How Lionesses' success is revitalising women-led sports brands
It's the morning after England's second successive nerve-shredding last-minute comeback at the women's football European championships, and in Style of Our Own, a pop-up shop on London's Regent's Street dedicated to women's sport, there is a palpable buzz over the fact that on Sunday the team will be playing in yet another major championships final.
Gigg herself plays semi-professionally for Hull City so she's used to footballing highs and lows, but even so, she spent Wednesday evening's semi-final 'sitting on the edge of my seat, literally, like, wanting to cry' as the Lionesses somehow overcame Italy with a miraculous stoppage time equaliser from Michelle Agyemang followed by a Chloe Kelly penalty rebound.
Though she is only 20, Gigg remembers the days before women's football had the power to capture huge TV audiences. 'I remember when I was maybe 12, I went to watch Man City women play, and there must have been 200-300 people there. Now you're getting sold-out crowds and they're playing in the men's stadiums. It's massive to see how it's gone from not really a mainstream sport to being everywhere in the space of just a couple of years.
'All of a sudden, people are realising that, wow, this is a big thing. People are tuning in. They're watching, they're getting involved. Even people who might not necessarily see themselves as women's football fans are tuning in to watch them play, and they're getting excited. And I think it's brilliant.'
It's a sentiment echoed by Holly Agate who, on entering the shop with friend, Georgina Simpson, made a beeline for the squad strips, picking up one with Lucy Bronze's name on the back. Agate has just finished her first year as a high school PE teacher in Aylesbury, where she has started a football club. 'Some of the girls love it, some are a bit hesitant,' she says, but the Euros build-up caught their imagination before school broke up. 'I have one girl in my year nine class who now wants to go pro because of it. She is great at football as well – so I'm trying to get her scouted.'
The central London pop-up is the brainchild of Laura Youngson, co-founder of the specialist women's football boots brand Ida Sports, which says it exists 'to prioritise high performance and comfortable footwear for athletes who have traditionally been an afterthought'. On sale are more than 30 other women-led brands, supplying women's clothing and gear for football, rugby, cricket, golf and netball.
'Part of the reason [behind it] was, what do you want your teenage self to have had?' she says. 'There's not really a [retail] place where these sports can coalesce.' Backed by Mastercard, she pitched to Westminster council's 'Meanwhile On' scheme, aimed at revitalising its prestige high street by giving space to emerging brands; the lease (until October) was donated by the Crown Estate.
Youngson was clear, however, that 'it had to be this summer. It was the summer of women's sport, the Euros, the rugby World Cup being hosted in England [in August]. It was one of those moments where it had to be now.'
For Maggie Cooper, browsing with daughters Ellen, 21, and Iris, 18, there has been a huge change in the visibility and resources dedicated to women's sport even since they were younger. 'I couldn't get either of these two to be interested in playing football when they were younger. For me, one of the big things was at school, there was no girls' football.'
One issue, she says, is when schools measure success only by the record of their top teams, rather than by participation. 'I think all girls should be doing lots of sport, they should be encouraged to do it,' otherwise 'they are going to go off and find something else to do'.
But the mood music is definitely changing, she believes. 'I was at party last weekend, and two separate women were both going to see the women's cricket at Lords on the Saturday, but neither of them knew that the other was going. There just seems to be a lot more interest in women's sport around.'
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