As women who happen to appreciate the glory and the excitement that the sports world offers, we often struggle with the lack of options when it comes to women’s sports merchandise.
Quantity and quality are two things that come to mind when talking about products in general. And yes, it is worthy to note that, thankfully, the sports industry has moved beyond the color pink as the standard bearer of all things in terms of marketing toward women. But that said, the industry as a whole still has a long way to go in truly understanding its female fan base.
We’ve had the pleasure(?) of going through some of the merchandise items in MLB and NBA stores for our respective teams. In the browsing process, we’ve noticed the following issues that seemed to be pretty consistent across the board: number and variety of items, lack of sizing choices (especially when it comes to smaller and last but not least, design.
Exhibit #1:
Shirts
NBA – Cleveland Cavaliers
People take not-so-subtle jabs at Cleveland as a city, and this does not make the case any better. It’s just a terrible design all around.
This is a bad example of how to use the team’s colors.
MLB – Chicago Cubs
MLB loves its distressed merchandise. There are too many products to feature here, but this ugly tie-dye design is definitely one of the worst.
It’s so distressed you have to squint to see what it says. And you’re paying $35 for the privilege!
Exhibit #2:
Hats
NBA – Cleveland Cavaliers
Generally speaking, compared to the men’s shop, the hat options are limited. Women wear snapbacks and beanies, too.
MLB – Chicago Cubs
Glitter + obnoxiously large logos = what women want, right?
Exhibit #3:
Other miscellaneous accessories:
NBA – Cleveland Cavaliers
Patterns are great, but there’s just too much going on here.
Hope these are at least comfortable to make up for those studs on the wedges.
MLB – Chicago Cubs
Even if colorblocking was still a trend, this is not the way to go about it.
What exactly is going on here?
Of course, we’ve only highlighted only a few examples to make our points. There were many moments when browsing through the men’s section where we thought, ‘Oh, that’s nice but too bad it’s not in our size.’
To simply put, we want the same things as men do. Jerseys are a great example in that they are basically the same when it comes to the design with just different fits for men and women respectively. The same can apply to other items. Now that’s something to consider from a merchandising point of view.
We, women, are just as enthusiastic about our teams and go out of our way to cheer for them. In short, we are here loud and proud, so hear us out!