How a Pro-Reality Sports Brand Aims to Compete With Transgender-Aligned Nike

XX-XY Athletics, a sportswear company championing women, aims to compete against the brand behemoth Nike, which XX-XY accuses of failing to stand up for women by pushing transgender ideology.

“My goal is to have a successful business that actually truly stands out for female athletes—not that does it in a fake way, like Nike, where they pretend to champion female athletes, but treat them with astonishing disregard,” XX-XY Athletics founder and CEO Jennifer Sey told the Daily Signal in an interview Wednesday.

Sey, a retired champion gymnast and former brand president at Levi Strauss & Co., noted that conservatives have passed legislation upholding fairness in women’s sports, and courts have upheld the laws, but few major brands are fighting this ideology.

A Brand Against Transgender Ideology

“I recognized that brands influence the culture, and we are fighting this battle, legislatively and politically, but not culturally, and I can do the culture part. That’s what I’m good at,” she said. Sey has written a book about how the leftist groupthink at Levi’s cost her her job.

“Now, I’m just like this ‘Little Engine That Could’ fighting all the cultural behemoths,” Sey noted. “But we’re really good at content that goes viral.”

XX-XY Athletics ads have gone viral, highlighting the female athletes who lose to men.

Her brand aims to “put the attention back on the girls.”

She faulted media coverage of West Virginia v. B.P.J., the Supreme Court ruling upholding West Virginia’s law preventing boys from competing in girls sports.

“They say, ‘Look at poor B.P.J., he’s so oppressed and sad,'” Sey noted. “I want you to pay attention to the girls who are cast aside, who are told to be quiet, sit down, shut up, and let the boy happen.”

XX-XY Athletics sells premium sportswear—from sweats, shorts, and T-shirts to hats, socks, and more.

Shifting the Overton Window

Sey, who lives in Denver, Colorado, said she aims to make it “cool” to stand for biological reality.

“I’m also just trying to make it normal and cool to say, ‘There’s men and there are women, and men cannot become women,'” she explained. “It provokes a conversation, if you wear this T-shirt in the community.”

“The vast majority of people agree with us, but they are afraid to say it out loud,” Sey noted. “I wear this T-shirt in deep-blue Denver, I’m wearing that logo now, and someone will say, ‘I agree with you. I didn’t know I was allowed to say that out loud.’ It moves the Overton window.”

Why Compete Against Nike?

Sey has set her sights on competing against Nike, not just because it is arguably the most recognizable sportswear brand but because it fails to stand up for women.

Sey mentioned Mary Cain, a middle-distance runner who allegedly suffered emotional abuse at the hands of a Nike Oregon Project coach. She also mentioned Nike’s refusal to guarantee the pay of Allyson Felix, an Olympic champion sprinter who feared having a child might impact her sports performance. Nike afterwards changed its policy to keep the pay and benefits for sponsored athletes for 18 months around pregnancy.

“This is not a company that champions female athletes,” Sey argued.

Sey also accused Nike of supporting transgender ideology, highlighting a 2023 Nike ad featuring transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney.

She mentioned a 2018 Nike ad campaign defending Caster Semenya, a South African runner with a disorder of sexual development in which biological males develop female traits. While Semenya has some female traits, he also has higher testosterone levels than women.

“The whole campaign was about how basically you’re a bigot and a racist if you think Semenya’s not a woman,” Sey said. “That normalizes this idea that there is more than one way to be a woman. There’s not.”

Nike did not respond to the Daily Signal’s request for comment by publication time.

Next Steps for XX-XY Athletics

XX-XY Athletics has nowhere near the brand power of Nike, but Sey says it’s investing in the rising generation.

“We have a team of 500-plus athletes at colleges and high schools across the country,” she said.

The brand has also partnered with Riley Gaines, and Olympic athletes including skeleton racer Katie Uhlaender, bobsledder Kaillie Humphries, and gymnast MyKayla Skinner.

While XX-XY does not have a “currently competing star athlete that’s Olympic or pro-level,” Sey said, “I have been in touch with some, I can’t quite convince them to take the leap with us. They’re afraid, they’re afraid that they’ll lose other contracts, and I respect it because they’re not wrong.”

XX-XY Athletics has publicly called on pro athletes to take a stand, and Sey remains hopeful that one of them will.

“I’ll find someone who’s brave enough to risk it and it will start a cascade,” she added. “I’m persistent.”