The NWSL has signed a season-long sponsorship deal with podcaster Alex Cooper’s beverage brand Unwell Hydration as part of the league’s “efforts to reach young women,” according to Katie Deighton of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Cooper will “appear at games and promote the league as part of the deal,” which will cost Unwell Hydration just over $3M. This is the first partnership for the brand since its introduction at the end of last year. NWSL also said that it signed E.l.f. Cosmetics, another brand “popular among young women,” as a presenting partner of its annual Challenge Cup game for the next three seasons. The deals are “the latest in a wave of sponsorships connecting women’s sports to women’s brands.” The league, which begins its 13th season this month, “needs to sell soccer to a group of women who may not have grown up watching it on ESPN” or “may have been too young to witness the glory days of the U.S. women’s soccer team.” The Unwell Hydration deal will “lean on Cooper’s ability to bring large groups of women to offline events, as she did during speaking tours in 2023 and 2024” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/7).
NWSL signs sponsorship deal with Alex Cooper’s Unwell Hydration
