The fashion in women’s sports has been a total slam dunk lately. Just look at Caitlin Clark’s viral Fendi- and Prada-clad tunnel walks. Or, Breanna Stewart suiting up in androgynous coords to lead the New York Liberty to its first WNBA championship win last year. Serena Williams and Simone Biles are regulars at the Met Gala and New York Fashion Week. Naomi Osaka even brought Gen Z’s favorite freaky accessory to the U.S. Open—that would be a $495 bedazzled Labubu named Billie Jean Bling (after tennis icon Billie Jean King, obviously).
There’s one particular piece of clothing—and the group of women behind it—that have had a major hand in women’s sports’ winning story. Perhaps you’ve seen the simple black tee with white lettering and an emphatic message—“Everyone Watches Women’s Sports”—on the backs of A-listers, including Jason Sudeikis, Aubrey Plaza, and Chelsea Handler? That shirt was the brainchild of four of the world’s most famous and medaled athletes (FIFA Women’s World Cup winner Alex Morgan, Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim, Olympic swimmer Simone Manuel, and WNBA star Sue Bird) and their fellow co-founder Jessica Robertson, who joined forces back in 2021 to create Togethxr, an organization focused on ensuring that the popularity of women’s sports is anything but a fleeting trend.
Courtesy of Togethxr
The unlikely genesis of the mantra is haters and internet trolls, ones who perpetuated the antiquated notion that nobody cared about—and therefore watched—women’s sports. “Literally that is not true,” Robertson remembers thinking when she and her co-founders attended the 2023 NCAA Women’s Final Four in Dallas. The tournament was bustling with fans, tickets were sold out, and viewership records were being broken. In fact, it was ESPN’s most-viewed Final Four weekend on record, averaging 6.5 million viewers, according to the network. That record was broken in 2024 (13.8 million viewers).
“We looked at each other and said ‘everyone watches women’s sports,’” Robertson, who is also Togethxr’s chief content officer, recalls. The saying soon became a philosophy for their team, and they wanted to “create an anthem that people of all kinds are proud to wear on their chests because it represents their values.”
The slogan has since become a viral sensation. The shirt launched in 2023, and the next year was seen in the stands at the 2024 Paris Olympics on athletes and spectators alike—including Olympic rowers Jill Moffatt and Caileigh Filmer—in a special French iteration that read, “Tout le Monde Regarde le Sport Féminin.” After the initial drop, Togethxr teamed up with Nike to create a new collection of products (including shorts, baseball hats, and hoodies) in more colorways. According to Robertson, the tee has driven $7 million in revenue, but the impact goes far beyond the profit. The brand is investing the proceeds back into the business to help fund initiatives such as game watch parties, pop-up events, and campaigns, including its Raise the Bar partnership with Aflac, during which bars pledged to broadcast women’s sports on at least half of their TVs.
“That’s the power of fashion,” Robertston says.
Courtesy of Togethxr
Morgan, Kim, Manuel, and Bird have used their experiences on and off the court (and field, slopes, and pool) to bring a “very specific lens and brand DNA, shaped by their diverse experiences as athletes, leaders, and cultural figures,” says Robertson. She adds that the world class athletes have been hands-on collaborators with the brand’s mission and merchandise lines.
They’ve been a winning team so far. For one, across broadcasts, streaming, online publications, and social platforms, the percentage of media dedicated to female athletes has increased from 5 to 15 percent as of 2022, according to a Sage Journals study. Robertson suggests that the number has trended upwards of 20 percent by now. “Visibility is immensely crucial in driving the audience and community,” says Robertson, previously the Head of Content at The Players’ Tribune.
The group is aiming to increase that visibility with even more influential collaborations. Last month, Togethxr and jewelry company Zales, along with Louisiana State University basketball star and rapper Flau’jae Johnson, launched a collection of bespoke, lab grown diamond–encrusted pieces that drive home the brand’s mission—and are perfect for layering and stacking. The yellow gold pendant is engraved with the brand’s signature “Everyone watches women’s sports” motto. Other items include a yellow gold-and-diamond ring and charm bracelet embellished with an X to represent the company’s logo. “The [pieces] are just beautiful expressions of identity, which is ultimately what our logo mark stands for in the first place,” Robertson says. “If you didn’t know it stood for Togethxr, it’s just a beautiful logo.”
For years, female athletes have been fighting for equity in pay, screen time, and media coverage. “There is some way to go. There are still inequities that exist and that is a reality of their experience,” Robertson admits, referring in part to the pay disparity between male and female athletes. In 2024, not a single female athlete made Sportico’s top 100 highest paid athletes list. Male athletes in basketball, golf, soccer, baseball, and tennis tend to make anywhere from 15 to almost 100 percent more money than their female counterparts, per Adelphi University.
“It is my long held belief that women’s sports has not been behind, but that culture is finally catching up,” Robertson tells InStyle of the long-awaited boom in female sports attention. “Togethxr is one of the catalysts for what’s happening in the space.”
Courtesy of Togethxr
So, how can fans help make a change? Besides shopping Togethxr’s stylish and inspirational collections, Robertson says the best way to get involved is to cheer on your favorite team, professional or amateur. “It is buying a ticket and going to a game. It is buying the merchandise that you love. The average fan can create that demand by demanding it.”
Perhaps one of the most important pillars of the company is to create a better space for the female athletes of tomorrow. According to a Unesco report from 2024, 49 percent of young girls drop out of playing sports after adolescence (age 14) which is six times more than boys. Robertson explains that encouraging young female athletes to believe in themselves and continue playing is a cause close to the organization’s heart and the key to securing the future of female sports. No matter if they’re in the big leagues or just stepping up to the plate, when female athletes own their prowess, fans will follow.
“It’s about proclamation of your power because you have it,” Robertson says. “When you claim it, when you make it true, people tend to follow.”
