On the ball

The GIST: SoCal jewelry brand Gorjana launched Gorjana Sports Club today, a unique platform spotlighting prominent pro and collegiate women athletes who have curated edits for the brand. As fashion and beauty retailers engage with women’s sports, Gorjana’s platform recognizes the power women’s sports stars have as cultural influencers. A new kind of signature athlete.

The details: Headlined by LA Sparks forward Cameron Brink and WTA star Jessica Pegula, the inaugural Gorjana Sports Club roster also includes athletes from the NWSL, PVF, NCAA volleyball and basketball, and the USWNTPA.

• This isn’t Gorjana’s first rodeo in sports: The brand first partnered with Pegula in 2023, then Brink in 2024. And this April, Gorjana signed a deal with the USWNTPA to become its official jewelry partner and tapped specific players — Ally Sentnor, Sam Coffey, and Gisele Thompson — to promote its jewelry.

The space: Jewelry brands are increasingly working on sports marketing, but there’s been an emphasis on pro male athletes and football fandom. Kendra Scott has especially leaned into the industry with sport-specific charms, a college gameday line, a 2024 partnership with the New York Giants, and a new partnership with the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders.

The context: Women athletes have lent a hand in product creation as signature athletes, but it’s often been in athletic apparel deals, not jewelry ones. WNBA stars A’ja Wilson, Angel Reese, and Sabrina Ionescu have all launched signature lines, while Adidas just dropped a women-forward soccer cleat influenced by soccer star Trinity Rodman.

• We have seen tennis athletes (and retired golfers) represent jewelry brands and even launch their own lines, which makes sense considering the traditionally affluent crowd these sports draw. However, jewelry brands haven’t been known to target women athletes in team sports the same way, especially with a multi-sport and multi-athlete approach.

The takeaway: Gen Z consumers gravitate toward celebrity-focused branding in the beauty and lifestyle space. With Gen Z sports icons like Brink having an increased impact on culture, it makes sense to work with her to capitalize on the sports and lifestyle overlap we’re seeing in pop culture.

• But let’s not ignore Gorjana’s other areas of focus: Soccer, tennis, volleyball, and NCAA sports. Like Kendra Scott with its sports charms — soccer, tennis, and volleyball are all on the rise among U.S. girls — the jewelry space seems tuned into where the next generation of athletes are coming from. Shine bright.

The GIST: Last week, ForSoccer highlighted data from a recent YouGov dataset on the marketing potential of soccer fans that play video games. The insights illustrate how these avid fans are savvy and uniquely receptive to brands active in the space — something to consider as new titles like Rematch gain popularity. We got this.

🎮 Many active gamers are here for sports, especially soccer. Among those who have bought or played video games in the last six months, 28% consider sports their preferred gaming genre compared to the 10% national average. Among this gaming audience, 17% considers soccer a core sport they follow compared to 9% nationally.

⚽ Soccer fans are primed to pick up the controller. They’re more likely to be avid gamers than the general population: 53% of them have played video games in the last six months compared to 44% nationally, and 44% of footy fans bought at least one video game in that period compared to 35% overall.

🚀 The overlap between soccer fans and gamers should be a core audience for marketers. There’s an estimated audience of 8.1M that checks off all the boxes above: People who play and purchase games, consider soccer a core sport, and prefer sports video games.

• This audience skews younger, more male, more diverse, and wealthier than the general population: 89% are Gen Z or millennials, and there are higher percentages of Black and Hispanic gamers relative to the general population. This aligns with ForSoccer’s 2024 data on soccer’s diversifying fandom.

• Among these hyper-invested soccer fans, 62% view brands that sponsor their leagues and teams more favorably compared to 23% nationally. That’s a 170% boost in brand favorability, making it arguably one of the most primed audiences in sports marketing. The pitch sells itself.