Women's cleat-maker partners with top-tier USL Super League
NEW YORK (AP) — The players union for the USL Super League has partnered with women's soccer footwear company IDA Sports to provide its cleats to all of the league's athletes.
Texas-based IDA Sports is the only company devoted solely to soccer footwear specifically engineered for women, based on biomechanical needs.
Advertisement
The partnership with the USLPA was announced on Thursday. All interested players in the USL Super League will receive IDA Sports Rise Elite cleats for game day. The players will also provide feedback that will help the company with future designs.
The eight-team USL Super League is currently in its first season. The pro league sits at the top of the women's soccer pyramid in the United States.
'Like the USL Players Association, IDA's number one priority has always been to support and provide the best resources to women athletes," IDA Sports co-founder Laura Youngson said in a statement. "We are thrilled to expand our network to include the talented players of the USL Super League, who are changing the landscape of the women's game in the United States, something we at IDA focus on every day.'
IDA Sports partnered with the National Women's Soccer League Players Association for the release of its Rise Icon cleat that celebrated Women's History Month. A portion of the sales went to the NWSLPA.
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Zaltos, Mantzouranis go 1-2 in hammer to help Minnesota take lead in NCAA track championships
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Kostas Zaltos won the NCAA hammer throw and fellow Greek thrower Angelos Mantzouranis was second to help Minnesota take the Day 1 lead at the outdoor track and field championships Wednesday. Zaltos and Mantzouranis are the first teammates to go 1-2 in the NCAA hammer throw since Virginia Tech did it in 2011. Zaltos won with a throw of 256 feet, 2 inches in the fourth round to become the first Minnesota outdoor champion since 2018 and just the third since 1971. Mantzouranis, who finished third as a freshman last year, had a personal-best 252-6. Advertisement New Mexico also went 1-2 in the 10,000 meters when freshman Ishmael Kipkurui beat defending champion Habtom Samuel with a time of 29 minutes, 7.70 seconds. Last year, Samuel became the first male in school history to win an NCAA outdoor 5,000 or 10,000 title. Minnesota sits atop the team standings with 23 points, with New Mexico and Florida tied for second at 18. Jason Swarens of Wisconsin landed a personal-best 69-8 on his final toss to win the shot put and deny Tarik Robinson-O'Hagan his fourth straight NCAA title. Swarens became the first Badger male to win a national title in the shot put and the first male thrower to win a NCAA title since Michael Lihrman won consecutive indoor weight throw titles in 2014 and '15. Aleksandr Solovev broke his own school record with a clearance of 18-11 1/2 to become the pole vault champion for Texas A&M. Advertisement Florida senior Malcolm Clemons jumped a 26-4 1/2 on his first attempt and held on to win his first national title in the long jump. Miami's Devoux Deysel won the javelin with a throw of 268-2. The men's events continue Friday at Hayward Field. ___ AP sports:
New York Times
36 minutes ago
- New York Times
A Christian Walker turnaround can change Astros' trade deadline priorities
HOUSTON — An answer to the Houston Astros' most apparent need is already in their clubhouse. He switched lockers some time last month, hoping to harness a sliver of luck amid an otherwise subpar season. Christian Walker went 8-for-42 across his next 12 games, negating whatever nirvana the superstition may have spurred. He averaged at least a 96.5 exit velocity during eight of those 12 contests, continuing a confluence of poor luck and putrid results. Advertisement 'Sometimes it can get really frustrating when you don't get your hits,' manager Joe Espada said. 'You see other players (get) end-of-the-bat knocks, and they get lucky on some of these balls. You as a hitter, you're like, 'Man, I'm doing everything I can to put the barrel on the ball and they're not falling for me.'' Few aspects of Walker's horrific start have been more frustrating. Stretches of three or four games have offered hope for a turnaround, only for the subsequent seven or eight to erase all momentum. For instance, he had a three-RBI game on May 11, only to follow it with a 5-for-47 funk. So, assign proper perspective to Walker's first four-RBI game as an Astro on Wednesday night. The beleaguered first baseman broke out of a brutal slump in a season full of them, spearheading a 10-2 shellacking of the Chicago White Sox with his first three-hit game since May 25. ALL-STAR SMASH.#VoteWalker ⭐️ — Houston Astros (@astros) June 12, 2025 Walker's performance raised his OPS to .653. He hasn't had a higher one since that aforementioned outburst on May 11. The anemia that followed is the story of Walker's season. Whether he can avoid it is the Astros' most pertinent question. Parlaying a performance like Wednesday into something more sustainable would crystallize the club's focus toward the July 31 trade deadline. A left-handed hitter and starting pitcher sit atop the Astros' wish list, but any prolonged success from Walker may alter their priorities. The development would lessen Houston's urgency to address a lineup still missing Yordan Alvarez, its most potent left-handed threat. Alvarez's return — whenever it arrives — already represents a pseudo-deadline acquisition, but pairing him with a well-performing Walker would be a permutation Houston hasn't yet seen this season. Advertisement 'The nature of the at-bats — taking good pitches, swinging at good pitches — I feel good,' Walker said. 