The Woman Effect in Sports' Merch
Women in sports are affecting everything, from viewership to what merch they want to wear and how. Football took time to listen and adapt, what can F1 teams can learn from them and others?
First things first, why do people buy merch or team kits? Because it’s a proof of the connection they have to the community, a way of showing what they like and where they belong. It’s also a way for some fans to experience what it’s like to be a fan even if they can’t attend the actual events. Not everyone can attend a Grand Prix, but getting your hands on a Ferrari cap is accessible to pretty much anyone.
Currently there’s no public numbers of how much the F1 teams are making with their merchandise sales, but we know that it’s growing (the sales of merch grew 101% between 2021 and 20221). I won’t lie and tell you that I think the current teams merch are perfect, I think some teams are doing better than others (looking at you Mercedes), I think some teams are doing better than they used to (ciao la Scuderia) but overall there’s room for improvement. I think the core issue is that the demographics of F1 changed (and is still changing) rapidly and the teams are struggling to understand what their new consumers want to wear and how they want to wear it. There are many lessons to learn from other sports for example football who saw a change in demographics and had to adapt their offers, but there’s also lessons to learn from drivers’ merch or fan-made merch on what the fans are actually interested in, what they want to wear, why and how.
The case of Football jerseys - how team kit became an aesthetic
I think it’s interesting to look at one of the most, if not the most, popular sports on the planet, and see what they are doing. So, is Football merch thriving? Is wearing team kits still “in” even if the sport is incredibly popular and mainstream? The answer is abso-fucking-lutely (pardon my French).
Why? Because the football jerseys became a lifestyle piece and not only a sportswear piece. Fans wear their team jersey not only to attend games and show their loyalty, but as a lifestyle streetwear piece. Football shirts have become an important part of pop culture and sub-culture initiating a fashion trend called Blokecore (initiated by TikToker Brandon Huntley, Blokecore is a clever blend of 1990s British pub culture and the style of the fans in Football stadiums mixing jerseys, joggers, sneakers and fanny packs.) The trend, although not new, became viral on social media in 2024 and we’ve seen more and more celebrities and influencers are wearing football shirts, but also fashion brands (and luxury brands) tapping into this aesthetic (ex: Balenciaga x Adidas, Pacha, Arte, Off-White, Palace x Moschino…).
And where’s fashion, there’s women. The “Blokecore” trend may have a name thanks to a man, but incorporating jerseys in your everyday wear has been growing in popularity thanks to women relaying the trend. But why would women want to wear a piece of clothing that is so “boyish” or showcasing their love for a sport that is more associated with men? Well guess what, women love sports as much as men do! They are more and more vocal about it and one of the ways they have to express their interest is through fashion.
Not only are they interested in sports, but they are also interested in women in sports. The number of British women’s football viewers rose from 11.7 million to 68.6 million (between 2017 and 2019) - also related to a wider accessibility of the games on TV. In 2022, 57.9 million people watched the UEFA European Women's Football Championship. This growth has largely been led by women aged 35 and over, but looking at the new male audiences, younger fans are particularly interested in women's sports.2 Following the Women's World Cup in 2023 and the Olympics, more and more fans asked brands and teams to put the women’s kit on sale to show their support and you can see the growing anticipation around the Women’s Euro Cup this summer with Adidas dropping the teams’ kits. Even though the efforts are here, it’s still not enough: "There was a lack of larger sizes and a lack of men's fit, so there's an assumption that only women want to buy the kit. (…) For any fan, you want to wear the shirt but in women's sport in particular, fans do this for particular reasons - to make a financial contribution because there is a lack of funding and to make a statement and to show clubs there is a demand." - says Dr Keith Parry, head of sport and event management at Bournemouth.3
Maybe wearing a football jersey with a skirt doesn’t seem to be a big deal, but for women it’s a way to make their mark, a way to belong to a male-dominated culture by showing their own take on merch.
All of these recent changes in “consumption” of the jerseys have had a big impact on sales, and teams and sponsors are benefitting from it. “Clubs such as FC Bayern Munich and Real Madrid currently sell around 3 million shirts every year.”4 compared to around 1.2 to 1.6 millions per year from 2011 to 20165. With shirts around 90 euros, we’re talking about roughly 270 million euros of sales, and this is only the “official” jersey sales, imagine the sales of football-inspired jerseys by fashion and luxury brands but also the sales in second-hand circuits.
