For decades, most sports products aimed at women were developed according to a very simple formula: take what had already been designed for men, make it smaller and change its appearance.
In the industry, this practice is known as ‘shrink it and pink it’: make it smaller and make it look suitable for a woman.
The problem is not just about marketing. Footwear, clothing, training programmes, recovery protocols, nutritional products and monitoring technologies have long been developed primarily on the basis of data relating to men. The female body has been treated as a variation on the standard model, rather than as an independent starting point for research and innovation.
It is a fact that women’s participation in sport has grown faster than the body of knowledge built up around female athletes. This gap limits the quality of decisions regarding training, nutrition, injury prevention, recovery and equipment.
But it also represents a huge business opportunity. When an entire population has been little studied and served mainly through adapted products, every unmet need can become the starting point for a new product category.
The data gap is also a market gap
Talking about innovation for women’s bodies does not mean claiming that all women have the same needs or that every product must necessarily be different from its male counterpart. It means stopping treating the male body as the default.
Anatomical differences, the menstrual cycle, the use of hormonal contraceptives, pregnancy, the postpartum period, the menopause, energy availability and pelvic floor health can all influence the sporting experience. At the same time, age, sport, competitive level, medical history and individual characteristics make it impossible to reduce everything to a universal formula.
It is precisely this complexity that opens the door to innovation.
In research carried out with Team USA athletes, the priorities identified directly by the athletes themselves included period-related symptoms, recovery, contraception, mental health and nutrition in relation to their menstrual cycle. These are not peripheral issues: they affect an athlete’s ability to train consistently, recover, avoid dropping out and prolong their career.
However, we must avoid the opposite mistake: turning data that is still incomplete into simplistic guidelines. The recent UEFA consensus on menstrual cycle monitoring, for example, recognises the potential of tracking, but emphasises the need for rigorous protocols, privacy protection and individual interpretations. Recording data does not automatically mean knowing how to use it.
For start-ups and brands, therefore, the opportunity does not lie in promising an algorithm capable of explaining every variation in women’s performance. It lies in building better tools to gather information, recognise individual patterns and support more informed decisions.
The economic impact extends far beyond professional sport. According to the World Economic Forum and the McKinsey Health Institute, women spend, on average, 25 per cent more of their lives in poor health than men. Closing this gap could generate at least one trillion dollars in economic value annually by 2040.
Sport can become one of the most advanced testing grounds for this transformation. Female athletes push their bodies to the limit, generate a wealth of data and are able to describe with precision the issues which, in various forms, affect millions of amateur female athletes.
The strategic question, then, is: how can we turn this experience into useful and scalable products?
F50 Sparkfusion: from the athletes’ perspectives to the product design
The Adidas F50 Sparkfusion football boot offers a tangible response.
Launched in 2025, it was developed with the needs of female footballers and the changes in modern women’s football in mind. It is not simply an F50 produced in smaller sizes.
In a conversation with The Breakaway, Mahsa Aryan, the Adidas product manager involved in the project, told us about a process that lasted almost four years. The starting point was a database of over 10,000 foot scans, which was used to develop an average female foot shape and identify differences that a unisex product tended not to take properly into account.
The analysis led to the development of a design based on average anatomical characteristics, such as a narrower heel, a different arch structure and a specific volume in the medial area of the foot.
But the research did not stop at morphology.
Adidas utilised Connected Ball technology – an electronic tracking system integrated into the ball that detects match dynamics in real time – to analyse the evolution of women’s football, with a particular focus on increased speed and the frequency of changes of direction. The outsole was therefore developed to combine traction and rotational ability, featuring semi-conical studs and certain dimensional modifications compared to unisex models.
At the public launch, adidas explained that female footballers such as Trinity Rodman, Linda Caicedo and Jule Brand completed agility tests faster in the Sparkfusion than in unisex designs. The product was also tested with clubs such as Arsenal Women, Real Madrid Femenino and OL Lyonnes.
