If you search online sports retail giant Fanatic’s website for the NHL expansion Seattle Kraken, it returns 700 items.
If you run a Fanatics search for the WNBA defending champion Seattle Storm, you get 77 items.
The Kraken play their inaugural regular-season game on Oct. 12. The Storm have won four championships since their 2000 founding.
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Welcome to the reality of WNBA retail, where apparel and merchandise for the world’s best women’s basketball league and players have mostly been an afterthought despite obvious demand.
But, progress! A day after the WNBA’s ongoing merchandising struggle reached the pages of the New York Times, the league announced a nationwide retail distribution deal with Dick’s Sporting Goods.
Whether that’s a coincidence or damage control timing, it’s a step toward fixing a problem (or out-sourcing it) that has plagued the WNBA since its inception: Its jerseys and other apparel and merch often aren’t easy to find in stores, and sometimes not even at games or online. And sometimes unavailable are star player jerseys, and items in men’s and kid sizing — a critical problem for a league that wants to broaden its fanbase and grow revenue.
The W, which is celebrating its 25th season and strong TV numbers, began its 2021 playoffs on Sept. 23, the same day its deal with Dick’s Sporting Goods began. The semifinals began Tuesday, and a champion will be crowned after the best-of-five finals begin Oct. 10.
Will there be enough championship merch to satisfy fan demand? Hoodies, jerseys, T-shirts and the rest are walking, talking billboards, after all, for a league hoping to thrive in its next 25 years after spending much of its first quarter-century surviving media and corporate neglect along with endless trolling.
One of the teams in the semis is the Chicago Sky. The Rismeyer family drove from Milwaukee to Chicago recently to watch the Sky play the Las Vegas Aces. It was their first time at Wintrust Arena, and 10-year-old Evelyn was eager to nab a Candace Parker jersey.
One problem: “They said they’re sold out until Christmas,” her dad, Tim Rismeyer, said.
It’s a frequent problem at Sky games, where there’s only one small kiosk in the arena selling limited Sky merchandise and nothing with hometown favorite Parker’s name on it. The cashier told fans they’ve been sold out of most jerseys since April and won’t have more available, even online, until the winter holiday season — long after the WNBA season ends.
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“It’s a 2 on a scale of 10,” Taylor Roberts said, grading the available merchandise. She attended the Sky game with her girlfriend and bought a size-small Stefanie Dolson jersey. “We’d buy the shit out of it if they had more. It’s something people could invest in. They could be making so much money. If there was a store downstairs, we’d blow our paychecks. We’re committed. We love them. We want to support women.”
Roberts said she ordered a Kahleah Copper jersey online, but it took four months to arrive after multiple order mishaps like a misprint and an incorrect delivery address.
Phillip Huley waited in line for about five minutes before tipoff but left empty-handed after he was told no adult jersey sizes were available. “It goes with the territory,” he said.
But not really. Other Chicago pro and even college teams have multiple sales kiosks throughout their home arenas with an array of merchandise available.
Youth-size Dolson and Courtney Vandersloot jerseys were the only two that hung in the lone Sky kiosk, along with an Allie Quigley T-shirt. The rest of the merchandise was generic Sky shirts, a hat and $5 foam fingers. Still, a line of about 50 people waited at the mini merchandise store from halftime through much of the third quarter as the Aces dominated the Sky. The clerk packed up and closed the shop before the fourth quarter started.
Allysah Boothe, a basketball player at Chicago State, was one of the rare fans at the game wearing a Parker jersey. A former youth coach bought it for her as a gift in the preseason, she said, but it took two months to arrive.
“I do want to get a Diamond DeShields jersey,” Boothe said during the game, glancing down the concourse at the merchandise sales.
She’d be out of luck, too.
And that’s not great for the WNBA, a league that’s been in the vanguard of social justice causes — ones that established men’s big leagues, in sports other than the NBA, were slower to catch up to.
As sports equality efforts gain more cultural cachet, corporate America is investing more money into women’s sports and media coverage continues to grow, but the WNBA has left money on the table with a limited retail strategy — something commissioner Cathy Engelbert has vowed to fix since taking the job in 2019.
