Photograph courtesy of the Atlanta Dream
Clothes are items you wear for coverage or perhaps warmth. Fashion, on the other hand, is distinctive. It involves self-expression and writes a visual narrative about the wearer. Inarguably, team merch has always fit squarely into the first category. Leave it to the progressive minds at the Atlanta Dream to change things up.
As the Southeast’s only WNBA team, the Atlanta Dream is known for innovation and trendsetting: Co-owner and VP of the franchise Renee Montgomery is the first former WNBA player to serve as both an owner and executive of a team. The brand has a deeply rooted culture of storytelling well beyond the typical sports team. They also maintain a consistent community presence offering free girls basketball clinics, hosting winter coat drives, packing hygiene kits and serving food to Atlanta’s unhoused youth. The Dream isn’t just another sports team, it is Atlanta’s sports team, tied to the city in every way.
And that’s the story their new “Homegrown” merch collection tells. A story of culture, pride and style, mined from the heart of Atlanta.
Photograph courtesy of the Atlanta Dream
Photograph courtesy of the Atlanta Dream
The new collection dropped at the end of April and includes pieces with creative fonts, stylish cuts, and several firsts in the league, including the first licensed WNBA tie, and the first diamante pieces: diamante, of course being a fashion word for what many people know simply as “bedazzled.”
The whole collection was inspired by the Dream’s new Rebel jersey, which was unveiled today and features a black background to symbolize strength, peach accents to honor the Peach State’s heritage, and the city’s numerous area codes stitched into the fabric to represent every neighborhood and fan.
Photograph courtesy of the Atlanta Dream
I was invited to one of the photo shoots for the new collection, and it was a full-scale fashion shoot with all the bells and whistles of a major design house’s shoot: A table full of jewelry, rows of shoes and accessories, racks of fashion “pulls” to style alongside the collection itself. And yes, that was photo shoots plural, as the scope of the project entailed not only professional models, but also members of the larger Dream community, including some of the team’s hype squad, super fans like the team’s longest-standing season ticket holder; famed basketball personality Christina Granville, known as “Ms. Basketball;” and the players themselves. For the photos, pieces in the collection were thoughtfully styled to show just how versatile they could be. Sure, it’s Dream merch, but it’s merch you can integrate into your everyday fashion choices and style in a fashion conscious way that shows your own personality and vibe.
And while we’re talking about vibes, the energy on set was electric. A room filled with people excited about fashion, excited about the Dream, and excited to merge the two together in a expressive new way for fans. I caught up with Ms. Basketball after her shoot, and she was high energy and high praise, “As an Atlanta Dream fan who loves fashion and loves Atlanta, the fact that I can wear these pieces and showcase both my personality and my love for the team is incredible,” she says. “The entire line is so fashion-forward, so I can rock heels or sneakers, and there are crop tops, and I can be creative and pair it all with different accessories, not just when I’m at games, but I can wear this collection anywhere.”
Photograph courtesy of the Atlanta Dream
Photograph courtesy of the Atlanta Dream
But the minds at the Dream franchise didn’t get to this point alone. After making moves with their apparel line last season with the fashion-centric “Our City. Our Dream” collection and the “Pay Some Respect to Women’s Sports” collection, they decided to push the boundaries of women’s sports retail even farther: They partnered with Monarch Commerce, a branch of female-funded, female-led investment firm Monarch Collection, which focuses solely on women’s sports. Monarch Commerce amplifies women’s sports retail and is comprised of many former Nike execs who understand the ethos of women’s sports apparel better than most. Their concept for the Dream is to take the traditional approach of creating men’s merch and then simply sizing it for women and throwing it out the window. Instead the styles designed by women, for women (but, sure, men can get in on the fashion-forward action, too). The “Homegrown” collection is also just the first of many that Monarch will create alongside the Dream.
“The decision to work with Monarch was easy, because they are a women-led organization, and we always want to champion women as much as possible,” says Kaila Pettis, senior director of brand for the Dream. She also recalls one of the first meetings with the Dream and Monarch teams together. “We had a round table, and there were almost 20 of us sitting around the table, and all of the sudden someone stopped the meeting to point out there were no men there. It was just a table full of powerful women.”
No surprise at all, this partnership is another first for an WNBA team, and a meeting of the minds of two brands with a deep understanding that despite the increase in female sports fans, women still have less access to quality merchandise. Fortunately, the Dream and Monarch are set to change that, one bedazzled t-shirt at a time.
Advertisement
