Marina Paul's Linkedin Analytics

Here's our 5-Step Process to design training shorts that helped us get Georgetown and Vanderbilt Licensing deals: Since I started SPRHRA, I have grounded myself in creating product with female athletes in mind, from start to finish. 1. I gathered all the practice and game shorts I ever owned, and I started writing: - what I loved about them - what I hated about them - what I wish they had I interviewed 150+ female athletes about their shorts, more specifically soccer shorts. 2. I created really bad drawings with arrows pointing to the type of “fit” female athletes, and specifically soccer players wanted 3. I took these to my factory and made our first sample. Finding a good partner and a good fabric was by far the longest step. It took me almost 1.5 years (but stay I told myself to stay in it!!). 4. I tested the soccer shorts on my soccer friends until we got it right! The biggest piece of feedback we got was making the waistband slightly looser. It was too tight, especially for athletes who roll their shorts. We made the waistband with more room, and made sure the shorts still looked and felt good enough to roll. 5. We finished the final sample and shipped it off! We secured these licensing deals because our product is uniquely different. We size our products for female athletes’ builds, and we integrate female athletes into the process, from start to finish. Our fabric also has key benefits, like being anti-bacterial and aiding in blood flow. All these benefits, but especially how we work with female athletes and our unique fit, is why we were able to continue work with and earn the licensing with some top athletic departments. _______ 🦸🏼‍♀️ If you like this post, follow me Marina Paul for more.

Every preseason “Christmas” we would get our gear drop. I would be so excited. Then, collectively, our team would borrow our trainer’s ankle-tape cuttings scissors, “the Shark” to cut out the liner in our shorts. This is just one memory of the re-shaping we’d do to make shorts not cut into our glutes or thighs. But often, this method wasn’t effective enough. We took it to another level, changing our bodies to fit into our gear. A large majority of college and professional athletes restrict food intake to fit better in uniforms. And sadly, Superhera has the data to prove it. This isn't about comfort. It's about performance and female athlete health. Female athletes deserve sportswear built for their bodies. That's why we created Superhera - to give female athletes the Freedom to Perform.

Built by and for female athletes. I hated that. Here’s why it became our secret sauce: It didn’t feel revolutionary to me, because I was just building it for myself and my teammates. That phrase felt like “no shit, it’s built for female athletes.” I didn’t understand what was differentiated about “by and for female athletes.” But then I realized that capturing data on female athletes, And synthesizing it to inform sportswear, ….had never been done before. I had to explain that female athletes needed sportswear that fit them. I had to explain that better fitting sportswear would unlock peak performance and health in their sport. But, why did I need to explain that? Wasn’t that already understood? Don’t we all know that when clothes don’t fit, it makes our performance worse? That ill-fitting clothing makes us feel worse about ourselves? After talking to thousands of athletes in Year 1 of launching SPRHRA, and the years leading up to it, I finally got it. By and for female athletes IS revolutionary, and it is the way. ____________ If you want to learn how we’re informing better products and mindsets for female athletes, check out my newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gANx9J29

I finally figured it out... The sportswear happiness equation! It's really simple: Wear sportswear that fits, Feel confident, Play your best, Be happy! We all know what it feels like to play freely and hit our peak performance. There is no better feeling. We all know what it feels like to wear shorts that squeeze your thighs, making us feel suffocated. There is no worse feeling. Before, you couldn't do anything about it. Sportswear was never in the hands of the athlete, especially the female athlete... Until now. I told myself when I first started SPRHRA that female athletes would be front and center. 1. The company would be driven by a female athlete 2. We would use female athletes' measurements and feedback to build the best products, not build blindly. Hope this happiness equation makes you smile! AND I started a Newsletter, Behind the Super. I'm diving into how we build better products for female athletes, every week!! Join us here: https://lnkd.in/gANx9J29

Female athletes shouldn't have to "make do" with adapted men's sportswear. The traditional way of doing it: "We make women's versions." In other words: "We shrink it and pink it." Nearly 3/4's of college and professional female athletes say the fit of sportswear needs to change. Women aren't smaller men. They're athletes with unique bodies. At Superhera, we don’t adapt to men's designs. We create and inform sportswear specifically for female athletes' bodies from the ground up. That's the difference between "a women's version" and "designed for female athletes."

5 unspoken truths about female athletes' performance: 1. They play in uniforms designed for men's bodies 2. A majority say current uniforms restrict their performance 3. They're expected to look "feminine" while performing at peak levels 4. They modify their bodies to fit their uniforms, not the other way around 5. They're told to accept this as the way it is The $29 billion women's sportswear market still doesn't get it. Superhera does. We're looking female athletes' differently, to be able to understand the perfect fit for every female athlete's body. Freedom to Perform isn't just a woo-woo tagline. It's our mission for every female athlete on the planet.