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Retail sales aren’t the biggest WNBA cash streams — the annual $25 million check from ESPN is likely the biggest — but it’s a valuable source of not only money but visibility for the league.
“It’s a small number but big for the brand because it helps you grow,” Engelbert told The Athletic. “That’s more important than the numbers. The brand part of it out-sizes the revenue.”
The league hasn’t disclosed how much team and league apparel and merchandise generates annually in revenue, but overall WNBA revenue in recent years has been estimated at $60 million to $70 million a season. Merch is likely under $10 million as a yearly revenue stream overall, a number that has probably incrementally improved after NBA players and other influencers began wearing the orange WNBA hoodie that became popular in 2020.
The late Kobe Bryant was an advocate for the league and women’s sports, and tennis star Naomi Osaka this year emerged as a WNBA fan, coming to games, wearing the orange hoodie while proclaiming her support for the W and practicing in a Liberty jersey before the U.S. Open.
“Those are all things that have helped amplify the brand,” Engelbert said.
#BossWoman Alert 🚨
Naomi Osaka earns her third Grand Slam title at the @usopen! Contrats @naomiosaka 🎉 pic.twitter.com/rfsV6TQCNU
— WNBA (@WNBA) September 12, 2020
In fact, the orange W hoodie landed on the NBA’s top-10 best-selling items last year, she said. That suggests there is a broader appetite for WNBA gear that’s not being met. Just spend some time on WNBA Twitter and you’ll see complaints about the league’s retail situation.
Engelbert, who spent more than 30 years at accountancy powerhouse Deloitte before taking the WNBA leadership job, said fixing the league’s retail problem is among her business goals.
The league seeks to grow the number of licenses it grants and seeks wide-ranging business partnerships when it comes to apparel and merchandise, Engelbert said. That could include more work with local artists and designers, deeper dives into lifestyle branding, and involvement in the arts, music and culture where its fans live, work and play.
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“We’re absolutely looking at all of these things,” Engelbert said.
She pointed to the new WNBA basketball (Wilson replaced Spalding this season for both the W and the NBA) now being available in 40 countries.
“It can be something as simple as the ball. Girls can go into a Dick’s Sporting Goods store or Walmart and buy a WNBA ball,” she said. “Last year, no one could find our ball.”
Even if not easy to find, and supply chain issues can mean months of waiting for delivery, this season saw official WNBA uniform supplier Nike unveil three jerseys for every team (Heroine, Explorer and Rebel editions).
The league said introduction of those jerseys spurred a 50 percent year-over-year ecommerce sales increase on WNBAStore.com.
Engelbert’s biggest retail accomplishment so far is getting the league’s apparel and merchandise into the Dick’s chain. It’s unclear how many of the company’s 700-plus stores will carry WNBA gear, but the announcement noted their stores in the league’s dozen markets all will be stocked up.
“That will be huge, particularly in the 12 markets in which we have teams,” Engelbert said.
The WNBA’s relationship with Dick’s Sporting Goods stems from Engelbert meeting the current retailer’s CEO and President Lauren Hobart not long before taking the commissioner job. They kept talking, even as the pandemic forced the WNBA into the so-called Wubble season without fans in 2020, and they finally reached a deal this year.
“I could tell (Hobart) was a huge advocate for the league and women’s sports,” Engelbert said.
The stores are expected to sell both local team gear and league-branded merch. Currently, fans buy more WNBA league-branded items like the orange hoodie than they do team merch, she said. That’s most likely simply because more league merch is available.
The Dick’s Sporting Goods deal is critical, said Matt Powell, a sports retail industry analyst for Port Washington, N.Y.-based market research and advisory firm NPD Group Inc.
“The moment is now for this. The deal with Dick’s is a great one because it’s a national player offering up the product and making it readily available to consumers,” he said. “There was no retailer out there that could carry the flag. Having Dick’s onboard enables that to happen.”
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The deal won’t generate NBA retail sales numbers, but it will boost WNBA revenue and visibility, Powell said.
“This is a major leap for them to have this kind of platform to sell their products,” he said.
