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Long before Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and his 776 Foundation arrived at The Sports Bra in Portland, Ore., this month, announcing plans to help franchise it, owner Jenny Nguyen envisioned a place for underrepresented communities to come together and watch underscreened sporting events.
In February 2022—before Reddit co-founders, before pop-ups with Athletes Unlimited in Chicago or Aflac and Togethxr at March Madness, before becoming a New York Times Crossword and Jeopardy! clue and before attracting brand visitors like Clif Bar, Focus Features and The Athletic—Nguyen launched a Kickstarter for a women’s sports bar and restaurant. In less than two weeks, she hit her target, and in less than one year, she watched The Sports Bra make its first $1 million.
The Sports Bra has set the table for numerous other bars focused on women’s sports—with more joining the mix amid rising women’s sports ratings. As Nguyen uses Ohanian’s investment to grow The Sports Bra nationally—and perhaps globally—she has maintained the bar’s commitment to equity by ensuring that “100% of the returns from the 776 Foundation’s investment will be earmarked for future donations to advance future generations of women athletes.”
ADWEEK met up with Nguyen at Portland’s Spirit of 77 sports bar during her March Madness pop-up—just shy of The Sports Bra’s two-year anniversary—to talk about its growth, influence and the mark it can leave on women’s sports and the brands that orbit them.
ADWEEK: What did your initial vision for The Sports Bra look like?
Nguyen: When I opened, I just had visions of me and my friends having a place to hang out and watch women’s sports. I come from a background of being a chef, so I was heavily focused on the food being amazing … great drinks. We made it a point to focus on women-owned-and-operated businesses, like breweries, distilleries, cider, wine and so on.
Coming from a background in the food and beverage industry for 15-plus years, I know that it’s a male-dominated industry, very similar to sports. We want to represent women on all fronts: Let’s put them at the forefront, give them representation, investment, support, promotion.
Who were the first people through the doors?
Before we opened the doors, we were getting outreach from people all across the globe—whether they were an athlete, maybe they’re in their 70s now and played prior to Title IX—saying what it meant to have a space like The Sports Bra actually physically be in existence. That included people who are parents of daughters who were just starting softball, soccer or gymnastics.
On our grand opening weekend—April 1, 2022—we had several players from the [University of Connecticut women’s basketball] three-peat team [2001-02 through 2003-04] that when it went public that we were opening, all phoned each other and were like, “Let’s buy tickets to Portland.” They came in, got a table to watch the Final Four, hugged and cried. It was emotional: Not only are we giving spaces for fans to celebrate fandom spectatorship, but we’re giving athletes the recognition that they have always deserved.
And now some of the greatest names in women’s sports have their signatures and memorabilia on your walls.
Then we have athletes that people don’t recognize, but they’re epic athletes. We had a woman who just got inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame—a three-sport athlete from Oregon State University—who came in the day after she got inducted, took some photos with us and then signed the wall. We had a pair of Paralympians come in and sign the wall.
We’ve had small, women-owned Vietnamese business owners that come in to thank me. There is this intersectionality of The Sports Bra that I hadn’t anticipated when we opened.
How have you navigated the growing demand for women’s sports and seats at The Sports Bra to this point?
Part of it is small business entrepreneurship, requiring flexibility and adaptability while hanging on to the most core elements of your mission and values.
The second part of it is community. From the very micro to the people right next door to our building, to the macro, as in the global community. I thought [the community] was women’s sports fanatics, and it’s actually so much larger than that. It’s almost like a Petri dish: We put something out there, and everybody has contributed to this exponential growth.
What did it mean for The Sports Bra when brands started to notice its success?
At the very beginning, I didn’t know what was gonna happen, so I said yes to everything.
We have a very privileged seat at the table where we’re able to say, “OK, how mission-aligned is this? Does it promote girls’ and women’s sports? Does it protect trans rights? Is it legislative? Or is it just dollars or just big brands trying to latch on to something that’s very community-oriented?”
When Buick reached out to us—an international brand—my first question to them was what’s their outlook on trans rights? What is General Motors’ stance on trans athletes? On trans employees? Do they have the same rights as everyone else in the company? We knew that they were a big partner for March Madness, but we’re a small brand, and we have things that are very close to our hearts that need to align in order for us to sign on the dotted line.
Amid rising viewership and increased visibility and opportunity for athletes, what role has The Sports Bra—and bars that have followed its lead—played in the progress of women’s sports?
I would never say that The Sports Bra caused anything, but we’re one domino in an absolute ocean of dominoes that have been falling for more than 50 years since Title IX.
The Sports Bra has really given a proof of concept. In men’s sports, for example, people, businesses, companies, corporations, leagues and teams are willing to invest dollars in potential. When it comes to women’s sports, I don’t feel like we’ve gotten that luxury: It has always been proven. If you can prove it, then maybe we’ll put something behind it, and that sets the starting line 10 miles back for women and women athletes.
We opened the doors to a space where people have easy access to women’s sports, and then bam, day one, 3,000 people showed up. We’ve tapped into something that has been needed for a long time, so we help to prove that the fan base is out there. Now we’re seeing other bars open and seeing exactly the same turnouts, the demand for more spaces like that.
How have your thoughts on expanding The Sports Bra changed over time?
A year ago, I thought to myself, “I’ve exceeded all my own expectations. Could I live with just one spot and be happy? Absolutely, I’m living my best life, right?”
But then when I thought about [the fact that] we have 40 seats. People fly in from all across the globe, they bring their luggage from the airport and they want us to be the first stop.
When I think about making people go to a tiny spot in Portland, Ore., to get that feeling, it doesn’t feel fair. It feels like everybody, every single person, deserves to feel seen, represented, celebrated. I want to be able to create more spaces, more opportunities for the next generation to come in and see a future for themselves.
