From court to carpet: WNBA players are making moves

The 2025 WNBA playoffs are here, and one Atlanta Dream guard is making plays on the court and the carpet.

Allisha Gray is having a record-breaking season in the WNBA. Her rebounds, assists, and shooting percentage are all up from the 2024 season. Gray is also hitting a career high, averaging 18.4 points this season and is in the MVP conversation. 

She also became the only guard in WNBA history to win player of the month three times in a single season this year. 

Gray is one of many WNBA players tapping into the world of fashion and basketball. 

Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese was the first professional basketball player to model solo for a Vogue cover. The “Bayou Barbie” is leading the charge in styling high fashion for tunnel walks, turning arena entrances into runways.

Fashion is making its mark on the court as well. Signature player-edition shoes, leg and arm sleeves, and hair are all a part of WNBA fashion. 

The growth of fashion within the league is part of a larger movement between sports, fashion, and increased viewership of women’s basketball.

During the 2024 season, the WNBA set a new single-game attendance record of 20,711 and became the most-watched season on all ESPN platforms. 

The league announced 5 new expansion teams by 2030. The Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire will begin playing next season, followed by Cleveland in 2028, Detroit in 2029, and Philadelphia in 2030.

Three of these cities — Portland, Cleveland, and Detroit — have had WNBA franchises before, which were either moved or shut down. But the Portland Fire, Cleveland Rockers, and Detroit Shock are making a comeback.

On Aug. 15, the WNBA played its first-ever regular-season game outside of the U.S. at Rogers Arena in Vancouver. The match was between the Seattle Storm and Atlanta Dream.

Though the Dream lost the game 78-80 to the Storm, they clinched the third spot in the playoffs and Seattle took the seventh.

At WNBA all-star weekend in July in Indianapolis, Gray showcased her style and game. She rocked custom looks on the orange carpet, which signifies the colour of the league’s logo. Then, she dropped 18 points in the all-star game and finished second in the three-point contest.

For the orange carpet, Gray wore a custom denim-on-denim Schiaparelli-inspired look. The heavy metals and gold in her outfit were a nod to her stylist, MacKenzee “Golden” McDonald.

“I wanted to just bring her out of her comfort zone and give a new look that I knew was not going to be executed on the carpet,” McDonald says, adding that taking risks is a part of fashion.

Gray wore Nike for her all-star tunnel debut, featuring a pair of Air Max Muse sneakers, pleated white trousers, and pearl detailing. The jacket also had Gray’s name and number, 15, on the back.

McDonald named the outfit “Pressure Makes Pearls” —  a metaphor for Gray’s athletic career.

“Diamonds are shiny, they’re bright, and everybody wants a diamond, but I feel diamonds are fairly loud … and blinding — and that’s not Allisha,” McDonald says. “She’s not going to talk so much about how she plays. She just wants to show you how she plays.”

Sports companies like Nike have partnered with female athletes and teams to release jerseys, shoes, and clothing. 

Other brands are also buying into women’s sports, says Courtney M. Cox, an assistant professor at the University of Oregon with a background in sports journalism.

“Not just in clothing, but also thinking about general styles — everything about hair, makeup, and all these different ways that brands are now tapping in that also could have tapped in years ago.”

Ahead of the 2024 season, Kim Kardashian’s clothing brand, Skims, launched a campaign with former and current WNBA players. Candace Parker, Cameron Brink, DiJonai Carrington, Kelsey Plum, and Skylar Diggins all modeled in the campaign.

Sephora became the official beauty partner of Unrivaled Basketball, a three-on-three league created by WNBA players Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart.

Rihanna’s beauty lines — Fenty Beauty and Fenty Skin — partnered with the reigning WNBA champions, the New York Liberty, for the 2025 season. 

Before the growth of sports and fashion, there was a more narrow avenue for athletes wanting to enter the fashion industry, Cox says. Often, they would intern with a sports brand, such as Nike or Adidas, and work in developing sportswear and performance gear. 

“I think it’s important to have athletes help make decisions about what athletes [wear because] it’s important to have folks that actually wear and do this to help us think about it,” Cox says. “But allowing [athletes] to expand out to high fashion and couture — there’s a place for athletes there, too.”

Connecticut Sun forward Olivia Nelson-Ododa premiered her clothing brand, Kayelise, at Miami Fashion Week in 2024. For Paris Fashion Week in February 2025, Nelson-Ododa’s former University of Connecticut teammate and now Seattle Storm guard Nika Mühl walked for Kayelise.

“Seeing it happen, even from a distance, was just so emotional,” Nelson-Ododa, who was competing in the Women’s Chinese Basketball Association’s playoff quarterfinals at the time, told The Boston Globe.

“I always wonder when these athletes sleep because from my time following athletes around, I just decided they kind of don’t,” Cox says. “I mean they have to, right? They have to perform at high levels. But they are booked and busy at all times and always thinking about what’s next — what happens after their career is over.”

Tiffany Hayes retired after 11 seasons in the WNBA in 2023, but came out of retirement for the 2024 season to join the Las Vegas Aces. That same summer, she launched her clothing brand, Seyah Renara.

Now, Hayes plays for the Golden State Valkyries and styles pieces from Seyah for her tunnel walks.

“Fashion is a great inroad, not only because so many [WNBA players] have been self-fashioning for so long that they have big ideas, but they have also been styling their teammates,” Cox says. 