That said, retailers have their own merchandising and sourcing strategy and determine how much inventory they will carry on store and virtual shelves. The WNBA cannot dictate what stores buy and sell.
“We don’t drive that for a Nike or Dick’s,” Engelbert said. And it’s up to the likes of Nike and its peers to deliver signature shoe deals to WNBA players.
The WNBA also has the misfortune of trying to improve its merchandising amid a global pandemic that has fouled sourcing, manufacturing and delivery across sports. “There are supply chain issues everywhere, but they’re really kind of random. It’s a hoodie from this brand for this month,” Powell said.
Listening to find out what fans want, and what retailers think they can sell, is an art and science that involves the league, teams and third-party sellers. In 2018, the league hired consultants Sylvain Labs, to help it grow audience and revenue as it rebranded itself with a new logo the following season. That pre-dated Engelbert, who said the WNBA uses a data-driven approach for its retail strategy since the rebrand.
“The worst thing you can do is flood the shelves and no one buys it,” she said. “Retailers will only get burned once on that kind of thing.”
And increasing apparel availability isn’t just a big box store effort. It could mean more deals like the league has with Boston streetwear brand Playa Society, which sells a line of WNBA apparel — Engelbert said Friday she had just ordered five pairs of the league’s Playa sweatpants.
The league also is working to improve the availability of youth, newborn and men’s sizes and other options, she said.
“We would love more in that space, yes,” Engelbert said.
Grassroots fans are waiting to see how it plays out.
WNBA fan Jasmine Baker, who is active on WNBA Twitter under the handle @WeGotGame2, is a designer who has collaborated with the Atlanta Dream and New York Liberty, and with individual players. She said she wants to see the league and teams work more with local artists on pop-ups and special drop events that are rooted in the culture around basketball, and women’s hoops in particular.
“I hope teams are more concerned about how they’re putting out merchandise. Make it an event,” Baker said, noting that her WNBA collabs have all sold out.
In case you were wondering… We sold out at @TheSocialStatus 🥳
Congrats @WeGotGame2❕#BookHer pic.twitter.com/RZKITWU5ND
— Renee Montgomery (@ReneeMontgomery) September 14, 2021
A critical retail strategy failure has been merch for kids, she said.
“People are asking for baby and youth clothing,” Baker said. “I think it’s a breakdown with vendors, and companies are not choosing to put out baby clothes. How do you expect the next generation of sports fans to exist if you cannot even show baby photos of them wearing the gear? To see the players’ kids not able to have their own mom’s jerseys on is ridiculous.”
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Jerseys have been a problem despite them being a core business aspect of team sports for generations, she said.
“You cannot find a Candace Parker (Nike ‘Rebel’ edition) jersey right now. You don’t have to do that with LeBron’s jersey,” Baker said.
The retail problem is an old one, she said, but she’s cautiously encouraged by the steps that Engelbert and her administration are taking to meet demand and fix issues.
“I feel like the league is adapting,” Baker said.
Why is the WNBA still grappling after a quarter-century in business with something as fundamental as selling jerseys? Women’s soccer and other sports also share retail struggles.
One culprit is the men who make decisions in the corporate retail world, according to David Berri, a sports economics professor at Southern Utah University who studies women’s sports.
“These are deals made by men who don’t value women’s sports very much,” he said. “It seems decision-makers frequently underestimate this market. And that means sales figures are depressed. But not because of a lack of demand. They are depressed because of a lack of supply.”
He noted that U.S. women’s national team soccer kits often sell out quickly and fans are left grumbling — a sign of poor decision-making in the retail pipeline.
Berri has studied the economics of the WNBA (which, like most leagues, doesn’t open its books or disclose much financial data) and sports gender disparities. He figures the W’s retail merch revenue is single-digit millions of dollars each season, and that with a more robust retail strategy, and willingness from retailers to stock enough gear, that amount could markedly increase.
“What happens is it sells out very quickly, and people cannot find it. There is a market for (WNBA apparel). People want this, and (retailers) don’t listen. That’s the problem,” Berri said.
