Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese Top WNBA 1st Half Merchandise Sales; 500% Surge from 2023

The Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark and Chicago Sky's Angel Reese have the two highest-selling jerseys in the first half of the 2024 WNBA season, according to Xavier Hunter of Sports Business Journal.

Hunter reported overall sales of merchandise through Fanatics are up 500 percent for the league compared to this time last year. Player-specific apparel is up 1,000 percent.

In terms of jersey sales, the New York Liberty's Sabrina Ionescu and the Las Vegas Aces' Kate Martin and A'ja Wilson rounded out the top five. Not surprisingly, the Fever and Sky are the two highest sellers at the team level, followed by the Liberty, Aces and Seattle Storm.

The commercial impact of Clark and Reese was almost instantaneous from the moment they entered the league. Their jerseys were selling out within days of the 2024 WNBA draft.

"We planned for a significant number of jerseys to be available for the draft moment and they sold out due to extraordinary demand," Nike said of Clark's jerseys specifically, per Sportico's Eben Novy-Williams.

Merchandise was long an area of frustration for WNBA fans.

Availability was a glaring problem, with even some of the league's biggest stars not represented through the WNBA's official shop or partner stores.

However, things began to change in 2020 when the WNBA's signature orange hoodie exploded in popularity and made wearing WNBA gear more fashionable. A year later, Nike unveiled new uniform sets that gave all 12 franchises a defined look.

As with their role in helping the league's viewership spike, Clark and Reese don't deserve all the credit for how much more merchandise revenue is now flowing in. But there's no disputing they've been a boon to the bottom line.