The Sports Bra revolutionized the bar scene. Now, it’s seeking the public’s help to raise $1.2m
In 2022, Jenny Nguyen launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to put four walls around both a dream and an underserved market in the industry: a sports bar built entirely and intentionally for women’s sports. Four years later, The Sports Bra has evolved from a viral success story into an emerging asset class of its own. Now, the Portland, Ore.
based company is launching a public crowdfunding campaign called “T he Own a Piece of The Bra,” allowing fans to buy equity in the company for as little as $250. The campaign, hosted through the investment platform Republic, aims to raise $1. 2 million as the company looks to accelerate national expansion, grow its franchise infrastructure and open a second company-owned location in Portland.
The announcement comes at a moment when women’s sports has shifted from cultural movement to financial juggernaut; the NWSL’s new Columbus NWSL expansion franchise commanded a $205 million expansion fee , while the WNBA’s Golden State Valkyries are being valued near $1 billion before even establishing a long-term on-court history. “When we came onto the market in 2022, folks were doubtful of the concept,” Nguyen told The Athletic. “Trolls saying nobody cared about women’s sports, that we’d last two months because we weren’t showing men’s sports.
“To have the kind of feedback right out of the gates both locally and internationally, it just helped springboard this new movement, creating a new market in the food and beverage industry, and then immediately we started to see other places opening up, because the proof of concept was there when the sports bra became successful. ” Nguyen is encouraged not only by the success of The Sports Bra, but by how quickly others followed. She has watched the shift happen in real time as more bars across the country opened spaces where women’s basketball, soccer, hockey and volleyball no longer had to fight for a single television in the corner while an NFL preseason game dominated the rest of the screens.
“When we first opened in 2022, the vast majority of our guests were women and nonbinary people,” Nguyen said. “A huge part of Portland’s LGBTQ+ community saw The Sports Bra as a place where they belonged, where they felt seen, represented and included. Back then, probably 95 percent of the people coming through our doors were either part of the LGBTQ+ community, women, nonbinary people or diehard women’s sports fans.
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