“I think for a lot of folks, they are like, ‘OK, all these folks get to make money off of me. When’s my chance to shine and step into this industry?’”

Former basketball player and coach Esther Wallace built the brand Playa Society. She also created the infamous “Female Athlete” T-shirt with the word “Female” crossed out.

Wallace is an iconic example of former athletes who are becoming stylists and creators in their own way, Cox says. Many athletes come into the tunnel wearing Playa Society.

Wallace partnered with the WNBA to create merchandise. Recently, she worked with the Golden State Valkyries as they played their inaugural season this summer.

Cox says a lot of people’s knowledge about WNBA fashion and merchandise starts and ends with the orange hoodie phenomenon.

The infamous orange WNBA hoodie first gained popularity in 2019 when Kobe Bryant wore it courtside for a Los Angeles Lakers game. As a result, the orange hoodie became the best-selling WNBA item ever.

“I think about Playa Society and other kinds of outposts that are serving W fans in particular and what it means to have a league that continues to undervalue merchandise,” Cox says. “From a more league-driven perspective, I think these brands and labels doing special WNBA drops or collaborations is more necessary than ever.”

TOGETHXR is a women’s sports brand founded by sports media veteran Jessica Robertson and four female athletes, including former Seattle Storm guard, five-time Olympic gold medallist, and recent Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall-of-Famer Sue Bird.

It created the “Everyone Watches Women’s Sport” T-shirt and apparel line, which generated $6 million in revenue in 2024. The company partnered with Nike to create more products and colourways, including colourways for teams in the NCAA’s women’s March Madness. 

“If folks have been fans of the W for a while, there’s a lot of stuff we couldn’t get, including things you take for granted like jerseys for certain players,” Cox says.

Nike did a jersey drop for Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu when she was in college, but didn’t print enough and the jerseys sold out immediately, Cox says. 

“There’s always this top-down underselling and undercutting of the potential.”

Three-time MVP A’ja Wilson dropped her signature shoe, the A’Ones, with Nike in May. In less than five minutes, the shoes had sold out. 

Five current WNBA players have a signature shoe: Ionescu, Wilson, Reese, Stewart, and Caitlin Clark.

Clark signed an eight-year, $28-million USD deal with Nike in April 2024 — the largest shoe deal for a women’s basketball player ever.

Ionescu’s shoes, the Sabrinas, and Wilson’s A’Ones are two of the most popular signature shoes worn by WNBA players across teams and in other leagues, including the NBA. 

Long-time WNBA fan Sarah Coleman has watched the league since the early 2000s and has been a fan of the New York Liberty for just as long. She bought the white A’Ones after trying to get a pair of the pink colourway, which sold out around her so fast.

Coleman takes a lot of her fashion inspiration from some of her favourite WNBA players, including Paige Bueckers and NaLyssa Smith.

She dresses more masculine, as do Bueckers and Smith. Bueckers has previously described her style as “a hybrid of masculine and feminine elements” to Vogue and used the word “unctie” —  a mix of uncle and auntie — when speaking to GQ Sports.

Despite being a rookie, Bueckers is taking on the role of the 2025 first-overall pick on the court and in the tunnel.

“The brands that she likes are super indie New York streetwear brands. I have those pieces, so it’s cool to see her wear them because a lot of people don’t know them outside of New York,” Coleman says. “I’ll be like, ‘OK, I like the way she paired it, so maybe I’ll try it.’”

A New York streetwear brand Coleman has seen Bueckers wear many times is KidSuper. One of her more well-known KidSuper looks was an oversized lilac suit she wore to the 2024 ESPYs (Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly), which is hosted by ESPN.

Coleman says she prefers a more fitted look and leans towards Smith’s fashion as well.

Her favourite style icons in the WNBA are a mix of feminine and masculine players. For feminine players, she likes Reese’s and Nelson-Ododa’s fashion.

“[Reese] has a fearless kind of look. It’ll be 100 degrees, and you’ll still see her in a fur outfit. She really doesn’t care, she’ll go for it. I love that about [Reese] because it matches her personality,” Coleman says.

For masculine players, Coleman likes the baggy tops and long jorts worn by Dallas Wings player Arike Ogunbowale. Coleman has also noticed more players dressing masculine in recent years.

“[Ogunbowale] dressed more feminine [before] because, I guess, they were telling her she had to,” Coleman says. “I remember she was on Dancing with the Stars and was I like, ‘What is Arike doing on here in this ball gown?’”

When Coleman first started watching the WNBA in the early 2000s, people “used to say that everyone was too boyish or too man-ish.”

“They need to wear makeup, do their hair, and things like that. I think that used to be a heavy part of why some people claimed they didn’t watch.”

Cox says many players mix feminine and masculine fashion today. 

“I love seeing the legacy of draft-day ‘fits. I think it’s really telling because there was a conformity through the ‘90s and early 2000s, where everyone had on a church dress suit,” Cox says, adding today’s draft classes play with femininity and masculinity in a very fashion-forward way. 

“No one’s going through the weird middle-school phase anymore. Everyone’s just emerging swaggy,” Cox says. 

“Whether people are playing into the feminine or masculine is less important to me,” Cox says. 

“[It’s about] how they’re queering the expectation of what a female athlete can be and the expectations on and off the court.”