Sophie Cunningham Controversy Sends XX-XY T-Shirt Sales Surging

Apparel brand XX-XY Athletics says it’s seeing a sales surge as its merchandise becomes a mark of support for Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham following her comments about transgender athletes.

A spokesperson for the e-commerce retailer—founded in March 2024 by former elite gymnast Jennifer Sey with a mission to “protect women’s sports”—told Front Office Sports that business has increased sixfold over the past two weeks, with August on pace to be its biggest sales month ever. Approximately 85% of purchases in that period have come from first-time customers, they said. 

The spike comes on the heels of a wide-ranging profile of Cunningham published by ESPN on July 21. In it, she sounded off on the highly politicized issue of trans women participating in female sports, saying she wanted to “protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.” 

Since then, rallies in support of the Fever guard have taken place outside of the team’s road games in Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, and Chicago. In each instance, the gatherings have been met by counter-protests from trans rights activists. XX-XY apparel has become something of a wardrobe staple for the pro-Cunningham crowds, which, despite their relatively small on-site size, have drawn plenty of attention online.  

Sey attended the Minneapolis rally on Aug. 2 alongside conservative activist and former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines, who advocates for banning trans women from competing in women’s sports. After the game, they both posed with Cunningham while wearing XX-XY tees. A post of the photo on X by an aggregator account has generated more than 4 million views; another photo shared by Gaines herself has 2 million views to date. Google searches for “XX-XY Athletics,” meanwhile, are up more than 5,000% over the past month. 

XX-XY shirts were also sported by two young Cunningham fans involved in an altercation with a Seattle Storm co-owner at a Fever-Storm game on July 28. The duo, who were holding a sign thanking Cunningham “for speaking up for girls,” told Undivided podcast host Brandi Kruse that a woman told them they were “effing insane” during the kerfuffle. Kruse later identified that woman as Storm minority owner Celeste Keaton. (In a statement to FOS, Storm majority owner Ginny Gilder confirmed that Keaton was involved in the incident, and issued an apology.)

Men Driving Sales 

XX-XY declined to disclose specific revenue or unit sales figures, but its spokesperson said the “step change in performance … isn’t slowing down.” While “anything with the logo is selling fast,” hats and its “Loud and Proud” tee—which features an American flag on the back—are among the top-performing products.

The spokesperson told FOS that XX-XY’s customer base has historically skewed heavily female. Over the past two weeks, however, the “percentage of men buying is higher than usual”—much closer to a 50-50 split. Asked about reasons for the shift, the spokesperson said the company “suspects Girl Dads are leaning in to stand up for their daughters.”

Polling consistently shows that a clear majority of Americans believe trans women should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports. Still, some research has identified a significant gender gap on the issue, especially among young people. A 2025 NBC News study, for example, found that the share of Gen Z men (72%) who said trans women should not be able to play female sports was much higher than the share of Gen Z women who said the same (56%). 

Cunningham’s own profile has grown rapidly alongside the transgender debate her comments to ESPN sparked within the league, which has prompted formal responses from WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert and the WNBA Players’ Association. 

The eighth-year guard has gained more than a million followers on both TikTok and Instagram this summer, placing her firmly among the league’s most-followed players on the latter platform. Two of the best-selling jerseys on the WNBA’s official storefront currently bear Cunningham’s name, and she’s also beginning to shop a “tell-all” book proposal, according to a report by Page Six. 

XX-XY’s social following has also grown as of late, albeit more modestly; per digital analytics firm Social Blade, the company’s Instagram account has gained about 17,000 new followers over the last 30 days, bringing its total to 123,000. Sey herself has a sizable following, too: roughly 250,000 across both Instagram and X, which she gained, in part, for being an outspoken critic of school closings during the pandemic.

Before starting XX-XY, Sey spent more than two decades in marketing at Levi’s, most recently as global brand president. She argues the commercial momentum behind both her still-new company and Cunningham isn’t fleeting: “This is the moment that protecting women’s sports is finally going mainstream,” Sey told FOS.  “We are making it cool to stand up for that protection. This is not capitalizing on culture-war noise. This is standing with women athletes—consistently, through the hard times, and without apology.”