Courtesy of Marï Photographe
Sports fan wear for women has been overlooked for years. Merchandise that has been directed towards women hasn’t always been the best quality, design, comfort, and fit. The co-founders of Line Change, Julie Petry and Angela Price, have developed a clothing brand that is redefining fashionable sports wear for female sports fans. Collaborating with teams across the NHL, PWHL, NBA, CFL, CHL, and AHL with more to come, they have created solutions to these merchandise problems in a fun and creative way.
I was fortunate enough to speak with them about their brand and being women in the sports business but to start us off here are some quick fire questions!
Q: Favorite sports teams?
Julie: Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Tigers, and the Detroit Lions. As well as any team my boys are on.
Angela: Montreal Canadiens- and the Denver Broncos will forever be my favorite football team, though I haven’t followed them very closely the last few years.
Q: Favorite player?
Julie: #46 Jeff Petry.
Angela: I have to say Carey Price. During the height of my love for the Broncos I loved watching Demaryius Thomas play.
Q: Go-to drink on gameday?
Julie: A hydration drink I made up with amino acids and a collagen/hydration support powder. I know, boring, but it’s a must.
Angela: I am so boring and mostly just drink water. Every now and then I don’t mind a cold beer to calm the nerves.
Q: Walk up song?
Julie: I love Rock ‘N Roll by Joan Jett.
Angela: Soulja Boy, it just gets the crowd going.
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Now, for some more on Line Change and the brand that they are!
Q: Can you describe your job/position?
We’re the co-founders of Line Change. We do everything from managing our growing team, leading design, and anything else that comes up day to day. Everyday looks different to be honest. We never really know what hat we will have to wear each day.
Q: Where did the original idea for Line Change come from?
For years before Line Change began, we would be shopping in team stores looking for great pieces to wear to the games and could never find anything we liked. The female sports fan seemed to be an afterthought and we found ourselves picking out items in the mens section and then styling those pieces in new ways to become the clothing we actually wanted to wear to games. We started creating pieces for the team our husbands played for together, and it quickly snowballed into something much bigger across the NHL.
Q: How important was creating this company, especially being women who are constantly surrounded by sports?
Unfortunately, women's struggles with finding their place in sports is always a topic. Even down to the clothing options for female fans. When you think about it, it is so silly. Women control over $20 trillion in world wide spending; they are almost always the ones managing the sports schedules, buying the tickets, buying the merch in advance- why no one was catering to them in their own category of merchandise still baffles us, but we’re happy to be playing a part in carving out more space for females in sport and we love that we can do it while funneling 10% of proceeds from every sale back to the communities that support us.
Q: Julie, you had said in an Instagram story a few weeks ago that seeing people choose to wear Line Change outside of sporting events is an amazing feeling. Could you talk a bit about why that's such an important feeling and such an important thing for your brand?
Julie: There’s no better compliment to Ang and I than seeing people wear our items unprovoked. Not only did they want our items to wear to a game but they chose it as one of their everyday staples and that is something you never saw with women's fan apparel before. It was almost exclusively something that was fitting for the game but otherwise didn’t fit in with your personal day to day style. With every item we create, we want it to be what you reach for in your closet, whether you are going to dress it up to wear out after a game or get comfortable after a long day! When we see that, we know it means they love it and feel comfortable and confident in it; that is just the best feeling.
Q: What has been the biggest challenge for you both during the process of this company?
The biggest challenge to date has been the lack of control we have over integral third parties- such as overseas suppliers, production timelines, printers, shipping providers, etc. We have a vision for where we want this company to go and the standards we want to provide our teams with, but our first few years we were learning so much in every area of our business that we had to outsource a lot of those logistical elements to third parties that knew more than us on how to fulfill and move product around, and we learned some steep lessons about how it impacts the perception of Line Change to our end customer when some of those logistics fall short of expectations.
Q: What has been the biggest learning curve you have had with Line Change?
Angela: I think being the boss sounds like it's all fun and games, or I did at least. But it ain’t always fun, and it is rarely easy. Especially as we grow and have team members putting all of their eggs in our basket, you really don’t want to screw this up for them. You don’t want to let anyone down. So we’re not only trying to run the operational side of our business properly, but we’re also trying to learn and educate ourselves on how to be good leaders. Julie and I are so passionate about Line Change being a company you love working for in all aspects. It is hard and it is something we are constantly having to stay on top of.
Q: Have you had to teach yourselves anything during this process?
Absolutely. So many things. Honestly too many to list. We did so much googling in the early days of getting this off the ground and constant wondering if you’re doing it right or if there’s a better way to approach something. We’re lucky that both of us and our team are all pretty enthusiastic about learning and there’s usually something new we’re learning every day.
Courtesy of Marï Photographe
Q: What was the decision behind involving charities in the company and why did you decide to work with team charities?
Angela: Julie and I both very much see the value in giving back when and where we can, it is something we have seen eye to eye on since the start and we know a lot of other hockey families do as well. We actually started doing this clothing line strictly to just raise money for charity. Once we saw the potential it had we knew that turning this into a real business would allow us to maximise that impact in communities far beyond the cities we lived in.
Q: What has been your favourite moment so far with this journey?
Julie: My favourite moments would probably be each launch during the season; to see the excitement build up on our socials and for people to be able to get the items we have been working on for so long is very rewarding. We joke that we’re sick of seeing the items by the time they actually launch in team stores because we’re working so far in advance now on these collections, but there’s a special kind of revival of enthusiasm around them when we get to see them in team stores or see how the wives and fans are styling our pieces and bringing that vision to life. My other favorite moments involve being able to do this with one of my best friends, getting to travel together, create collections, and grow a team together!
Q: As women who own a business, and as women in sports, what is a piece of advice you would give to a young woman trying to navigate her role in the industry?
Juile: Control what you can control. Stay organized. Be proactive, not reactive as you are working your way up. Also, don't be afraid to ask or suggest anything, Angela and I love feedback and advice. It only makes everyone better!
Angela: This is a hard one. I would say, let them underestimate you then work your butt off to prove them wrong. At the same time don’t be a know it all, be a learn it all.
Q: If you now, could tell yourself something at the beginning of this journey, what would it be?
Don’t sweat the small stuff and trust your gut. Some of our biggest “setbacks” at the beginning of this really weren’t that big at all, they just felt really big. It’s also easy to get imposter syndrome and seek out advice from those you think know more than you so you make the “right” choices when ultimately we knew a lot more than we thought we did about what we wanted Line Change to be. Staying true to that and then surrounding ourselves with great people who could support that vision made things much easier as we grew.
Courtesy of Marï Photographe
Q: Any exciting things you can tease or are looking forward to about Line Change?
So many exciting things are coming to Line Change. We are always looking for more ways to get Line Change into more hands. We will be growing our direct to consumer line, introducing an entirely new area of our business as well as announcing some new leagues we are entering!
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Women's sports, women working in sports, and female fans continue to rise and the community is consistently growing- now we can do it in style.
Edited by Giana Robertaccio