Beauty Brands Have Found an Unlikely New Billboard: Pro Basketball Jerseys |
Beauty Brands Have Found an Unlikely New Billboard: Pro Basketball Jerseys
Lashify founder Sahara Lotti makes the case for why the WNBA has become the perfect growth marketing platform.
BY ALI DONALDSON, STAFF REPORTER @ALICDONALDSON
Lashify founder Sahara Lotti. Illustration: Inc; Photo: Getty Images, Lashify
As the WNBA continues to soar in popularity, beauty brands have identified a valuable marketing opportunity. Three of the league’s 15 teams will feature a company in the beauty industry on the front of their uniforms when the season tips off with preseason games later this month.
The three-time champion Las Vegas Aces will feature Ipsy, the personalized beauty subscription business. The Toronto Tempo, one of the two WNBA expansion teams competing for the first time this year, will have a shoulder sponsorship patch from specialty beauty retailer Sephora Canada. Kits for the other new addition to the league, the Portland Fire, will be stamped with Lashify, an e-commerce beauty brand known for its at-home lash extensions.
All three companies have also been named official beauty partners for their respective teams in deals that mark quite a shift for the WNBA’s historic 30th season. After years of jersey sponsorships dominated by financial companies and local hospital systems, that game-day real estate is looking less corporate, and much more glam.
This increasing overlap between women’s sports and the beauty industry comes as no surprise to Sahara Lotti, the founder and CEO of Lashify. Lotti is betting on the WNBA—its players as well as its fans—as a growth engine for her Los Angeles-based business. As such, she’s pouring millions of dollars into the strategy. Lashify’s partnership with the Portland Fire is a seven-figure annual commitment through 2030, according to a person familiar with the deal. After members of the ownership group and their agents reached out to Lashify about the sponsorship, the agreement came together in about six to eight months, the company says.
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After seeing the outpouring of enthusiasm for the Portland Fire—which secured more than 12,500 season ticket deposits within days of announcing the team name last summer and expects to sell out every home game for its inaugural season—the decision to become the team’s marquee sponsor was one of those “duh” moments, says Lotti.
“The Portland team was very up and coming, had a lot of energy around it,” says Lotti, who saw a natural synergy with her brand’s lash extensions. With WNBA viewership at record levels and millions of people tuning in, players have elevated their gameday looks, showing off their style during tunnel walks into the stadiums and beauty regimens that can withstand 40 minutes of dribbling, shooting, and rebounding. That’s where Lotti sees Lashify’s lash extensions fitting in seamlessly. Unlike mascara, there’s no risk of smudges or sweating them off.
As part of the partnership, the company plans to deploy its own makeup artists to the Portland Fire on game days to give players a “full glam experience.” The brand is even building infrastructure for this. When the Kaiser Permanente Performance Center, the 63,000-square-foot training facility that the Portland Fire will share with the city’s NWSL team, the Portland Thorns, opens this year, the space will include a dedicated “glam and prep space” for the players.