WNBA All-Star Game live updates: Reaction to Team Collier routing Team Clark as Caitlin Clark sits out with injury

INDIANAPOLIS — The narrative arc of the WNBA’s explosive growth can be traced in many ways: a positive slope of rising ticket sales and prices, merchandise booms, brand partnerships, sportsbook markets, salary conversations and expansion teams.

The league’s cultural impact, though, can be felt perhaps nowhere more tangibly than along the seam where fashion and sports fuse. WNBA players are style icons in their own right, with rising stars like Angel Reese gracing the covers of fashion magazines and inking million-dollar partnership deals with brands like Nike, Puma, Adidas, New Balance, Fenty or Coach.

“In a tunnel walk, even though we’re going to a game, it is work,” Dallas Wings guard DiJonai Carrington told The Athletic at AT&T All-Star Access, one of her brand events. “When you have your meeting with your CEO and your bosses, you want to look your best. And that’s how I feel every game day is: These are the CEOs, the bosses. This might be the only thing that somebody sees from you is you walking in through the tunnel, and that might be the way that you get on their radar for a deal.”