Clothing Brand Aimed at Protecting Women’s Sports Enjoys Record Sales

The uproar surrounding the WNBA involving Sophie Cunningham and her stance against transgender athletes competing in women’s sports has proven to be extraordinarily good business for Jennifer Sey and her clothing brand, XX-XY Athletics.According to Front Office Sports, sales of Ms. Sey’s apparel have increased sixfold over the past two weeks, putting August at pace to become the company’s largest sales month in its history. The brand founded in 2024 with a mission to “stand up for female athletes,” said 85 percent of purchases over that stretch came from first-time buyers, including a percentage of male customers that company officials described as “higher than usual.”Yet, despite the ideological footprint of her brand, Ms. Sey bristles at being labeled an activist or having her company framed as an advocacy organization focused on keeping transgender athletes out of female competition. “We are an athletic clothing brand,” Ms. Jey wrote on social media to set the record straight after an appearance on CBS News’ The Takeout with Major Garrett. “We are not a non-profit. We are a business. A brand. And brands influence culture.”Brands have long built reputations by blending commercial enterprise and political activism — and multiple examples are available of how perceived political alignment drives consumer loyalty. XX-XY Athletics, however, is a startup retail operation gaining market share by capturing the zeitgeist in a moment when the topic of transgender athletics has been catapulted by a professional women’s basketball player. The company is now a constant presence at the center of the latest WNBA controversy caused by Ms. Cunningham’s stance against transgender athletes in women’s sports.The surge in sales can be linked to two teenage girls wearing XX-XY Athletics t-shirts when the Indiana Fever played the Seattle Storm at Seattle. The girls were sitting courtside holding signs in support of Ms. Cunningham after she went public in an ESPN article with her opposition to transgender athletes competing in women’s sports. The two girls were confronted by a Storm minority owner Celeste Keaton, who blasted the teenagers in a profane rant, calling them “f’ing insane.”The incident went viral, prompting the WNBA to suspend Ms. Keaton for five home games. The disciplinary action did little to quiet the broader debate, which has engulfed the league.Pre-game “Sophie Night” rallies in support of Ms. Cunningham have taken place not only at Seattle, but also outside arenas at Portland, Minneapolis, and Chicago. Ms. Sey personally attended the rally in Minnesota on Aug. 2, where she later posed for a photo with Ms. Cunningham and former collegiate swimmer-turned-conservative activist Riley Gaines, who both wore XX-XY shirts.Despite her active participation in these demonstrations, Ms. Sey rejects any characterization of her company as a political pressure group, using the moment to fire a shot at industry leader Nike. “Our mission is to stand up for female athletes, not just pretend to, like Nike, a brand that makes money off of, ‘championing’ female athletes while treating them with astonishing disregard,” she wrote on X.“We don’t care if women who identify as trans (think they are men) play in women’s sports. We don’t care if women who declare a non-binary identity play in women’s sports . . . We don’t want men in women’s sports. Not ‘trans identified’ men. Not DSD men. No men in women’s sports.”Ms. Sey downplays the notion her company is fueling a cultural war over the transgender issue. Citing internal polling data, the former elite gymnast argued that restricting biological males from women’s sports categories reflects mainstream consensus, claiming 80 percent of Americans support preserving female-only categories in competitive athletics.“This isn’t culture war stuff,” she wrote. “This is 80 percent of Americans being normal and 20 percent living in a misogynistic fantasy land where men can declare themselves women and take our privacy and opportunities away.”Whether the retail surge represents a permanent commercial shift or a short-term spike driven by the news cycle, XX-XY Athletics has tapped into a lucrative cultural divide. By turning courtside polarization into a direct-to-consumer sales strategy, Ms. Sey has demonstrated that in the modern sports marketplace, brand activism is still a powerful economic engine.

Clothing Brand Aimed at Protecting Women’s Sports Enjoys Record Sales

Clothing Brand Aimed at Protecting Women’s Sports Enjoys Record Sales

More from the New York Sun

‘Onslaught’ Is a B-Movie That Gets the Blood Pumping

The Czinger 21C Spyder Is the Most Ambitious —and Ridiculous —Supercar Yet

Fetterman Challenges El-Sayed and Piker, Offering $50,000 for a Rally To ‘Explain’ Why America ‘Deserved’ 9/11

Missouri State House Candidate Charged With Trying To Plant Cocaine on His Primary Opponent

Leon Black Likely To Face Contempt of Congress After Defying Subpoenas, Refusing To Show for Deposition in Epstein Probe

Rivals United for Gold: Clark, Reese, and Bueckers Join Forces in World Cup Defense

Congress Considers Amending Safe Drinking Water Act To Protect Communities From AI Data Center Costs

CAIR Files Ethics Complaint Against New Jersey High School Principal for Visiting Israel

More from the New York Sun

‘Onslaught’ Is a B-Movie That Gets the Blood Pumping

The Czinger 21C Spyder Is the Most Ambitious —and Ridiculous —Supercar Yet

Fetterman Challenges El-Sayed and Piker, Offering $50,000 for a Rally To ‘Explain’ Why America ‘Deserved’ 9/11

Missouri State House Candidate Charged With Trying To Plant Cocaine on His Primary Opponent

Leon Black Likely To Face Contempt of Congress After Defying Subpoenas, Refusing To Show for Deposition in Epstein Probe

Rivals United for Gold: Clark, Reese, and Bueckers Join Forces in World Cup Defense

Congress Considers Amending Safe Drinking Water Act To Protect Communities From AI Data Center Costs

CAIR Files Ethics Complaint Against New Jersey High School Principal for Visiting Israel