Partnering with luxury brands can help elevate women’s sports to a whole new level.

That was the message delivered by the WNBA and Coach during a session at the Women in Power event earlier this week.

This spring, Coach signed on to be the official handbag sponsor of the women’s basketball league, a multi-year deal that included the brand’s participation in the WNBA Draft, on its “orange carpet,” and spotlighting some of its athletes including Paige Bueckers in its marketing campaigns.

Coach’s embrace of women’s sports marks just one of the milestones the league has achieved in recent years. Colie Edison, chief growth officer of the WNBA, said interest in the sport has grown exponentially, attracting interest from big companies.

“Historically, women’s sports were really trapped in this vicious flywheel,” she said. “We didn’t have good broadcast windows. And when you don’t have good broadcast windows, it’s really hard to bring in the fans, and when you’re not bringing in those audiences, advertisers are very hesitant to come in.”

But that’s no longer the case, she said. Google was among the first to work with the league five years ago, paying for WNBA games to be broadcast on ESPN. “That was huge for us, because we were finally able to show what talent we have to as many people as possible,” Edison said.

This year, the WNBA attracted nearly 800,000 viewers, a 21 percent increase from the prior year and that was on top of a 170 percent jump in viewership from 2023 to 2024.

Even so, Edison said, sponsors from outside the sports world were hard to come by.

Enter Coach.

Joon Silverstein, chief marketing officer for Coach, said the company was attracted to the “new generation of athletes who are breaking through,” along with the “new generation of viewers who are changing the nature of fandom. They’re looking at female athletes, not just as players, but as cultural icons,” which presents “an amazing opportunity for brands — in fashion as well as beauty and other spaces.”

And it’s showing up on the bottom line. Edison said the WNBA has found every dollar spent supporting the league translates into a $7 return. “Our fans are more likely to support brands that support the WNBA.”

For Coach, Silverstein said the company is “seeing massive growth in all our sports metrics,” including impact value, search value and other social engagement. And this partnership with the WNBA also helps support the larger mission at the company, which is “hardwiring purpose into a growth model,” she said. “For us, it really is about amplifying purpose, but in ways that are engaging audiences and driving our long-term performance goals.”

Edison said that the WNBA “sits at the intersection of sports, culture and lifestyle, and that can brought to life through the lens of fashion. You may have been following us because you’re a die-hard basketball fan, or a Caitlin Clark fan and you followed her journey through the NCAA, or you are a Coach fan. For us, it just extends our relevancy and solidifies our players, not just as these elite athletes, but as style and cultural icons.”

The WNBA’s tunnel walks have been transformed into “runway walks,” with players’ “self-expression coming to life, whether in really awesome streetwear or the highest end of luxury fashion,” Edison said. “It’s all about being authentic and intentional.”

The league is made up of 80 percent women of color and many identify as LBGTQ, so for a brand like Coach to “amplify their stories through the power of its brand relevancy,” is invaluable, she believes.

Silverstein added: “These are athletes who are challenging norms about what it means to be a female athlete. And that inspires all of us — not just the athletes among us, but all of us who are trying to do many things.”

And it may ultimately impact the world as a whole. Edison said 94 percent of women in the C-suite played organized sports, and over 50 percent played at the collegiate level. However, girls drop out of sports at twice the rate of boys by the time they’re 14. But if a young girl can see Paige Bueckers “decked out in a gorgeous Coach outfit,” it can give them the confidence to continue, she believes.