Rookie rivals Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese will be on the same team at Saturday’s WNBA All-Star Game, a hot pair in a league on the rise.
But some of the attention will be focused on the pre-game “tunnel” at the Phoenix Convention Center, where some of the nation’s best players are expected to put on an eye-catching display.
WNBA fashion has been gaining momentum in recent years thanks to avant-garde trendsetters A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum, and Skylar Diggins-Smith. It’s a big change from the late 1990s and early 2000s, when players and coaches wore almost exclusively traditional business attire and often aligned with masculine tastes (at the time, the NBA’s male players were going through their own fashion crisis, according to SB Nation).
Today, those strutting through the WNBA tunnel (sports lingo for the entrance to the arena on game day) are mixing micro minis, six-inch pumps and leather trench coats with chic menswear-inspired styles.
Fashion bible Vogue magazine has set up the WNBA tunnel as its new runway, and Saturday night’s All-Star Game will feature a pre-game fashion show.
At April’s draft, No. 1 pick Caitlin Clark kicked off 2024 in a structured satin shirt and crystal crop top from Prada. Prior to her season-ending anterior cruciate ligament injury, No. 2 overall pick Cameron Brink wore a sleek, ultra-modern, one-shoulder black gown with cut-outs, while No. 7 pick Angel Reese donned an awards-worthy, sparkly, hooded gunmetal dress from Australian brand Bronx & Vanco.
WNBA players make just a fraction of what their male counterparts make, and fashion, and the expensive brand endorsements that come with it, could boost players’ incomes in the league.
The promise of new sponsorship deals for athletes and increased visibility for the WNBA overall prompted Christopher Ruff to start the WNBA League Fits social media accounts. Ruff, a WNBA fan since watching Lisa Leslie play for the Los Angeles Sparks 20 years ago, began thinking about what he could do to bring more fans to the league in 2021.
“Fashion can be used as a first step to get people to pay more attention to the actual product, which is gaming,” Ruff said.
A player’s clothing can convey their personality and creativity, resonating with people who don’t usually watch basketball. Tunnel fashion has a more individual appeal than the standard formality of game attire.
But many athletes don’t have the luxury of having big-name fashion brands knocking on their doors, so they’re getting creative: WNBA stylists have been scrambling to source Italian fabrics and tailor outfits for players who don’t have major brand sponsorship, said Belissa Vaughn, a fashion publicist who runs an Instagram account dedicated to the WNBA’s tunnel outfits.
“They just want to really embrace their creativity, their self-expression,” Vaughn told the Post.
Some brands, like Napheesa Collier, are prioritizing emerging women-owned or Black-owned brands, as well as brands stocked by local boutiques, rather than sourcing the same styles from major retailers.
Vaughn said the growing popularity is a good thing for budding designers and fashion-conscious athletes.
“To see the respect and admiration that they’re getting from pop culture and society right now, it’s really rewarding,” Vaughn said, “because these players are doing so much good, not just on the court, but in so many other ways.”
