For the first time ever, the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will feature an equal number of female and male athletes, which is expected to increase fan interest and opportunities for women and girls to participate in sports. In recent years, women’s professional sports fandom and women’s participation in athletics have been on the rise, leading to opportunities for sportswear brands to appeal to women’s sports fans and female athletes alike through sponsorships, product launches and event activations.
Women’s sports fandom: Attendance and viewership up across leagues
From a fan side, women’s sports have seen impressive growth recently, with both women and men becoming more interested in women’s athletics, in live attendance and television viewership.
The Women’s Tennis Association, a global competition, saw average attendance in 2023 up by 40% over 2019. In Europe, the Women’s Super League in the UK and the Frauen-Bundesliga in Germany saw average attendance grow by a staggering 454% and 227%, respectively, over the last five years.
Source: Euromonitor International
In the US, the 2024 Women’s NCAA Basketball championship topped the men’s final viewership for the first time with 18.9 million viewers, an 89% increase year over year. Much viewership growth across the tournament was driven by the star power of key athletes in the tournament, like Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark. Star athletes like these propel the women’s game and draw the attention of major brands looking to get in on their marketing power and wide audience.
Women’s sports and female athletes: Key opportunity for apparel brands
Equipment sponsorships play a large part in increasing visibility with Nike and adidas dominating the field. Across some of the top women’s leagues in the world, the Women’s Super League, the LPGA, the Frauen-Bundesliga, the NWSL, the Women’s Champion’s League, the WNBA and the WTA, adidas had 19 sponsorship deals and Nike had 43. The next closest competitor, Puma, had just five. Across the above-listed leagues, the WTA and LPGA dominate in terms of the number of deals and are experiencing substantial growth, but apparel lies outside the top five categories for both leagues.
Apparel and footwear is in the top five sponsorship categories for five of the seven above-listed leagues, but there is still room for growth as the category falls in 10th overall across the leagues
Source: Euromonitor International
The opportunity in this space can help brands reach a new and engaged audience of women’s sports fans and attract these consumers through their communication of shared values and capitalising on the celebrity of female athletes.
Driving growth opportunities in women's sportswear is the increasing visibility of female athletes across a wide range of sports. The professionalisation of and investment in women’s sports has shown established sportswear brands (such as Nike and adidas) and challenger sportswear brands (such as On and Hoka) leveraging investment opportunities in women-focused sportswear. Tailoring sportswear offerings to align with women’s health and designing products around women’s bodies for female athletes, on both professional and amateur levels, are pivotal in remaining relevant in the evolving sportswear market. 
Sportswear continues to be a growth engine in the wider fashion industry
In current terms, global sportswear is forecast to grow by 6.4% in 2024, compared with 5.6% for the wider apparel and footwear market. Sportswear sales were estimated at USD396 billion in 2023 and continue to outpace broader apparel and footwear growth.
Source: Euromonitor International
The focus on women’s health and the visibility the Olympic Games brings to sportswear cements the importance of leveraging opportunities to impact brand affinity and sales. For example, LVMH’s partnership with the Paris Olympics as the largest conglomerate in the luxury space and the leading premium partner of the games underscores the value of endorsing sports and athletes. It is a move that will be revered and replicated by other companies across demographics and price points to reap as many benefits as possible during a time of increased attention to the sports world. The synergies between the fashion and sports spaces are vital to the growth of the apparel market on a global scale, especially in a turbulent year like 2024.
Read our article, Why Brands are Seeing Value in Women's Football Sponsorship, for more analysis on women’s sports sponsorship and learn more about the apparel industry and the trends and opportunities in sportswear and womenswear in our briefings, World Market for Apparel and Footwear and Competitor Strategies in Apparel and Footwear.