Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) revealed their newest partnership with beauty giant Sephora on July 21. Sephora is the latest partner for AUSL which also includes IMG Academy and Major League Baseball (MLB).

As part of the partnership Sephora will now serve as the title sponsorship of the AUSL championship series between the No. 1 Talons and No. 2 Bandits. The championship series will take place at Alabama Softball’s Rhoads Stadium July 26-28, with all three games airing on ESPN or ESPN2.

As the title sponsor, Sephora will provide enhanced fan experiences with photo
moments, giveaways, and unique in-game activations at the championship series but also at AUSL All-Star Cup, a 21-game competition in August featuring 60 players competing for an individual title using AU’s leaderboard and scoring system.

Sephora will also deliver a Glam Suite to the AUSL athletes participating in All-Star Cup Media Day. Furthermore, both the league and Sephora will create custom social media posts and cross collaborations including behind the scenes content with AUSL athletes, as well as in-venue signage and marketing activations, both in person and online.

Sephora’s Championing of Women’s Sports

Sephora may be new to the women’s outdoor sport space, bringing a beauty partnership to the dirt, but they are no stranger to engaging with women’s sports teams and leagues. Currently, Sephora sponsors Unrivaled 3×3 basketball league, the WNBA’s newest franchise the Golden State Valkyries, and the NWSL’s recently announced Denver Summit FC who will begin play in 2026.

According to Vanessa Taveras, Chief Partnerships Officer with Athletes Unlimited, Sephora became interested in sponsoring and working with AUSL after seeing the MLB’s investment into the league and its future. Taveras explained, “I was sitting with Scott [Miranda; Miranda & Co. Communications]

in Major League Baseball’s offices on May 29th when we had the great fortune to be able to announce a strategic partnership and investment with Major League Baseball. I then received a LinkedIn message from the VP of partnership at Sephora saying we need to talk. Being able to announce that Major League Baseball was in this endeavor with us, I think created a moment where there was some credibility there to get us even further down the path. And we’ve just been on a full sprint since that day. It was very fast timeframe to put this relationship together and launch around the marquee element of our inaugural season with the championship series presented by Sephora.”

Although it may seem strange to think about a beauty brand getting involved in a sport that is outside in the dirt, sun, elements, and where many of the athletes cover their faces with helmets or face masks, Taveras detailed that the partnership aligns more clearly than people may think. She said, “To be able to bring a partnership like this, which is so uniquely not endemic to softball, but actually making the argument that it is in a lot of ways endemic to the softball experience because for our athletes in the way they show up, and the reflection of their own personal beauty that empowers how they perform on the field is something that I think is truly a game changer for us.”

Partnering with Women’s Sports Comes with Brand Loyalty

Furthermore, partnering with women’s sports brands, leagues, and teams is a chance to showcase authenticity through the players. Taveras described, “Brands outside of the most traditional sponsorship spenders are seeing the opportunity in a way that I don’t think has been measured before. So again, if you think about Sephora as a great example of that, until the last probably 18 to 24 months, not really having sports and sponsorship on their radar, realizing how unique the opportunity in the women’s sports landscape is, and then you combine that with the data that we all have been tracking about the fans of women’s sports and just how inclined they are to support the brands that show up for what they care about.” Taveras continued, “It’s not just about eyeballs and exposure, it’s really about that point of connection and authenticity.”

As Taveras explained, women’s sports is in a state of exponential growth and momentum, but it’s not simply ticket sales, merchandise, and viewership. Recently, a study by Parity revealed that 43% of fans who support women’s sports are more inclined to buy a brand if it has a partnership with a female athlete. Furthermore, Horizon Sports & Experiences (2024) study found that 67% of women’s sports fans make a point to support brands that sponsor their favorite teams or athletes.

Partnering with AUSL Allows Sephora to Expand its Geographical Reach

For Taveras, one of the largest benefits in the partnership for Sephora is expanding their geographical reach and serving and landing in spaces that they may not have been able to tap into without pairing with AUSL. As stated above, majority of Sephora’s other partnerships with women’s sports are located in large urban cities, but working with AUSL and their rotation of playing locations (i.e., Seattle,WA Round Rock, TX, Tuscaloosa, AL, Chattanooga, TN, Sulphur, LA, Norman, OK, Omaha, NE, Rosemont, IL, Witchita, KS, and Salt Lake City, UT) exposes the brand to new fans and new communities.

Taveras expressed, “The idea of aligning with a sport that is played on the dirt and outside under the sun in the summertime is a completely different way of thinking about how you take care of your skin, your hair, and how you treat your beauty routine. So it is an opportunity for Sephora to tell their story differently. And I think the other piece of it is geographically, the softball fandom in this country and the way the AUSL shows up is more geographically dispersed, and so it’s additive for them from a demographic perspective, in addition to balancing out a portfolio that hasn’t included until this time, sort of that outdoor, more gritty, aligned to sweat, dirt and performance opportunity.”

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