Two years ago today, Jennifer Sey launched a brand for women athletes and truthtellers. She knew the value of women's sports – as a national champion gymnast and an executive who saw the market was undervalued.
A longtime advocate for athletes, she also knew something had gone wrong. The conversation around who competes as a woman had drifted so far from biological reality, and what common sense people believe, that simply stating the obvious had become an act of courage.
So, she started XX-XY Athletics.
WHAT WE SET OUT TO DO
The founding belief: Change happens when culture shifts. Brands succeed when they’re at the center of culture.
WHAT TWO YEARS LOOKS LIKE
Twenty-plus viral moments. Seventy-five million views. A community of 300,000 followers. And a business that has sold more than 100,000 products, with millions of dollars in sales generated across 38 countries, 4,000 near perfect reviews averaging 4.8 out of 5 stars and a return rate so low (under 5%) any big brand would be envious, XX-XY Athletics has proven the market for principled, premium activewear is real and growing.
Our most popular products feature the logo, the symbol of the movement.
Riley Gaines partnered with the brand to launch its first capsule collection in honor of Title IX and the bold, selling out within a week. That is what happens when product matches your values.
We have stood at the White House for the signing of the Executive Order protecting women's sports. We have been on the steps of the Supreme Court. We have been on the sidelines at the US Open. And we have done it while outperforming industry giants in engagement efficiency without multimillion dollar budgets.
Our approach is simple: we tell true stories about real women. “Real Girls Rock” earned more than 40 million views because it was gritty and was shared by J.K. Rowling and Martina Navratilova.
Our first brand collaboration with the OG real woman athlete Riley Gaines, a celebration of Title IX and the bold, sold out within a week. That is what happens when product matches your values.
THE ATHLETES WHO MAKE THIS REAL
We work with more than 370 athletes. Olympians. Professionals. But mostly college athletes -- young women navigating a world where speaking up can cost them a roster spot or a scholarship. We give them a platform and, where we can, we back it up with NIL support.
These athletes are the reason we exist. When they win, we win. When their sport is protected, the whole thing we have built means something.
Their advocacy does not stop at competition eligibility, and neither does ours. We are expanding our work to prevent athlete abuse and to amplify the full range of causes women in sports care about. Fairness is not one issue -- it is a whole value system.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Progress is real. The President signed an Executive Order. The Supreme Courts is weighing in. States like Colorado, Washington and Maine are putting these questions to voters. The Overton window has moved -- and it will keep moving.
But let us be clear about where we are. This issue took twenty years to reach its current state. It will take sustained effort to return to the simple truth: that biological sex is real, that it matters in athletic competition, and that protecting women's sports is not a radical idea.
But this is not without challenge and backlash. Just this past weekend, XX-XY Athletics was suspended from advertising on Meta. This kind of disruption sets others back. But not Sey. The athlete in her never gives up so she took to X and did something radical: she told the truth. She talked about the ban, and it inspired a whole new wave of customers. The brand’s ecommerce list has grown 20% this year so far. All driven by viral moments.
We are one brand. We do not have the resources of the institutions we are pushing back against. But we believe what we say. Our athletes believe it. Our customers believe it. And increasingly, the broader public is willing to say they do too.
David did not beat Goliath by getting bigger. He beat him by being exact.
WHAT'S NEXT
Year three is about doing the now, while dreaming big. More athletes. A broader product line for more sports. More creativity, with the same emotional precision that has driven everything we have built.
We are making it cool to stand up for biological reality. We are making fairness fashionable. And we are proving, order by order and view by view, that people are ready to join this movement.
They always were. They just needed someone to go first.
