The last several years have given rise to a crop of new mission-driven apparel companies, launched by current and former athletes, that serve as sports licensees. The collaborative merchandise helps spread the word about the shared goals of the partners to support and promote social justice, diversity, equal rights for all, empowerment, and positive change. Examples include:
- Playa Society, founded by artist, entrepreneur, and former collegiate basketball player Esther Wallace. It creates message-driven drops of unique hand-drawn logoed and player-identified t-shirts focused on promoting women and diversity in sports. It offers products under the Playa Society brand as well as with partners including the WNBA, National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), NCAA, and Athletes United, and has become popular with female and some male athletes across different pro sports. Its t-shirt with Athletes Unlimited, the social justice-minded governing body for women’s professional sports leagues in softball, basketball, lacrosse, and volleyball, is illustrative: Playa Society and AU collaborated on t-shirts featuring a primary message of “End Racism. Demand Justice.,” along with a list of six calls to action. Proceeds benefit the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
- FISLL, named for its five fundamental pillars of faith, integrity, sacrifice, leadership, and legacy and founded by former NBA player Allan Houston. The company exists to promote leadership, intentionality, and personal growth among kids and adults, through programs, platforms, and products. It has created licensed merchandise for the NBA (for men’s and women’s apparel); the WNBA and WNBA Players Association; and some colleges, including historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). It also produces non-licensed offerings such as its Black History Collection. Its premium products, which include flight jackets, sweatshirts in various styles, and letter sweaters, are manufactured in Africa.
- TOGETHXR, a media and commerce company founded by former NWSL soccer player Alex Morgan, skateboarder Chloe Kim, swimmer Simone Manuel, and former WNBA athlete Sue Bird. Its stated mission is to support equal rights, coverage, and investment in women’s sports; to showcase and support women of all ages, races, and backgrounds and remind the world they are all exceptional; and to build a welcoming home for every woman. It produces t-shirts and totes, including collaborative items with sports properties like the WNBA’s new Golden State Valkyries team, as well as artists such as Mellány Sánchez and Sophia Chang, who produce women’s sports-themed designs for the brand. The partnership with the Valkyries includes storytelling to challenge stereotypes and events to engage the community and raise awareness, in addition to t-shirts.
- Re-Inc, founded by soccer players Megan Rapinoe, Tobin Heath, Meghan Klingenberg, and Christen Press. It strives, it says, to inspire people to boldly reimagine the world and effect positive change, by offering eco-conscious fashion and other goods for all gender identities and body types. Its partnerships in the sports world have included the Angel City Football Club of the NWSL for a limited-edition “New Everyone Club” apparel collection of t-shirts, shorts, and socks, available through the Klarna app, with 10% of proceeds donated to the Downtown Women’s Center. It also paired in 2023 with the U.S. Women’s National Team, for which all four founders played, for a bandana, as part of a five-brand apparel and accessories collaboration in the months leading up to the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
- Actively Black, an apparel company and lifestyle brand launched by former college and NBA basketball player Lanny Smith to represent and uplift the Black community. The company, whose apparel is manufactured in Africa as well as Asia, has been part of several sports partnerships, including with the Bobsled and Skeleton Federation of Nigeria; Team Nigeria for the 2024 Paris Olympics; collegiate athletes, including from HBCUs, through NIL deals; and the Houston Rockets of the NBA. It has also done many non-sports collaborations, with everyone from Marvel to Mielle Organics.
Note that many of the products and partnerships in this space focus on women’s sports or men’s basketball, although they extend beyond that. Both of these sectors of the sports industry have been more willing to promote social justice issues than many other leagues, teams, and governing bodies, especially since the killing of George Floyd in 2020.
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