'I'm happy with how competitive I feel in the box right now.' Walker still awoke Wednesday with a .623 OPS. Of the 17 qualified major-league hitters with a lower one, only Michael Harris III and Willy Adames had taken more plate appearances. Of the 27 players worth fewer wins above replacement, just Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez had played more than Walker. Like Perez, Walker has salary, service time and status as a respected veteran that afford an almost endless runway to correct whatever ails him. Houston's lack of other options only widens it. Walker will start at first base and slot somewhere in the middle of the Astros' order regardless of what the club does during the trade deadline. Espada slid Walker to the five-hole before the series opener against the White Sox on Tuesday. In 147 plate appearances as the cleanup hitter, Walker slugged .296. 'It's trusting the process and having the confidence that, at some point, this is going to turn,' Espada said. 'He knows this tide will turn for him.' Finding better fortune is a factor, but Walker still boasts his highest chase rate, whiff rate and strikeout rate of the past four seasons. He entered Monday with a .208 batting average and, according to Statcast, a .243 expected batting average. Forty-three of Walker's 74 strikeouts have come with a runner on base, problematic for an offense that has scored the sport's seventh-fewest runs. Whether a wholesale turnaround from Walker and full health from Alvarez will fix that is what general manager Dana Brown must ponder over the next seven weeks. Even if both of those circumstances come to pass, a left-handed bench bat or outfield platoon partner would be beneficial for an imbalanced roster. Either would profile as cheaper for an Astros team short on tradeable assets. Focusing the few they have on fortifying a pitching staff staggered by injuries is another byproduct of Walker's potential renaissance. Advertisement Gauging whether one is looming is difficult. Hammering a hanging slider for a two-run home run during Wednesday's first inning ignited the dugout, but it should be standard for someone of Walker's caliber. A more telling sequence came two frames later. Four-seam fastballs have flummoxed the first baseman all season, strange for a player who produced a run value of nine against the pitch last year, according to Baseball Savant. Walker entered Wednesday with a minus-1 run value against the pitch. His .203 batting average against them was 43 points lower than last season and 79 away from the career-best mark he established in 2023. Opponents are aware and attempting to seize advantage. During the third inning, White Sox starter Sean Burke believed he did. Walker waved through one of his elevated four-seamers to even the count at 1. 'It's something we're working on for sure, but it's hard to plan for that,' Walker said. 'You start looking at the top and you get your hanger and you miss it because you're looking for something else.' Drivin' in the runs. #VoteWalker ⭐️ — Houston Astros (@astros) June 12, 2025 Part of Walker's work to remedy the problem involves 'maybe daring guys to go up there,' reasoning that 'if they miss a spot two inches, three inches lower, now we're talking about a ball that can get hit 107, 108 (mph).' Burke did. The 1-1 four-seamer he threw grazed the top rail of Walker's strike zone. He struck it 106 mph into the left-center field gap. Two runs came home. 'It felt good to turn that around,' Walker said.
Yahoo
37 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Private market push in focus as BlackRock hosts investor day
By Davide Barbuscia NEW YORK (Reuters) -BlackRock will hold an investor day on Thursday that is expected to provide insight into the asset management firm's strategic priorities and its growing focus on private markets. The world's largest asset manager, overseeing $11.58 trillion as of the end of the first quarter, last year expanded its presence in private markets through a series of acquisitions that BlackRock's boss Larry Fink said were transformational for the New York-based firm. BlackRock spent about $25 billion in 2024 on infrastructure investment fund Global Infrastructure Partners and private credit business HPS Investment Partners. It also struck a $3.2 billion deal to acquire UK data provider Preqin. That acquisition officially closed in March this year. "I think investors are going to want more granular details and more color on BlackRock's strategy to increase exposure to alternative assets," said Cathy Seifert, an analyst at CFRA Research who covers BlackRock. BlackRock declined to comment on the focus of its investor day. Private assets generate significantly higher fees than exchange-traded funds (ETFs), a core part of BlackRock's business through its iShares franchise. In his 2025 annual chairman's letter to shareholders, BlackRock's Chairman and CEO Fink said protectionism had returned with force as a result of a wealth divide that could be countered by offering more investors access to high-return private markets such as infrastructure and private credit. Ben Budish, an analyst at Barclays, said he expected updates from the company on potentially creating indexes based on private markets after the acquisition of private markets data provider Preqin. "Looking at what BlackRock did with iShares and ETFs, is there a way to do that with private markets? … I'm sure there's more details to come on that," he said. Private credit, where non-bank institutions lend to companies, has experienced significant growth in recent years due to stricter regulations that have increased the cost for traditional banks to fund higher-risk loans. But broader market volatility caused by U.S. President Donald Trump's aggressive stance on tariffs has led to slower dealmaking in private markets in general, raising some concerns there may be a mismatch between money available for private lending and not enough places to invest it. Investors may also look for any signs regarding succession at the firm. Fink, 72, has led BlackRock since co-founding it in 1988. A recent wave of senior executive departures has reignited speculation about his eventual successor, even as Fink has signaled no immediate plan to step down. "The firm would do itself a favor by highlighting the depth and breadth of their management bench, particularly since the company's business model is expanding and potentially becoming more complex," said Seifert.
