Shrink It and Pink It

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Sports fandoms are a powerful cultural force. They unite people across generations and cultures, fuel billion-dollar industries, and create lifelong loyalties. However, according to researchers, when it comes to traditionally male-dominated sports like the NHL, NFL, and soccer there is a lack of quality, thoughtfully designed merchandise for women. This isn’t just an issue of choice — it reflects the deep-rooted sexism that continues to plague the male dominated sports industry. 

As a sports fan, I love watching my team play and being able to showcase my love for my team through fashion. It’s not enough to just wear the jersey on game day, I want to be able to represent my team wherever I want and the way to do that is through fan merchandise. Unfortunately, scrolling through the NFL, NHL and even the Liverpool website leaves me feeling very frustrated. Everything is either too tight, pink, or has sparkles and rhinestones which is not what I’m looking for, and I can’t shop at the men’s section because everything there is too baggy for me and doesn’t fit the way I want it to. The unisex section also doesn’t work since the fit is still catered towards men.

I’m not the only one who feels this way. “Who decided that women’s clothing had to be bedazzled because I can tell you right now that’s not what I want,” said Verona Nashed, a “die-hard” Buffalo Bills fan. Nashed added that merchandise showcased in the official NFL website for women is “just crazy and it demands a change.”

According to Statista , 33.7 per cent of fans in the NHL are women. Yet, when it comes to official merchandise, their options remain limited.

The history of women’s clothing

Research shows that most women’s sports apparel falls into one of three categories, shrunken, bedazzled, or non-existent. Men have access to a wide range of  jerseys, authentic game-day apparel, and streetwear-inspired team gear, while women are often left with alternatives that bear little resemblance to the official team merchandise. 

The colour pink is a controversial colour in terms of fan merchandise. In a study to see how women felt about CFL fashion, researchers Katherine Sveinson, Larena Hoeber and Kim Toffoletti found that 12 out of the 16 participants had a “definite dislike” for the colour pink. Participants in the study said that the colour was not an official colour of their teams so why would they wear it. In the report the authors highlighted that a “majority of participants’ rejection of pink in this context can be understood as a contestation of a corporatized version of the woman sport fan that does not account for alternative expressions of femininity.”

In an interview, Sveinson, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst said, “I do think that it comes down to this idea of sports being made by and for white heterosexual men …. So there’s this real weird dynamic about being a woman and a fan that’s like you know you’re supposed to look and be authentic and wear this and do this. But if we Google it, here are these very attractive women as fans who are super feminine, but that’s okay because they’re being women. So I think when it comes to the pink part it’s because that colour is really a symbol associated with women and it’s all socially constructed. There’s nothing blue is not masculine and pink is not feminine, we just make this up.”

Research shows that before the 20th century, the colour pink was regarded as a gender-neutral colour and was even seen as a “symbol of class and luxury” by the French in the 18th century. However, during the 20th century the colour became a symbol of womanhood and femininity which is why people today see it as such. 

Sveinson and her research partners found that  all 16 women in their study identified the effects that women’s sports apparel had on them as fans even though they were not explicitly asked to talk about it. They didn’t like the “style and fit” options for women, and most of them strongly disliked the “overly feminine” clothes. One participant named Emma said, “I haven’t checked out too much of the women’s section because it typically ends up going more towards the trendy things – like they have bling on it.” The study also found that some of the women would buy clothing from the mens or children’s section because the women’s shirts were not fitted properly.

The problem with buying men’s clothing is that there is a vast difference between creating clothing that is tailored to women and clothing that is tailored to men. The sizing of clothing differs in a variety of ways including fit, cut, and measurement units.

Manaal Kahnn is a fashion designer for FOUND, an everyday menswear brand, and is currently helping them create a women’s section. When it comes to creating women’s wear, the clothing tends to be “a lot more tailored to the body, their shoulders are narrower, their chests vary, and their waists are narrower,” she said.

Not enough demand or being left out

The excuse that sports leagues and apparel manufacturers have been using is that there isn’t enough demand. Hoeber, a professor at the University of Regina, says demand isn’t the issue, supply is. Hoeber says that there’s an assumption that women are secondary fans who don’t deserve the same level of investment. But when leagues and brands make high-quality, women-specific designs available they will sell out.

However, researchers say the lack of good female merchandise isn’t just an economic oversight, it’s an extension of the broader sexism which is embedded in sports culture. There is a persistent belief that women’s interest in sports is somehow less legitimate than men’s. Oftentimes people think that women are merely tagging along with boyfriends, husbands, brothers, or fathers rather than being dedicated fans. This outdated mindset is a direct reflection of how merchandisers cater to female fans, treating them as an afterthought rather than a core demographic which they can profit from. 

Sveinson said, “To me, I think recognizing, appreciating and valuing women consumers is offering them what they want and offering them clothing that allows them to identify with their team in the ways that they want. Not just here are your options, 15 variations of a V-neck.”

While men’s sports still have a long way to go when it comes to creating merchandise for women, recently, thanks to the voice of many women on social media, brands like Nike and Adidas have started offering better fitting jerseys for women who are soccer fans. The NFL and NHL have also partnered with Erin Andrews and lululemon to create everyday fan merchandise for women.   

Hoeber said, “The challenge has to be to make the argument to the NBA, MLB all of them that the women’s market is big and there’s going to be money in it … but I’m not sure that they’re convinced of that yet.” The NFL, NHL, MLB and NBA were asked to comment on their clothing products for women, but did not respond.

It’s time for leagues, teams, and brands to recognize female fans as a core demographic and offer them the same quality, variety and respect that male fans have enjoyed for decades. Anything less is not just a missed business opportunity, it’s also a failure to acknowledge true diversity in the world of sport.