Your Next Creative Challenge: Build Community for the Fathers of Girls Who Play Sports

Brands can help restructure youth systems and ensure equal access

In 2023, the Phoenix Mercury hired Nate Tibbetts, who had previously never coached women’s basketball. They justified their decision by sharing his identity as a “girl dad.” The implication: the “girl dad” badge grants men an inherent legitimacy within women’s sports. Meanwhile, women parents of young athletes gained only what men have been willing to grant—namely, “soccer mom” status.

This is a problem where smart, inclusive brands can help create opportunity. And “soccer mom” is a stereotype that marketers can help dispel—because they’ve been partly responsible for infusing it into culture.

A little more on the cultural problem, for brand thinkers looking to make change through sports: By age 14, girls are twice as likely as boys to drop out of sports, with lack of support, confidence and access cited as primary reasons. This raises the question of who’s being impacted by this discrepancy: girls, mothers or fathers? The answer: all three. Girls lose opportunities for development and identity formation; moms are expected to carry the support burden; dads remain structurally, culturally disengaged.

Historically, marketing has reproduced dominant ideals of masculinity, positioning men’s sports as the standard while marginalizing women’s. Media coverage and brand content has reinforced this imbalance by limiting exposure and framing women athletes in ways that diminish their legitimacy.

Why should brands take notice? Because the girls’ youth sports industry is a rapidly growing segment within the broader $40 billion youth sports market yet remains systematically undervalued. And we’ve spent decades focusing on “soccer moms,” while failing to ask as brands: where are the dads, and why are they still treated as optional participants?

There’s simply a huge brand opportunity to foster alternative communities where parents—especially dads—champion their daughters’ sports participation. And creative solutions can emerge from within different levels of social culture.

Here are some ideas on where brands can show up, and how…

Micro-level: Speak to Dads Themselves

The problem is not the presence of “soccer moms.” It’s the norms that encourage their labor while failing to redistribute it. Research consistently shows that mothers spend significantly more time coordinating children’s extracurricular activities, including sports participation, than fathers. And studies show that boys receive more parental investment in competitive pathways, while girls are more likely steered toward recreational participation. The rise of the “girl dad” is virtue signaling, implying that men only support gender equity when it becomes personally relevant. We need normalization, not sporadic visibility.

Brands can encourage dads to engage in girls’ sports with the same consistency and expectation of excellence that they bring to boys. Influential “girl dads” can use their power to change norms by engaging in grassroots activism.

Can your brand be a bridge to coaching, attending games, advocating for resources and treating daughters as legitimate athletes? A brand like Nike is well positioned to contribute. Its youth-sports initiatives already encourage adults to become coaches, while its Coaching HER program provides education around coaching girls. Imagine evolving that infrastructure through a “Coach Her, Dad” initiative. If your brand is about showing up, demonstrate showing up as a norm.

Mid-level: Show Up for Youth Sports Leagues

Youth sports organizations often unintentionally reinforce gender disparities through resource allocation, scheduling and cultural messaging. Prime practice times, better facilities and more experienced coaches are frequently reserved for boys’ teams. This bias discourages parental investment in girls’ sports and perpetuates lower participation.

Brands can help restructure youth systems and ensure equal access to facilities, coaching and visibility. And they can intentionally engage men in girls’ programs through targeted outreach.

Dove offers an existing blueprint through Body Confident Sport, providing resources intended to help coaches build body confidence among girls 11-17. Imagine extending that model from education to infrastructure. Brands could fund girls’ leagues while requiring investment in uniforms and equipment, equitable field access, coaching development and father recruitment.

Macro-level: Help Change Sports Media

Historically, women’s sports coverage has been limited—with attention to girls’ youth sports all but nonexistent. When it does occur, the commentary emphasizes personal stories, appearance or novelty over athletic performance. Recent pop culture moments—such as the rise of athletes like Coco Gauff, Caitlin Clark or Simone Biles, and increased women’s college basketball coverage—demonstrate potential for change. However, media and brand content can shift their framing to sustained, persistent portrayal of girls’ sports as competitive and worthy of investment. They must also portray fathers’ and male relatives’ involvement in girls’ sports as a meaningful choice, rather than a consolation prize.

This opportunity isn’t just for sports brands. An automotive brand can own the 6 a.m. drive to a tournament. An airline can tell the story of a dad traveling across the country to watch his daughter compete. A hotel chain can celebrate the father-daughter tournament weekend.

Brands have shown an interest in growing women’s sports. But the future doesn’t begin in sold-out arenas. Rather, it begins on youth fields, in family dynamics and in who shows up early.

Imagine the business growth and life experience you can create as the brand that welcomes dads of girl athletes to become involved in their daughters’ priceless memories.

(This piece was crafted in partnership with The Collective Think Tank: a global consortium of academic minds and industry leaders focused on gender parity and improving diversity. The collaboration is led by The Collective, THE·TEAM’s women-focused division.)

Related: What Entertainment Brands Can Learn From the WNBA