Sparks will fly in Angel City.
Los Angeles Sparks, that is. And not just anywhere in L.A., but at Angel City Football Club’s stadium.
Combining National Women’s Soccer League ACFC’s signature “sol rosa” color with the WNBA’s Sparks’ purple and gold, the two L.A.-based professional women’s sports teams recently launched a limited-edition apparel collection titled “Sparks Fly in Angel City.”
“It’s really important when you have a city as big as Los Angeles, with two professional female sports, that they show support for one another,” said Karsyn Cherry, a defender on ACFC. “Their fans will see us supporting them and maybe come to our games and then our fans will see them supporting us and then go to their games. It can have a really positive impact.”
Various t-shirt and hoodie designs were dropped as part of the collection during the Sparks’ August 24 matchup against the Atlanta Dream at Crypto.com arena. Cherry said the designs have a “fun street style.”
“It looks like something you can actually wear, which I feel is so much more appealing to people, especially young people,” Cherry said. “I thought they did a really good job.”
The collection was created to celebrate women’s empowerment, while paying homage to the city and its unique sense of style, according to an Angel City news release announcing the partnership.
“Round21 did an incredible job of creating something that feels modern and vintage at the same time,” Angel City CEO Amy Taylor said in the release. “Even the range of items speaks to Los Angeles culture across both of these fast-growing sports and teams.”
While these franchises have been increasingly successful on individual scales, their partnership is hoping to capture the value of unity, shared-energy and growing support across women’s sports organizations, Sparks President Stacy Johns said in the release.
“I would say this is pretty big for women’s sports,” said Hawa Yusuf, a USC graduate student studying journalism. “I think that having two solid teams come together, the Sparks and Angel City, join forces shows a lot of unity. I think it shows power.”
Players have already been seen wearing the merchandise on the ACFC Instagram account and both teams will continue to represent the clothing line throughout their seasons.
“I used to play basketball when I was in middle school and a lot of my friends did soccer, so I think it’s great that basketball and soccer are supporting each other,” said Kate Levy, a USC sophomore majoring in business administration. “More sports should do that.”
Lisa Milner Goldberg, ACFC’s vice president of public relations, said in an email that the team plans to launch the collection in their home stadium for Friday’s match against the Denver Summit. During that game, they will host current Sparks players and sisters Chiney and Nneka Ogwumike, who will wear and promote one of the branded shirts, Goldberg said.
A hoodie and two shirts that are part of the collection are available for purchase for between $60 and $110 on Angel City’s website.
Edited by Sean Campbell.