Grit, goals and glam: How beauty brands are making up for lost time and tapping into women's sports

New York Times

17 hours ago

For many, the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was defined by U.S. women's national team forward Megan Rapinoe's pink hair. For me, it was Marta's red lipstick – a visual microphone for the Brazilian's impassioned pleas for more support for the team.
The moment the six-time FIFA best player of the year stepped onto the pitch against Italy with those bold red lips was still a rare visual of an elite soccer player expressing herself with beauty products on the field.
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When I was a little girl playing volleyball competitively, makeup was frowned upon, rooted in outdated ideas of how female athletes were supposed to look: strong, but not too strong; feminine, but not so feminine that they'd dare show up in lipstick. For decades in Brazil, soccer was considered unsuitable for women and was banned by law. It took until the 1980s for women to be allowed to formally play the sport in the country. And now the nation will host South America's first Women's World Cup in 2027.
'I always wear lipstick. Not that color, but today I said, 'I'm going to dare,'' Marta said after the 2019 game. 'The color is of blood because we had to leave blood on the pitch. Now I'm going to use it in every game.'
Seeing Marta embrace an element of femininity and turn it into a battle cry was not just symbolic, it was marketable. Brazil later lost to host France in the round of 16, but Marta's makeup sponsor, Avon, won big time.
Marta had a partnership with the British cosmetics brand in 2019, and her lipstick moment at the World Cup sparked an unexpected media frenzy. The timing aligned well with Avon's launch of Power Stay, a new lipstick lasting 16 hours. According to Brazilian advertising executive Miguel Ferreira, who wrote about the moment on his Substack in 2021, Marta's lipstick led to a 2,000 percent spike in Avon store visits, a 585.9 percent increase in searches for 'Avon lipstick,' 7.3 million Brazilian reais (roughly $1.36 million) in earned media, and over 1 million units of Power Stay lipstick sold. Avon did not respond to The Athletic's request to confirm these numbers.
Despite the success, beauty brands failed to seize the momentum sparked by Marta and Avon.
It would take four more years for the tipping point to come when women's sports exploded commercially and culturally (record crowds, prime-time coverage, and the amplified visibility of social media), with more athletes glamming up before stepping onto the pitch. From a business standpoint, most beauty brands are still leaving a lucrative white space wide open. Genius Sports' Sports Intelligence Unit found that roughly 67 percent of women's sports fans actively support brands that back their favorite teams or athletes.
'The business opportunity is hiding in plain sight. Almost 50 percent of the global population is sports fans. Sixty-six percent of Americans are sports fans. Over 50 percent of U.S. women over 13 follow sports,' Kory Marchisotto, CMO of e.l.f. Beauty told The Athletic.
e.l.f. Beauty, NWSL's first beauty partner, is one of the companies that made a bold entrance into the sports world in 2023, with a Super Bowl advertisement, a first for a beauty brand, filling a white space in sports and signaling the brand's intention to disrupt the status quo. That move was followed by a partnership with NASCAR driver Katherine Legge, into high-octane territory. And earlier this year, the brand took its biggest step yet by becoming the first official makeup and skincare partner of the NWSL in March and the presenting partner of the NWSL Challenge Cup through 2027. They are already seeing significant growth in their business and engagement with women through sports.
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'In the few months of our partnership with the NWSL – the world's fastest growing sports league – we have connected with 3 million fans across 29 games,' she said.
Last week, the beauty company added NWSL's Melanie Barcenas, Abby Dahlkemper, Lo'eau LaBonta, and Jaedyn Shaw to their talent roster to create content mutually beneficial to embrace their on-pitch success and their love for beauty.
A post shared by e.l.f. Cosmetics and Skincare (@elfcosmetics)
'We're seeing a real shift in how players are showing up and how fans are connecting with them. Athletes today don't have to choose between being elite and being expressive. They're bringing their full selves to the sport and fans want that,' Matt Soloff, NWSL's senior vice president of partnerships and business development, told The Athletic.
'e.l.f. saw something a while ago that others are just starting to realize: women's sports are not a trend or a test. Athletes in our league are already brand builders. The spotlight is finally catching up,' Soloff said. 'The brands that are in now are doing more than advertising. They're building alongside us and unlocking long-term value. Sitting out at this moment means missing something big.'
While e.l.f. is the first beauty brand to break into women's soccer, the basketball court has already seen its share of glam. Glossier made history in 2020 as the WNBA's first official beauty partner, paving the way for a wave of partnerships — Fenty Beauty with the New York Liberty, CoverGirl with the Chicago Sky, and Urban Decay with the Los Angeles Sparks. The momentum carried into this year, when French beauty giant Sephora signed a multiyear deal with Unrivaled, the new 3×3 league founded by WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, ahead of its inaugural season.
'WNBA players like Lisa Leslie and Tina Thompson were wearing their iconic red lipstick during the earliest days of the league, and women's basketball players have always been influencers across sport, culture, fashion, beauty, and much more,' Kirby Porter, Unrivaled's chief brand officer, told The Athletic. The partnership between Sephora and Unrivaled has resulted in strong media value and social engagement, Porter said, especially for content featuring pregame fit checks and tunnel walks. 'The connection might not have always been obvious, but brands in general are now seeing the ROI (return on investment) of investing in women's sports.'
A post shared by Unrivaled Basketball (@unrivaledbasketball)
That growing recognition of cultural influence is fueling a shift; beauty brands are no longer asking if they should be in women's sports, but how quickly they can get in.
'Beauty brands are not too late, but the time to move is now,' said Natalie McKeogh, a trend forecaster and color designer at Nike who also started a venture called Sporting Beauty FC dedicated to bridging the beauty industry with sports. 'As long as partnerships are done with authenticity and a real understanding of the athletes and their relationship with beauty, there's still so much room for meaningful impact.'
NYX, a subsidiary of L'Oréal, has sponsorship deals with WNBA's New York Liberty and a multi-year partnership with Angel City FC since 2024. They recently ran a 'Make Them Look' campaign with Angel City's Alyssa and Gisele Thompson.
'Generally, there's a growing momentum behind women's sports. That meant bigger audiences and more fans getting to know more women athletes, both on and off the field,' the Thompson sisters told The Athletic via email. 'As that happens, (beauty brands) know and appreciate that we're more than athletes and have other passions and interests, including how we dress, how and when we use makeup, etc. So it makes sense that beauty brands would align with that.'
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Alyssa, 20, and Gisele, 19, love makeup but keep it minimal on game days: usually just brow glue and lip gloss to help them look and feel sharp on the field. They're too young to remember Marta's red-lip moment in 2019 as vividly as I do, but whether it's pink hair, crimson lipstick, or any other form of beauty on the pitch, they're carrying forward the same message: self-expression is power.
'We hope everyone has the space to be and express themselves,' they said. 'For some players, that will mean wearing more makeup on the field to feel their best and play their best. Hopefully, we see more of that.'
If the game is truly for everyone, then it can make room for all of it. The grit, the goals, and yes, the glam.
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