Sportswear company PlayerLayer teamed up with end-to-end sports consultancy 6EZ Group for the first chapter of its ‘Girls Belong’ collaboration campaign which builds on the Nottingham based apparel brand’s underlying #Belong marketing platform and aims to encourage girls to participate in sport by creating an environment where everyone belongs.
The partnership, which adds two women’s sports performance brands – Iceni and Zena – to PlayerLayer’s retail channels and is the latest tie-up for 6EZ’s ‘Female Athlete Health and Performance Programme’: an initiative designed to enable more women and girls to play sport without barriers.
Whilst PlayerLayer designs a range of sports products for girls with a focus on function and fit, the company believes that it doesn’t have all the answers and solutions and that to break down barriers to girls playing and staying in sport collaborations are vital: particularly related to self-consciousness and body-consciousness – two issues which regularly result in girls abandoning sport.
The aim of the initiative is to recognise the obstacles girls in sport every single day and to work with others to help everyone feel that they belong.
The campaign, which is hubbed around a bespoke Girls Belong webpage and primarily rolls out across social platforms and through a PR push, enforces the brand’s core message that ‘belonging’ is one of the most powerful elements in sports – especially for young people.
It was actually teased from November 2022, before it was officially launch in early March on International Women’s Day to celebrate all the coaches, teachers and players who inspire and enable girls to enjoy sport.
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PlayerLayer originally launched in 2008 with a single product line of customised baselayers. The design approach was to create simple, durable, multifunctional sports kits that last and which are customisable so that athletes feel a greater connection to their team and thus to make them feel that they ‘belong’. Later a sustainability element was added to the company ethos when it began making its EcoLayer leggings from old plastic water bottles and then its BambooMix kits.
Its kit supplier tie-ups range from universities, schools and amateur teams as well as a partnership with EFL League One club Forest Green Rovers (recognised by FIFA and the United Nations as the greenest sports club in the world) and Warwickshire County Cricket Club.
Following in the footsteps of sportswear brands dedicated to the environment, like Patagonia which is currently celebrating its 50th anniversary, the brand’s promise is ‘One Team, One Earth, Belong.’
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