It’s unclear if the WNBA turns a profit. The league and the NBA maintain close business relationships, and some teams share cross-ownership, but they are separate entities even if they jointly swing deals. NBA commissioner Adam Silver told The Associated Press in October 2018 that the WNBA has lost at least $10 million every year of its existence.
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Regardless of whether the W is profitable or not, it wants to grow revenue — something that benefits the players, who now can earn up to $500,000 a season under the labor deal struck last year.
Ketra Armstrong, a University of Michigan professor of sport management and director for the Center for Race & Ethnicity in Sport, said it’s imperative that the WNBA addresses its retail merchandising situation as soon as it can.
“The obvious loss is a loss of revenue due to this missed opportunity for sales,” she said via email. “The mere fact that fans want to purchase merchandise says something not only about their willingness and desire to financially invest in the team, but it is an attest to their psychological investment as well.”
Retail struggles can reflect poorly on the league’s image and reputation and open the WNBA to questions about its business professionalism, Armstrong said.
“I am sure that this matter has also evoked sentiments among the WNBA fans that their patronage is not valued (at least not to the same extent as the fans of men’s sports),” she said. “For a league like the WNBA that has worked really hard to maintain its product legitimacy and sustain a fan base, while also seeking market expansion to attract new customers, this situation must be addressed in a timely manner.”
Because the WNBA has led social justice efforts in pro sports, it’s also under a microscope for how it markets its own players, and retail is part of that.
The league’s 144 players are at least 80 percent women of color and include a number of LGBTQ athletes, so there are sensitivities about the diversity of available products and who appears in marketing campaigns. Some of the WNBA’s established stars like Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart are White and have earned the attention, and it’s hard to argue that college phenom and 2020 top draft pick Sabrina Ionescu, who is also White, wasn’t worthy of heavy promotion. But the W is filled with talented players of color who supply the league’s lifeblood.
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Alex Azzi, who covers women’s sports for NBC, noted recently that the league’s jersey sales list (from WNBAStore.com) reflected issues both with availability/sizing and with how media coverage of the WNBA reflects racial bias.
“None of this happens in a vacuum, and all of it compounds with time,” Azzi wrote. “Media mentions lead to marketability. Marketability, in turn, likely plays a role in jersey availability and selection, which then leads to jersey sales. Rinse and repeat.”
The top five WNBA jersey sales this season were:
- Sabrina Ionescu
- Sue Bird
- Diana Taurasi
- A’ja Wilson
- Breanna Stewart
Of those five, Taurasi — once nicknamed “White Mamba” by Kobe Bryant — is Latina, and Wilson is Black. Last season, Bird and Taurasi were tops on the list with Candace Parker, who is Black, third. Ionescu, then a New York Liberty rookie but who missed most of the season with an ankle injury, was fourth followed by Maya Moore, who is Black.
Ionescu, whose jersey is for sale on WNBAStore.com and “ready to ship” in adult and youth sizes along with an autographed jersey option, is certainly popular. But some wonder why the jersey of a young popular Black star player like Arike Ogunbowale, the WNBA All-Star MVP and one of the league’s most dynamic scorers, has to be custom-ordered, which often requires a longer delivery process and costs more.
Fans buy jerseys for different reasons, but mainly they buy jerseys of the stars they root for — and what’s available. It’s up to the WNBA — which is heralded for its hiring diversity — along with Nike, and retailers to let consumers know whose jerseys are available.
Engelbert is aware of the criticism but defended the league’s marketing diversity. She noted that Parker is on the cover of an NBA 2K special edition this year. She also said some of the league’s elite players happen to be White.
“I don’t see what other people are seeing, but we’re trying to market our players into household names,” Engelbert said. “I’m very proud of how we’ve marketed our diverse players over the past couple of years.”
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And that also sums up Engelbert’s overall outlook on the WNBA’s effort to strengthen its retail apparel and merchandise sales — work remains to be done.
“We have increased the availability; fans just have to know where to go get it,” she said. “We’re making progress.”
The Athletic‘s Shannon Ryan contributed to this report.
(Top photo: David Becker / Getty Images)