented popularity of the WNBA this season, thanks largely to a rookie class together with Reese, Clark and Cameron Brink, is drawing the highlight to what the ladies are sporting as they flip up for video games. Whereas seasoned WNBA expertise like Skylar Diggins-Smith, A’ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum, in addition to youthful tastemakers Kysre Gondrezick and Olivia Nelson-Ododa, have put collectively trendy pre-game outfits for years, gamers throughout the board are taking their vogue recreation up one other degree. Manufacturers that have been gradual to embrace dressing WNBA gamers at the moment are seizing on the chance. For instance, Clark, the NCAA’s all-time main scorer (male or feminine), wore Prada to the WNBA draft in April, making her the primary participant (male or feminine) the model ever dressed for a draft.

“There was nonetheless some hesitation even previous to the WNBA draft [in April],” mentioned Mary Gonsalves Kinney, who has styled Brink of the Los Angeles Sparks for over two years. However simply two months later, Kinney is now inundated with manufacturers trying to costume Brink for tunnel walks or different high-profile appearances. “Just about each main luxurious model is keen [to dress Cameron],” she mentioned, naming YSL, Balmain, Versace, Dior and Prada, together with smaller manufacturers like Christopher Esber, One other Tomorrow, L’agence and Andre Emery.

What’s distinctive concerning the WNBA’s model enchantment in comparison with its male equal is the broader scope its tunnel stroll provides manufacturers of all types to get entangled by way of business partnerships. Whereas NBA gamers — and male athletes on the whole — usually play it secure by sticking to a handful of luxurious manufacturers and the same old streetwear suspects, the WNBA’s athletes have labored with a variety of manufacturers, together with magnificence manufacturers and womenswear retailers. Forward of this season, Glossier renewed and prolonged the scope of its deal because the WNBA’s magnificence associate, whereas P&G-owned Mielle Organics turned the league’s textured hair care partner final July — a savvy deal for a league made up of 80 % ladies of color.

It’s no shock they need a slice of the pie. Stadium attendance for WNBA video games is up 156 % from final season. The official WNBA on-line merch retailer has already set a single-season gross sales report simply two months into the season, with gross sales up over 750 % in comparison with the identical interval final 12 months, in response to a report launched by the league earlier this month. The unprecedented eyeballs and cash pouring into the game have turbocharged the publicity of the tunnel stroll and the model credentials of its star gamers, who are sometimes on the lookout for model offers to complement salaries which can be nonetheless a great distance from the sums usually paid to NBA gamers.

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“The WNBA tunnel stroll has actually developed right into a runway occasion,” mentioned WNBA artistic director Roman King. “Significantly this season, we’ve seen vital consideration from followers and the style business alike on how WNBA gamers are showcasing their vogue sense, and what ‘suits and types they’re rocking.”

A Advertising Goldmine

California-based vogue retailer Revolve is amongst these trying to money in on the enchantment of the league’s high-profile rookies. The corporate labored with Brink to supply her pre-game look forward of the Sparks recreation towards the Dallas Wings earlier this month, and was fast to associate with Angel Reese upon her entry to the league this season after an introduction was made by former NBA All-Star Dwyane Wade, mentioned chief model officer Raissa Gerona. The corporate’s in-house stylist works with Reese to drag outfits.

“We’re all the time looking out for rising expertise, protecting an in depth eye on each faculty {and professional} athletes,” she mentioned.

Being related to prime WNBA expertise provides manufacturers a strategy to attain their giant and rising fanbases. Reese has a mixed following of seven million throughout Instagram and TikTok, whereas Clark has 2.6 million and Brink counts 1.7 million. Reese’s latest submit displaying off a pre-game Alexander Wang bodysuit and Chanel sneakers sourced from Revolve, whose account she tagged, fetched half one million likes, whereas Brink’s submit of her latest tunnel stroll outfit was considered over 750,000 instances on TikTok. The posts generated $488,000 and $300,000 in Media Influence Worth (a metric which measures the worth of media protection throughout the web) respectively, in response to Launchmetrics.

Brink, whose stellar rookie season and desires of representing Staff USA on the Olympics this summer time have been ended by an ACL harm final week, was a constant standout within the tunnel. Her outfits have included a Diesel denim costume paired with a tiny black Chanel bag and matching cowboy boots, a cutout Balmain blazer with pinstripe swimsuit trousers and a basketball-style clutch bag, and a white New Stability tennis mini skirt and crop prime.

Manufacturers additionally profit from their merchandise being shared throughout the devoted model pages and hovering variety of content material creators who obsess over WNBA participant vogue. Instagram accounts like WNBA Tunnel — arrange by PR specialist and former faculty basketball participant Velissa Vaughn — share each day behind-the-scenes tunnel stroll content material, whereas older platforms like League Suits, which beforehand centered on NBA model, have upped their protection of the WNBA.

Vaughn solely launched her WNBA Tunnel web page in Might after posting a viral video of Kelsey Plum’s outfit for the opening recreation night time of the season. The account already has over 28,000 followers.

“The WNBA tunnel has a novel attract,” Vaughn mentioned. “Folks tune in for the great streetwear seems or the women displaying off their femininity, but additionally to observe them slamming somebody to the ground whereas getting a rebound on the courtroom an hour later.”

An Alternative for Everybody

The WNBA itself is leaning into its gamers’ vogue and wonder pursuits and the eye across the tunnel stroll. King, the WNBA artistic director, pointed to long-running content material sequence equivalent to “WNBA Kicks” and “The W in Designer” on the WNBA app and its social channels as proof of the way it platforms the game’s cultural enchantment and helps converse to audiences past sports activities followers.

Model offers are additionally necessary to the league’s elevation of purple carpet moments such because the WNBA Draft. Each Glossier and Mielle Organics have been current within the “Glam Room” on the resort the place the gamers stayed forward of the draft. Glossier artists did make-up for Clark, Reese and Brink, mentioned the model’s chief govt Kyle Leahy.

“For a very long time there’s been a false narrative that sports activities and wonder shouldn’t combine,” Leahy mentioned.

As gamers and groups more and more grow to be recognized for his or her model, it’s doubtless extra manufacturers will look to them as ambassadors. In Might, Good American tapped Reese for a denim marketing campaign geared toward taller ladies, whereas ladies’s workwear model MM LaFleur signed a long-term partnership with the New York Liberty final 12 months.

Vaughn sees the tunnel walks as a intelligent approach for gamers to market themselves for business offers to complement their salaries. As an alternative of $70,000 a 12 months, she mentioned, they might make that a lot in 1 / 4 with the appropriate partnerships.

It’s additionally bringing enterprise to stylists who’re styling gamers’ pre-game seems and serving to them construct relationships with manufacturers and publicists. Sydney Bordonaro, as an example, has labored with Brink, Plum, Rae Burrell and a number of other others since getting her first WNBA consumer in 2021.

“It’s unbelievable seeing the distinction between this season and only a few years in the past once I began out,” she mentioned.