It is important to clarify what the product does not promise. The shoe is not presented as a solution to anterior cruciate ligament injuries. Injuries depend on a complex combination of loads, surfaces, fitness, biomechanics, individual history and many other variables. Developing a more suitable shoe does not justify scientific shortcuts or claims that the data cannot support.
The value of the Sparkfusion case study, however, lies in the method: starting with a problem identified by the athletes; collecting specific data; integrating anatomy, movement and the characteristics of the game; involving professional players, staff and the community; and transforming these insights into a product accessible at various levels, from the entry-level version to the elite version.
Our conversation with Mahsa Aryan also highlights a commercial aspect that is often overlooked: women may follow different purchasing paths. Whilst in the men’s market, seeing a favourite star use a product can strongly influence a choice, many female footballers seek reassurance from their team, their coach, their family or their teammates.
Designing a new product, therefore, is not enough. We also need to rethink distribution, communication, testing and recommendations.
This is where clubs and sports organisations can take on a more strategic role. They are not merely the recipients of sponsorship, but environments for research, testing and co-creation. They can facilitate listening to female athletes, involve medical and technical staff, and help brands understand the difference between a genuine need and a mere marketing hunch.
Provided, of course, that female athletes are not treated as a free source of data. Consent, transparency, ownership of information and recognition of their contribution must be built into the model from the outset.
When a start-up brings a category to the fore
Innovation doesn’t just come from big brands.
IDA Sports was founded after co-founder Laura Youngson, whilst working on a women’s football project, realised that the players were using boots designed for men or children. That observation sparked a research project involving podiatrists, biomechanics experts, physiotherapists, coaches and hundreds of female footballers.
The start-up has transformed an almost invisible problem into a commercial category: football boots designed specifically for women and girls.
In 2024, Kynisca, the group of women’s football clubs owned by Michele Kang, led a $2 million seed round in IDA Sports.
The initial role of a start-up may well be to demonstrate that a need exists: to generate the first data, develop a sector-specific vocabulary and drive the entire market towards change.
When a start-up highlights a neglected issue, even the established players are forced to respond. The result is not just the growth of a business, but an expansion of the options available to consumers.
The Tour de France Femmes turns spectators into participants
The relationship between women’s sport and innovation is not just about what the athletes wear. It can create new consumer behaviours around the competition.
The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift is one of the most interesting examples of this.
In 2026, 23.2 million people in France watched at least one minute of the race. Live broadcasts achieved a 32.9 per cent audience share, very close to the 35.1 per cent recorded by the men’s Tour; the Mont Ventoux stage attracted an average of 3.1 million viewers and a peak of 5.1 million.
But the Tour’s reach is not measured solely through television.
The Tour de France Femmes demonstrates how a competition can become a platform capable of turning attention into a fanbase, participation and commercial value, as we analysed in greater detail in our in-depth feature on the 2026 edition.
In recent years, the organisers, team and partners have devised various initiatives to turn interest into participation. L’Étape du Tour de France Femmes allows amateur cyclists to ride along the routes of the professional race. In 2026, it attracted around 10,500 cyclists, a third of whom were women. The Elles Arrivent initiative, meanwhile, brought 48 girls aged between 13 and 16 into the Tour’s ecosystem, including the race route, team buses, professional riders and television production facilities.
Brands are also working on the transition from spectator to cyclist.
Liv Cycling has used the ‘More Femmes on Bikes’ platform to build communities through group rides and activations along the Tour route. Zwift has combined storytelling, digital engagement and community building with ‘Watch the Femmes’.
In 2026, Canyon//SRAM launched We Femmes, supported by Canyon, SRAM, Zwift and Ryzon. The idea is simple: every woman who cycles invites another woman who doesn’t yet cycle. Canyon has committed to bringing at least a thousand women a year to the movement’s events and rides for ten years.
It’s not just a marketing campaign. It’s a customer acquisition strategy.
A new female cyclist can get involved through a free event, find a community, buy clothing and kit, use training platforms, take part in trips and amateur events, and develop a lasting relationship with the sport.
