This week should, and hopefully will, be marked in history. All history, not just sport history. There has been a dynamic shift in how women’s sport is appreciated. But it’s only the beginning. Sue Strange, chief client officer at Music, the agency “designing British culture”, explains the long way to go and what needs to be done to get there.
This week has seen many notable moments in women’s football as the World Cup in Australia set a new benchmark for the highest number of tickets sold for a World Cup event, and even more impressive the Australia England semi-final was the highest audience for a televised sports game in Australia across any sports genre – not to mention gender.
Just think about that for a minute. In a sports mad nation where men’s rugby, cricket and many other sports have ruled supreme, a women’s football game became the most watched event ever, with 9 in 10 of those watching broadcast TV that evening, watching the game. Yes, you read it right, 9 in 10 people watching the game.
That’s a lot to be proud of, but when digging deeper at this World Cup we still have a long way to go to enable the women’s game to create its own true identity.
And why is this important? Take the words of Marta, the Brazilian footballer who retired this week – arguably the Sam Kerr or Khadija Shaw for her generation. In her retirement speech she reflected that when she started playing there was no reference, idol or identity for a young woman to come into the game and what barriers she had to break to become the record holder of the most goals – of any gender – to be scored at World Cups.
And that’s the point.
The women’s game has evolved in leaps and bounds but are we at the level yet that it has crept out of the shadow of the men’s game to give the next Martas hope that they can truly make it their own?
From our work in football, predominantly in the men’s game, for Manchester City football club for the last
15 years, alongside working with other clubs including Everton and Fulham, it’s truly when a clearly defined identity is created that feels ownable by the player or fan, that there is a real connection to the game in a way that makes it yours.
As we said, there has been great momentum in this World Cup and from a design perspective there’s been some movement in the right direction including a number of national teams having their own specific kit that is a different design to the men’s.
But there is much further to go. No longer should we have – as has happened at this tournament – the goalkeeping shirt of Mary Earps, the FIFA no.1 goalkeeper in the world, not deemed important enough to be part of Nike’s World Cup strategy, even when Earps offered to pay for part of the production of the regular shirt herself. Or as we have seen in certain instances, the sales of outfield players of different countries being restricted, including Canada, whose high-end ‘authentic national’ jersey is only available in a men’s cut, and not at all for women.
And beyond the merchandise, this also extends to badge design where both in national and club football the women’s game still borrows from the men’s. We need to learn more from trailblazers like the Dutch national team who in 2017 in an effort to support the growth of women’s football in the country redesigned the national team logo to give the women’s team their own badge. Maybe now is the time for the Lioness’s to truly create their own stamp on the game by having their own logo mark for their jerseys that no longer has male lions on it.
Whatever we think is the right thing to do, it’s important that we ride this wave of growth, popularity and interest in the game by making sure we get the fundamentals of design right to give the next generation of Lionesses (Matildas, Les Bleues, USWNT…) an identity that is truly theirs to help them excel at the highest levels.
London agency, Music, has helped to develop brands such as the Brit Awards, Manchester City Football Club, the NHS, London Fashion Week, Abbey Road, Dr Martens, and Oxford University. It has upcoming new work for Sage Gateshead, a new British icon in the NE and Fulham Football club and a gutsy attitude for creating design that shapes culture.
[Cover image by jason charters on Unsplash]