Outside of traditional jerseys, whether new or thrifted, there’s a few “alternatives” that are getting traction from the Blokecore trend.
Vintage-looking football t-shirts inspired by teams or players like Retro Football Gang. The brand blends perfectly the Y2K nostalgia and football fever and cater to a need that is not covered by official clubs and sponsors: merch about each player.
Artists and creators are taking their own spin on jerseys, like Diana Al Shammari aka thefootballgal who embroiders jerseys turning them into ‘wearable pieces of art’6 or designer Hattie Crowther who turned an England jersey into a corset for Tolami Benson (partner of England player Bukayo Saka) for the Euro final.
One last thing worth mentioning is that, fashion took an interest in football, thanks to many factors, including women. But football is also taking an interest in fashion and is seeing the business opportunities of brand collaborations. Many major clubs or either countries called brands to reinvent their team kit (Real Madrid X Y-3, Juventus X Adidas X Palace or Vicenza Lotto X Diesel)7. They wouldn’t be the first ones, the Olympics last year was a true runway with athletes instead of models with countries partnering with the finest brands and designers to create the most iconic team-wear possible. Italy hired EA7 (an Emporio Armani’s sub-brand), Japan partnered with Asics, France worked with Berlutti, Nigo and Stéphane Ashpool and USA teamed with Ralph Lauren, to name a few.8
A new era of Formula 1, led by women
As you most likely know already, the Netflix effect on Formula 1 has drastically changed their demographics. The sport’s popularity skyrocketed, reaching an audience of 750 million fans in 2024 (approximately +50 million new fans since 2021). The core growth area for fans is coming from women, now representing 41% of the total fan base (up 8% from 2017). With the fastest growing age sector is 16 to 24 years-old women.9
On top of that, following the end of the W series in 2022, the creation of F1 Academy in 2023 under the F1 umbrella finally put women in the spotlight. F1 Academy is as easy (if not easier) to stream than F1 which makes women racing very accessible to watch. Susie Wolff, Executive Director of F1 Academy, has made a priority to make sure women were included and F1 Academy was treated as seriously as Formula 3 or Formula 2. Each Formula 1 team has to support 1 driver and the constructors are the same as in Formula 2. Netflix even signed a “Drive to Survive”-like documentary about F1 Academy coming out on May 28th.
So long grid girls, women are now taking the center stage, they are drivers, they are CEOs, they are fans and they are here to stay.
Even if football is much more popular than F1 (Clubs like FC Bayern Munich as 42M followers on Instagram, Real Madrid has 174M where the top 4 Formula 1 teams only gather between 13 to 18M followers each), racing has already well penetrated the fashion world with many brand collaborations (ex: Rhude x Pirelli, McLaren x Reiss, RedBull Racing x Pepe Jeans…) or fashion brands directly injecting racing codes into their silhouettes (ex: CHANEL Cruise 2023 collection or Dior Fall-Winter RTW 2022).
On top of the official teams’ merch, there’s other product offering coming from various sources that are worth taking a look into:
With the Y2K trend going strong, the second-hand market is thriving, especially for specific pieces like vintage bomber or leather jackets.
The growing number of drivers’ brands or drivers’ merch and the variety of styles they offer. Some of them are quite simple featuring their name and race number (Hi Estie bestie), others include their “catch phrase” or things they are famous for (for example “Liked by Pierre Gasly”) and some are just doing their own thing, creating their own universe (read Lando Norris with Quadrant, Alex Albon with AA23 or Lewis Hamilton with +44).
There’s a HUGE economy of fan-made merch on Etsy and their own website, most of them offer products directly related to a driver (ex: Y2K inspired t-shirts with many photos of Charles Leclerc), but also very specific references like “Enjoy the Butterflies” or “Simply Lovely” - the ultimate “iykyk” pieces that enable fans to recognize each other in the crowd without slapping a gigantic F1 logo on their sweater. Another interesting take-away from fan-made merch is products that are catering to women like hair accessories, corsets made from team kits… Or they offer products inspired by other sports ex: baseball shirts, basketball or American football jerseys…
And on top of the merch alternatives mentioned above, there are many fashion brands that are strongly inspired by motorsport culture like Rhude, Becane, Scuderia, the perfect way to include nods to racing in your everyday wardrobe without rocking a gigantic HP logo on the front of your Ferrari polo. Overall, the products we see from drivers and fans have a more aesthetic and fashionable approach, less logos, trendy colorways and designs. They have the liberty that teams don’t have on designs due to their dozens of sponsors’ logos that have to be visible at all times.
