- Erin Andrews started a clothing line in 2019 to offer women sports fans more apparel options.
- The brand has since partnered with the NFL, NBA, some NCAA schools, and, most recently, the NHL.
- The Fox Sports NFL sideline reporter spoke with Insider about the brand's success and expansion.
If you've ever tried shopping for women's sports apparel, you know the pickings are slim.
On the men's side, there are options abound: jerseys, sweatshirts, windbreakers, and T-shirts in every size and color.
For the women? Pink, glitter, and not much else.
Erin Andrews set out to change that.
The trailblazing NFL sideline reporter with Fox Sports launched "WEAR by Erin Andrews" in 2019 after witnessing first-hand just how limited the apparel options were for women sports enthusiasts. She wanted to offer female fans something fresh and inspired — something women could wear confidently whether they're in a stadium or out and about town.
"There was a really big white space and really not a lot of options for female fans — they had a ton of stuff for the guys, but not really for the women," Andrews told Insider. "A few years back, I had hosted an event for the Super Bowl in San Francisco, and the NFL wanted me to do something with their female line. And I was sitting there in the clothes, and I was talking to my stylist. I'm like, 'We've got to do something with this.'"
And so she developed her own clothing line based on her favorite items in her wardrobe, what women like to wear in an everyday setting, and what they'd be most inclined to put on for a game. She rolled out her first pieces — then exclusively for NFL teams — shortly after that.
From there, Andrews and company added apparel for NBA teams and 20 college programs. Success followed, with WEAR sales doubling across the Fanatics network from 2019 to 2020. The brand recently added the NHL to its roster, which Andrews says has been "a really cool 'pinch me' moment."
"I started my career in the NHL — it was my first job out of college," Andrews said. "I was a rink-side reporter for the Tampa Bay Lightning, my hometown hockey team. They gave me my first shot. And from there, I went to Turner and then went to ESPN. And my first assignment with ESPN was covering the Tampa Bay Lightning winning the Stanley Cup."
"And then, obviously, I married an NHL player who's won two Cups, has been in the league forever, and now works for the league," she added. "So it's super special. It means a lot to our family. It means a lot to me in terms of my career. So once I got the line, I really wanted to get the NHL as a part of WEAR as well."
Andrews doesn't want to stop there. She has her eye on extending WEAR's offerings to Major League Baseball, which would round out the "Big Four" men's professional sports leagues.
An everyday line may be on the horizon, too. Andrews says "a lot of people ask me what I'm wearing on the sidelines and what I travel with," so it could be a natural extension of what she's accomplished with WEAR. But she's even considering branching out beyond women's apparel.
"What would be great as well is doing a kid's line for WEAR," Andrews said. "Also a unisex line, because my husband looks at a lot of the sweatshirts that we have or the windbreakers, and he's like 'Well, why don't you make this for guys?' So unisex and kids would be something I would like to tackle at some point."
Fans can purchase NFL, NBA, NCAA, and NHL "WEAR by Erin Andrews" apparel on the Fanatics website.
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