The Group Chat: Welcome to the knitshow
From The GIST (hi@thegistsports.com)
Leveling The Playing Field
While low-rise jeans and bubble-hem dresses make traumatizing comebacks, there is one trend that everyone (and their grandmother) can get behind: knits.
- From homemade blankets to dog sweaters to dreamy festival looks, there’s a stitch for every occasion. And “knitfluencers” are straying from the pattern, injecting creativity and inclusivity into new places and spaces — sports included.
- So grab your needles, give yourself a little slack, and let’s spin a yarn about the history of this year’s hottest craft and its crossover into sports. Welcome to the knitshow.
⏪ The history
Who among us hasn’t seen their bank account take a hit following a merch drop from your favorite team? Well, things weren’t always that way. Replica jerseys and licensing deals are a relatively new phenomenon but, like most things, women had a solution for repping their fandom dating as far back as the early 1900s.
To help loved ones show support for their fave soccer club, women in the United Kingdom started knitting scarves in team colors, giving birth to the granny scarf. These homemade accessories became a fixture in football stands across the UK, serving both fashion and function on cold nights.
- By the ’60s, clubs had caught on to the money-making potential and used manufacturing and textile production to create more elaborate designs.
Dead Dirt x NWSL
Washington Spirit creative director Domo Wells dropped an NWSL capsule collection that will have you adding one of each to cart, no matter which team you support.
Gotta start somewhere
If you need more beginning knitter content in your algorithm, Purl Soho is a great place to start. Bonus points for Free Pattern Sundays.
Fast forward to the present day and that same DIY spirit is thriving. Today’s fiber artists are working in an environment where anything and everything is branded, but their work stands out for both its quality and how it centers the modern sports fan. No “pink it and shrink it” here.
Rysa Ruth is a big name in the space, and for good reason. Ruth was featured in a The Athletic profile on knitting earlier this year after her designs caught the attention of standouts like WNBA veteran Natasha Cloud and UConn star (and friend of The GIST) Azzi Fudd.
- Incredibly fashionable, her pieces also tell an important story of new sports fans wanting to see merchandise that reflects their style. And if they don’t see themselves in existing products? Well, they’ll create their own.
Karla Courtney is another such creator. A devoted Toronto Blue Jays fan, Courtney channeled her World Series runners-up feelings into an enviable baseball sweater collection and a Canada fleece perfect for keeping Shane Hollander warm. Cute and therapeutic.
Learn The Lore
Five-time Olympian British diver Tom Daly most recently won silver at the 2024 Paris Games, but first won our hearts thanks in part to his knitting game. Daly used knitting as a way to cope with stress and anxiety at the 2020 Tokyo Games, inspiring a new generation of Olympic knitters in the process.
- Now retired from diving, Daly is in his knitfluencer era. In 2021, he launched Made With Love by Tom Daly, where he has products, patterns, a podcast and even recreated Ryan Gosling’s iconic fox cardigan from Project Hail Mary. Amaze, amaze, amaze.
While projects go viral on social media, there’s also a major community aspect to knitting as women’s sports bars provide a much-needed space for IRL connection. From Makers Mondays with Seattle’s Rough & Tumble to Knit Club with Wilkas in NYC, more spaces are embracing crafting for both community and mental health.
Studies show that the repetitive action of these tactile crafts can serve as a form of mindfulness to help with anxiety, stress, or depression. The sense of accomplishment and creative outlet can also result in improved cognitive function. Wins all around.
- If knitting can help the aforementioned Daly stay calm while diving off a 10-meter platform — about the height of a three-story building — it can certainly help the rest of us survive a playoff push or simply make new adult friends. Now that’s a thread we’re willing to pull.
Today’s email was brought to you by Rachel Fuenzalida. Editing by Alessandra Puccio. Managing edits by Lauren Tuiskula. Head of content Ellen Hyslop.