The Proud, Fashionable WAGs of Women’s Sports

When the Dallas Wings opened their WNBA season, Lala Ronay was sitting courtside in a custom outfit. The well-known content creator was decked out in a black denim puffer jacket with the number 24 on the chest pocket. On the back, jersey style, the name Ogunbowale was above another, larger number 24. Houston-based streetwear designer Kenz created the look for Ronay in support of her fiancée, Wings player Arike Ogunbowale.

The wives and girlfriends (known as WAGs) of men’s sports are a cultural phenomenon in their own right, whether as the stars of E! and VH1 reality shows or as scene-stealers during this past NFL season. (Taylor Swift and Simone Biles both made headlines while sporting the custom designs of 49ers player Kyle Juszczyk’s wife, Kristin Juszczyk.) As the profile and visibility of women’s sports increase exponentially, the fashion of the athletes themselves is getting more attention than ever—but that means there are more eyes on their partners too.

Even for WAGs who aren’t as high-profile as retired soccer star Megan Rapinoe and her fiancée, former WNBA player Sue Bird, there is an awareness that they may be photographed just because of their association with an athlete. Therefore, choosing a game-day outfit is an intentional process. Danielle Edwards, fiancée of the Indiana Fever’s Erica Wheeler, sits courtside in Balenciaga, for example.

In WAG culture, whether in men’s or women’s sports, there tends to be a norm against simply wearing the jersey of your partner. That means WAGs have to get creative when choosing a look for the game. “With the game growing itself, it’s cool to see another outlet of originality,” says Alexis Robinson, the founder and owner of the custom denim brand Boujee Basics, who has dressed Chelsea Gray’s wife, Tipesa, in a custom jacket, as well as Kiara Marsh, whose husband, Tyler Marsh, is an assistant coach of the Las Vegas Aces.

Morghan Medlock is a chef who has been dating her girlfriend, Brittney “Slim” Sykes of the Washington Mystics, for just about a year. “Because I sit courtside at every home game, it brought awareness that I have to be on because there are pictures being taken and cameras everywhere,” Medlock says. Sykes often kisses Medlock on her way back from the locker room after halftime, clarifying their relationship and bringing even more eyes on Medlock.

Medlock enjoys surprising Sykes at games with what she’s wearing but tells Sykes the color palette ahead of time so that the two can coordinate. Sykes now always ensures that the Mystics’ team photographer grabs a photo of whatever Medlock is wearing on game day. Medlock adds that her clothing is influenced by whether a game is home or away. “If we are away, I am in more streetwear or relaxed clothes, but when we are at home, I feel like I get to be my full, most glam self.”

A recent game between the Mystics and the Chicago Sky saw Medlock in head-to-toe pink with a rainbow pastel trench coat from Akira and a matching pink basketball purse by Andrea Bergart. For a game against the Indiana Fever, she wanted to go edgier, choosing a mostly leather look that felt almost NASCAR inspired. And after seeing Ronay’s ’fit, Medlock is also having custom pieces made by Kenz. “Instead of bedazzling a jersey, I ordered three of Slim’s jerseys in different colors, and they’re gonna be made into a pink sequined jersey dress,” she says.

It’s not just the WNBA where partners are showing up in custom looks to support their baes, either. After seeing a jacket that Benjamin Weiner made for Boston Bruins hockey player Brad Marchand, Steph Klein, an equipment manager and wife of US women’s national hockey team player Alex Carpenter, reached out about having something made to wear to watch Carpenter play in the 2024 women’s world championship in Utica, New York. Weiner, who is the founder and designer at Jeanius Jackets, worked with Klein to design a puffer vest made from one of Carpenter’s national team jerseys.

“I’m never too overly flashy,” says Klein. “This is the flashiest thing I’ve ever worn to an event, but I figured there was no better time than a USA world event on home soil.”

Anya Packer, wife of PWHL New York’s Madison Packer, wore a custom puffer vest in the team’s signature teal emblazoned with the number 23. She also had looks made for the couple’s two children that say “Mama” on the back. Packer knows that at PWHL games she is likely to be photographed because she’s a former pro hockey player; the couple began dating while both playing in the National Women’s Hockey League. But especially in a sport like hockey, which still has a long way to go when it comes to shifting culture around queerness, Packer is aware that visibly showing up to a game as Madison’s wife is a significant act in itself.

“We show everybody in the building that our relationship is real and exists,” Packer says. “In the hockey community, we can be that lighthouse family, whether that’s going to Pride and being visible or showing up to the game wearing a jersey. I’m really proud about that.”

These WAGs are not just thoughtful about what they wear but also about who they wear. Klein reached out to Weiner because he is from Boston and had designed jackets for the Bruins, Celtics, and PWHL Boston players. Packer’s vest was designed by PWHL Montreal player Mariah Keopple’s brand, Riah the Label, offering publicity to the business endeavor of a fellow PWHL athlete. Meanwhile, Robinson’s designs, including her denim jacket that says “The WNBA is so important” (a quote from WNBA journalist Ari Chambers) on the back, are popular among W players and partners for similar reasons.

“I can’t speak for any of them, but I think any of them would say it always feels good to be able to support another Black-woman-owned business,” Robinson says. “And they do fully support me. Like, they don’t have to post me, but they’re happy to do it.”

The queer couples in women’s sports are some of the most high-profile sapphic relationships in our broader culture. And while the WAGs are aware of that representation, it’s not just about showing up for the culture. It’s also about getting to live the life they always wanted to live.

“It’s been important to me to have a partner who is out of the closet and open with our love,” says Medlock. “It’s so reassuring. I really do love that about the women’s game, the way they show off their partners.”

Jaelyn Royal, the girlfriend of Phoenix Mercury player Sug Sutton, takes a slightly different approach to game days. Royal played pro basketball overseas for two years and was recently hired as the assistant women’s basketball coach at Thiel College in Pittsburgh. Therefore, Royal shows up to games not just as Sutton’s girlfriend but as a representative of the sport itself and a member of the larger women’s basketball community.

“For me personally, I want to be able to show who I am and my style and not have it so correlated to my partner,” Royal says. “When someone looks at me I don’t want them to know I’m [Sug’s] girlfriend because I’m wearing the jersey—I want them to want to know me or take a picture with me.”

But the WNBA community’s openness and acceptance of different expressions allow Royal to be more expansive with her personal style than in the past. Royal says that her favorite outfit she’s worn to a Mercury game this season isn’t actually one of the more high-femme looks but rather an all-black outfit with a loose-fitting T-shirt, shorts, and a black baseball cap.

“I’ve always been forced to be feminine, and on this day I felt comfortable enough to dress more masculine and be who I want to be,” she says. “I have liked girls since I was in high school, and I played basketball growing up, but even in college it was difficult to be who I wanted to be and who I knew I was. Being able to love my girlfriend proudly and out loud is something I cherish because I know that it wasn’t always like this and there are a lot of girls and women who aren’t able to be who they want and love who they want. But at the Phoenix games you can.”