Fenty Beauty enters NY Liberty sponsorship as celeb entrepreneurs turn to women’s sports

The GIST: On Wednesday, the NY Liberty announced a partnership with Rihanna’s billion-dollar Fenty Beauty empire. The collab is the latest example of a popular, celeb-driven brand carefully curating its sports sponsorships, namely by working with teams and athletes that have prestige and influence. A glam dunk.

The partnership: In Fenty Beauty’s first official WNBA team partnership, the brand will display its logo across Liberty players’ warm-up jackets and shooting shirts. Fans will experience in-arena engagements such as product drops, and popular team mascot Ellie the Elephant will sport Fenty gameday items.

• Although it’s the brand's first foray into WNBA team sponsorships, it’s not its first partnership in women’s sports: Fenty had a presence at the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics and last year’s WNBA All-Star Weekend.

The why: It doesn’t hurt that the Liberty are the reigning WNBA champs, but the team’s popularity among sponsors has been a long time coming. NY is the U.S.’s biggest sports market, with Rihanna noting there’s “no energy and spirit like New York City’s.” Plus, trendy beauty and luxury brands have been drawn to the Liberty before, like Off-White, NYX Cosmetics, and nailcare brand Essie.

• After years of mismanagement, the Liberty has steadily been building toward this moment through intentional investment from owners Joe and Clara Wu Tsai. The team currently ranks third among team valuations at $130M, and that was before winning a chip.

The context: Celebs with buzzworthy brands are beginning to look toward women’s sports to promote their products to a loyal audience with a high number of women fans. Last month, Kendall Jenner’s 818 Tequila brand partnered with NASCAR driver Toni Breidinger, who boasts the most top-ten finishes among women drivers and is the sport’s most-followed athlete at 5M.

Zooming out: Celeb influencers like Rihanna and Jenner know all about winning over fans, so if reaching women’s sports fans is part of their strategy, it further proves the importance of activating in this space. As viewership and engagement increases each season, positive brand sentiment for women’s sports sponsors will also continue to run high. Makin’ it work, work, work.