The evolution of Women’s beach volleyball uniforms
A few years ago, the NCAA added Beach volleyball as a collegiate sport. Suddenly, girls could get a scholarship for playing the sport they loved, in a place they loved. Its tough to argue against playing on the beach, practicing on the beach, training on the beach… It’s THE BEACH. The news was too good to be true. But what would they wear? What would the Women’s beach volleyball uniforms look like?
Where it starts
Since the sport was now a possible avenue to a free education, parents started taking beach volleyball more seriously. Club volleyball is expensive and time-consuming. Uniforms (which PLASTIC designs and produces by the way) can also be VERY expensive if not sourced from an experienced vendor. Now that the girls were playing on the beach, we all had to figure out what they would wear! Women’s beach volleyball uniforms suddenly became a business.
The evolution
Since my company already was doing uniforms for many clubs throughout the USA, I started getting calls for beach club volleyball programs. The directors and coaches weren’t sure what they wanted, they just knew they had to provide something. Many of the California clubs were buying bikinis. It immediately became apparent to me that Women’s beach volleyball uniforms for 12-17-year olds weren’t about the bikini at all. Throw the argument about sex symbols and sexism out the window… It’s just not OK to make a young girl wear a bikini if she doesn’t want to, and many athletic shaped volleyball players don’t necessarily want to.
The Team
The purpose of an athletic uniform is to show professionalism and denote the players of a team, so they stand out from a crowd. That means a jersey, some shorts, maybe a backpack and some kind of hat. The colleges were already doing a form of that using running shorts and tanks as Women’s beach volleyball uniforms. I copied that idea, and did what I do best as a designer and made it ours by shaping it to Beach volleyball players bodies and styles, creating our version of Women’s beach volleyball uniforms.
Let us quote your program
PLASTIC has been sponsoring Beach volleyball events and players for almost 20 years. By doing business with big brands or brands not associated with our sport, you are not supporting the sport itself. The more sales we make, the more support we give to the sport. Its very simple. Please email me to tell you more about our Women’s beach volleyball uniforms and quote your project!