So now what?
The growing number of women’s fan is bringing many business opportunities and if there’s one language that Formula 1 speak it’s money. American women control more than $10 trillion in assets (an amount expected to triple over the next decade)10 and they are expected to control 75% of discretionary spending by 202811 and so it’s time to consider women from the very beginning of the thought and design process around merch.
If we learned anything from football is that sometimes, don’t wait to the demand to be here, just put the offer out there. So if I was Susie Wolf (I wish I was in many, many ways), I would put pressure on the F1 committee to include a few F1 Academy merch in their store and teams to include at least 1 item per F1 Academy driver (currently, no teams offer merch corresponding to their F1 Academy driver).
The F1 teams should take a look at the current competitors for their team’s merch (even coming from within, like their own drivers’ brands), take time to understand what fans like to wear and how they wear it (seriously, just spend 1-hour on TikTok with the search “styling f1 merch” and you’ll get MANY insights) and get to work.
Yes the actual team kits will never drastically change, but they could hire designers, artists or fashion brands to redesign it (and not 3 times a year when the 3 races in the USA roll around). There’s many great examples of this coming from football. They could also invest in artistic directors for their teams but I won’t get into it, I could write a whole article just about this specific topic.
They should develop their lifestyle offer, some teams are doing amazing at it like Hugo x Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, McLaren x Reiss, Ferrari style, Pepe Jeans x Red Bull. Pieces that much easier to wear outside the track, that have the codes of racing and a “iykyk” kind of feel but that everyone would still find appealing (even if they don’t know a thing about racing).
Finally, merch isn’t only about clothing.
There’s many interesting to learn from beauty brands when it comes to merch, they’ve always been very ahead of the trends and made merch cool before it was a thing (think about the Rhode’s iPhone case, the Glossier sweater, the Merit everything bag…). Porsche understood this assignment a long time ago (did my dad buy a Porsche ice-cube tray last year in Monaco? Yes, he did). Adding “entry level” products like accessories (ex: hair accessories, socks…) would also allow more fans to join the community through merch and more opportunities for teams to express themselves.
The sports collectibles industry as a whole has exploded in recent years, with the global market valued at more than $412 billion in 2021 and predictions of reaching $700 billion in 2032.12 The amount of money spent on merch every year makes me wonder why are people (mostly men) still so closed off on the importance of fashion in sports and the business opportunities they represent.
It also makes me wonder why there’s not more studies on fan consumer behaviour, fashion experts on the merchandising and licensing teams and more women overall in key strategic roles in sports teams. Formula 1 or woman football are not an isolated case of growing interest in women’s sports or a growing woman fanbase. There’s numerous examples and the WNBA would be a very interesting case to study as well, and to be honest ALL sports should reassess their offers and see if they are truly catering to women in all aspects, from fan experience to merch, which is often the first physical touchpoint.
This article was an absolute must-read on all the popularity of Football jerseys and this article was incredibly interesting when it comes to women purchasing power and their impact on the economy.
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https://www.nielsen.com/fr/insights/2023/womens-sports-viewership-on-the-rise/
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgrgq55w0lpo
https://sportfive.com/beyond-the-match/insights/the-football-jersey-trend-and-how-sponsors-benefit-from-it
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https://www.esquire.com/uk/style/fashion/a61752686/the-best-dressed-teams-at-the-2024-paris-olympics/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2024/12/03/formula-1-now-sees-750-million-fans-due-to-growth-with-women-and-middle-east-demo/
https://techcrunch.com/2023/05/21/unlocking-the-trillion-dollar-female-economy/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALPrjbScck_S2bKKDwFcf7p8R0ja-bS54LPyOVi6yLwMEhqOC4Qqogm7WyxI074AA0c5O4ETrPqn98GlZe4H_-9tIkPoqehxCzsh-FhXRQVf7Z5pDDUN5iddW1XYUQchftUOKVXeUeSNvZZKqeasr0p0ryKFj-c5G2yWRDt0stox
https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2024/03/07/who-runs-the-world-women-control-85-of-purchases-29-of-stem-roles/
https://www.foxbusiness.com/sports/sports-memorabilia-no-longer-fathers-collectibles