Breaking barriers for girls
in sport with Nike
by Dr Emily Matheson, PhD
EVERYBODY Associate Consultant
Breaking barriers for girls in sport with Nike
by Dr Emily Matheson PhD, EVERYBODY Associate Consultant
We collaborated with Nike to evolve their Made to Play Sports Bra Playbook to help coaches support girls in sport
Globally, girls face complex cultural, social, and economic barriers to play and sport. They drop out of sport at twice the rate of boys – and have fewer sport opportunities overall.
Early adolescence is a critical time where formerly active girls disengage from sport, due to reasons such as appearance-related anxiety, uncomfortable and objectifying uniforms, teasing from peers and adults, and untrained coaches. The result? 80% of 11–17 year-old girls around the world are not active enough.
One way to create more body confident sporting environments for girls and coaches is recognising teachable moments, such as a girl’s first sports bra fitting! We worked with Nike’s Social & Community Impact team to evolve their Made to Play Sports Bra Playbook, Distribution Guide and Fit Card to positively impact girls' relationship with their bodies.
Background
Having the right apparel and equipment to participate in sport is key to comfort and confidence, and that includes sports bras. But unfortunately, sports bras can be seen as a taboo topic. Coaches often report that approaching body image-related topics with their athletes is intimidating, and they’re concerned they’ll do more harm than good.
As part of their Made to Play commitment to get kids moving, Nike has created resources that support coaches and caring adults in addressing sensitive topics, including the Sports Bra Playbook, Distribution Guide and Fit Card. It’s available as a free digital resource for coaches and is included with sports bras that are donated to sporting organisations. The guide provides contextual information about body image, sports and bras, and tangible easy-to-implement actions, so that coaches can feel confident and can create a positive experience for girls receiving their first sports bra.
In 2021, Nike began working with me and Professor Phillippa Diedrichs from EVERYBODY to help evolve its Sports Bra Playbook. They wanted to ensure it was inclusive and grounded in the latest body image research and evidence-based theories.
“Realizing a caring coach is critical to helping kids see their potential, our goal was to provide a foundation for coaches to understand how girls experience body confidence in sport environments and how they can support them. EVERYBODY simplified and articulated research surrounding girls' experiences, and they helped turn it into a framework that gives coaches actionable information.”
– Kelsey Moore, Made to Play Director, Social & Community Impact North America, Nike
Our role
Working collaboratively with Nike, our EVERYBODY team reviewed the existing materials and evolved them by:
Adding tailored, evidence-based content suited to the target audience of girls and coaches. For example, we covered how body talk (comments about appearance that reinforce narrowly defined beauty and appearance ideals) might emerge in the scenario of a first sports bra fitting, the effects of body talk on girls’ body image, and the importance of creating a body talk-free zone and how to do this.
Providing coaches with tangible strategies for how to approach the conversation of sports bra fittings with girls, such as the importance of expectation setting and considering factors that may impact the experience, such as puberty or religion. We included example scripts and guidelines on phrases to use versus avoid.
Condensing and restructuring the content to optimise the readability of the guide so that coaches felt at ease and supported.
A collaborative process
“EVERYBODY is the best in the biz…they brought excellence and expertise to this important work. They taught us so much along the way. We’re excited to continue to learn from them and work with them on distribution plans and further implementation of this work as part of our Made to Play strategy.”
– Mariette Brethouwer, Made To Play Director, Social & Community Impact EMEA, Nike
While Nike had a clear vision, they were open to our ideas and approaches to make the tools engaging, informative and accessible for coaches. They understood and valued the importance of incorporating evidence-based content and being gender inclusive. This is evident in the final product, which strikes a perfect balance between engaging and informative content.
We also loved that Nike didn't shy away from discussing and incorporating body image topics that are usually overlooked or dismissed in educational content, such as the correct usage of female anatomy terms. Including these terms normalises girls' experiences and helps to break down stigma around puberty and the changing female body.
Outcomes
The evolved Made to Play Sports Bra Playbook is an engaging and accessible guide that teaches coaches how to address a typically taboo topic. We were delighted with the positive feedback we received from Nike about the evidence-based content. It gave them a new language to describe and discuss the body image issues that girls may face when trying on a new sports bra, or in any sporting environment.
The Sports Bra Playbook continues to be distributed with donated bras as part of Nike’s Made to Play commitment. It’s also available online as a free resource for coaches.
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LET’S MAKE AN IMPACT TOGETHER