The journey becomes: discovery → viewing → fandom → participation → commercial ecosystem
It is much broader than the traditional model: audience → sponsorship
In cycling, this dynamic is particularly evident, because anyone watching a stage can then get on their own bike and try the same climb. But the principle applies to other sports too: turning the visibility of the elite into a concrete invitation to take up the sport.
This development can give rise to more inclusive bicycles and geometries, saddles and components, technical clothing, nutrition, coaching platforms, events, travel services, communities and insurance products. The Tour does not merely promote a competition: it helps to expand the market centred on women cyclists.
Five areas for innovation
The examples of adidas, IDA Sports and the Tour highlight at least five areas where sport tech and femtech can converge.
1. Footwear and equipment
Shoes, cleats, saddles, helmets and protective gear can be developed using more representative anatomical and biomechanical data. The aim should not be to create a single ‘women’s product’, but to increase choice through different shapes, configurations and levels of support.
2. Technical clothing
Breast support, period management, thermoregulation, fit, pregnancy and the postnatal period create needs that traditional sportswear has only partially addressed. Sports bras, period-friendly shorts and adaptable garments are performance products, not merely aesthetic accessories.
3. Nutrition and recovery
Energy intake, iron, bone health and recovery require protocols based on better data and tailored to the individual athlete. There is scope for products, diagnostics, education and services aimed at both elite and amateur female athletes.
4. Tracking and health data
Wearables and platforms can track the menstrual cycle, symptoms, training load, sleep, stress, injuries and recovery. However, competitive advantage will not be determined by the volume of data collected. It will depend on the quality of that data, the ability to interpret it without generalisations, and the trust built through the protection of the most sensitive information.
5. Participation and community
Innovation is not necessarily about hardware or software. Even a service that lowers barriers to entry can create a new category: sessions with no risk of being left behind, platforms for finding groups suited to one’s level, events, coaching, hire, maintenance and programmes designed around women’s safety and time constraints.
From brand ambassador to co-author
The common thread running through these spaces is not the consumer’s gender. It is the process of innovation.
Historically, female athletes have mainly been asked to promote existing products. The most interesting shift lies in involving them earlier on: in defining the problem, in research, in testing and in interpreting the results.
The relationship between athlete and brand can therefore evolve from endorsement to co-creation.
Clubs, leagues and federations can also become key players in this process. They have ongoing access to athletes, staff and communities; they can identify real-world challenges and help a start-up validate a product under a variety of conditions. In return, they gain innovation, new content, deeper partnerships and, potentially, new sources of revenue.
To achieve this, clear rules are needed: to involve both professional and amateur female athletes, not just champions; to distinguish between statistical averages and individual needs; to measure results before making health claims; to provide financial recognition for female athletes’ contributions; to protect data and restrict its use to the agreed purpose; and to plan for distribution and accessibility right from the start.
Otherwise, there is a risk of simply replacing the old, adapted men’s product with a new ‘for women’ label that lacks a solid foundation.
The female body is not a niche market
Innovation often arises where the market has learnt to live with a problem without even noticing it anymore.
An uncomfortable shoe is considered normal. A symptom is simply put up with. Data is not collected. A woman who does not feel represented simply decides not to set foot in that shop, join that community or take up that sport.
Women’s sport makes these gaps more visible.
That is why it is not just a growing market. It is a research platform capable of generating knowledge, products and services that can reach a much wider population than just professional female athletes.
The next opportunity does not lie in creating a female version of what already exists. It lies in starting with needs that have been overlooked in the innovation process and building something that did not exist before.
When this happens, women do not become an additional market segment.
They help to create a new one.
Note to the reader: Elena Mirandola is the founder and CEO of The Breakaway., a strategic advisory firm that supports clubs, leagues, federations, brands and investors in building sustainable growth models for women’s sport. This article is part of “Women’s sport as a start-up”, a series produced by The Breakaway for Startupbusiness.
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