USA Women's Basketball announces first ever official beauty partner

USA Basketball and Glossier announced a new partnership with the USA Women's National Team, marking the first exclusive beauty partnership in the team's history since 1996. As part of this collaboration, Glossier will gift the 2024 USA Basketball Women's National Team with packages of skin care, makeup, and beauty products for their summer travel in Europe, including the Olympics in Paris. 

The partnership will also see Glossier's presence at the USA Basketball exhibition game in London on July 23rd, adding a touch of glamour to the event.

Expanding on success: Glossier and the WNBA collaboration

The partnership with the USA Women's National Team follows the extension of Glossier's marketing partnership with the WNBA in March of this year, which built "on a dynamic and innovative collaboration that launched in 2020," the WNBA reported.

Glossier's partnership with the WNBA began with a celebration of the extension of Glossier's Body Hero line, a campaign that kicked off in the 2020 WNBA Bubble season and featured WNBA legend Sue Bird among other players. Since then, Glossier has continued to shine a spotlight on the league's diverse and self-expressive athletes in national promotions and campaigns.

The recent Stretch Complexion campaign, featuring the Chicago Sky's Izzy Harrison, Minnesota Lynx's Diamond Miller and Natalie Achonwa, Dallas Wings' Stephanie Soares and Washington Mystics' Ariel Atkins, is a testament to the evolving and inclusive nature of this partnership.

Over the past four years, "the partnership has further evolved to include courtside signage, content collaboration, the gifting of product to players and influencer events at games," the release concluded. About the partnership between Glossier and WNBA, the league's Commissioner Cathy Engelbert shared in a statement that "this collaboration between powerful brands demonstrates that visibility and empowerment matter, and that there has never been a better time to support the multidimensional athletes of the WNBA."

A natural progression: From WNBA to USA Women's National Team

The expansion of Glossier's partnership with the USA Women's National Team was a strategic and natural progression for the beauty brand's initiative with the professional women's basketball league. Women's National Team director Briana Weiss explained in a press statement, "It's an important time for women's basketball in our country," and "the USA Basketball-Glossier partnership is further proof of the growth of our sport and interest in our team."

Glossier CEO Kyle Leahy added to the sentiment in her statement: "We're excited to build on our long-running partnership with the WNBA, and bring it to new heights with USA Basketball." She added, "There's been a long-standing notion that beauty and sports don't mix, and this partnership underscores the fact that that's simply not true," as "the USA Women's National Team is full of inspiring athletes with stories to tell both on and off the court, we are thrilled to shine a light on them."

The press announcement confirmed that besides the products gifted to team members and the brand's presence at the upcoming London exhibition game, "the partnership will also entail social media content, out-of-home advertising, and community engagement moments to go live this summer."

The release further noted that "in addition to the first women's specific partnership in nearly two decades, the partnership marks the first ever official beauty partner in USA Basketball history."