Freedom to Perform is a mindset, as much as it is a design tool. Here’s why I think learning it can unlock your potential: When I was a college athlete I noticed a big difference in years where I was hyper-restrictive with myself. I arrived at a hyper-competitive academic school and a top soccer program. I felt the need to be perfect in every way. On top of this, my body was changing.   I was growing from a competitive high school athlete, to a competitive Division 1 soccer player. My body was morphing into a real athlete's and a woman's body. My once ill-fitting sportswear, now fit me even worse. With all this change, I restricted myself in every way to look and be like everyone else around me. I restricted food, fun, and anything that was “undisciplined.” In my 5th year, after tearing my ACL twice in one year, I decided I would do it differently. I decided that in my last year ever playing soccer, I would play because I absolutely loved the sport, and I loved winning. I decided I would play for my freedom. I still had high expectations, but I told myself I would fall in love with the process again. The daily passing patterns and drills. I already had seasons where I put significant weight and restriction on my shoulders. Look where that got me? Injured and sick. I made discipline about unlocking my Freedom. And it worked. We made it to the College Cup Final Four. I had the most fun soccer season of my entire life (18 years of playing). But when I graduated, I went back to old patterns. I joined environments that raged with discipline and grind, and not a lot of fun. My need for finding my Freedom to Perform, ultimately led me to write my book, “Becoming a Superhero.” I craved to understand what my sweet spot was. And when I was NOT ready, I built Superhera. Because I knew that even if I wasn’t ready, or confident, or experienced, building a product that I desperately needed would lead me to my freedom. Freedom to Perform is a forever pursuit. Once we feel it, we don’t just keep it forever. We have to consistently work for it and with it. Freedom to Perform is not actually a thing, it’s a mindset. It’s the mindset that you own your life. At any moment, you have the ability to control it in the way that leads you to your freedom, and likely, to your peak performance. - If you want to learn how we’re informing better products and mindsets for female athletes… —> Sign up for my newsletter, and you’ll get The Freedom to Perform Playbook: https://lnkd.in/gANx9J29

“I prayed to my equipment manager to give men’s fit instead of women’s fit. Women’s is the worst." - Top 25 Women’s Lacrosse Athlete Here’s how the sportswear industry has been built for men and how helping change it: True story, most of the top women’s athletes will ask for a men’s cut instead of a women’s. I did. The women’s cut is extremely tight. The curves (if any) are in the wrong spots. We literally stretch the jerseys over our knees just to make them fit. The women’s cut certainly doesn’t account for muscles, female assets, or any wiggle room. Some might say the only option then is, well, just wear men’s. The solution was never really to fix the women’s. Why? There is so much variability and change with women. • Women have vastly different bodies • Our preferences and bodies change throughout our life stages  • We want to look good • Our individual sensations, how something feels on our bodies, is different, even if we are the same “size” Time, re-doing designs, trying to find out how to fit women…. That's a lot of capital. The easiest adaptation was just to give us oversized men’s sizes, and we “rolled” it to our liking. We wanted our legs to be able to move, and we want to look the best we can, given what we have. So we settled for men’s. Two genders wearing one gender meant less SKU’s, higher stock counts per garment, cheaper production per garment. I get it from a scalability standpoint. And that worked in the past. Female athletes were grateful: happy to have gear, have a field to play on. But this is no longer the way. The new way is predictability of female athlete measurements:  • Product built for each female athlete • By Sport • Backed by science and understanding of female athletes’ bodies • With their say in how they want to look And we’re the first one’s doing it for female athletes. If you want to learn how we’re informing better products and mindsets for female athletes… —> Sign up for my newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gANx9J29

Absolutely loved my convo with Kat Zempolich, who helped create the vision for Morgan's Message. Out of immense pain and hope, this Morgan's Message team created a community and a movement to de-mystify the stigma of Mental Health among athletes, both women and men. I am so honored and humbled to work with this group of incredible athletes, making sports a far healthier place. Sports will always be tough, that's part of the joy in winning... literally anything. But they shouldn't be so tough that it hurts our health. There are some things we can do together, like create movements around mental health or change the way our shorts fit, so we can focus on being the best athletes and humans we can be. Take a listen to our pod 🧡: https://lnkd.in/eyZhPqte

I wasn't smart enough to go to Georgetown University. I took the SAT like 5 times, and just barely made the cut as an athlete. But I was obsessed with learning. I was not naturally a great soccer player. But I was obsessed with the details of the sport. I was constantly doing extra sessions and conditioning. We made it to the College Cup Final Four. I am not a trained designer. My first designs for Superhera were laughable. But I'm obsessed with how sportswear for female athletes fits their bodies and their needs. I continuously get feedback from every athlete to improve our products. Obsession with details and hard work beats talent every time.

Everyone told me female athletes are the hardest to dress. Here’s why I agree and think the problem is timing. I have so many parts of apparel that bother me, at all different times of the month. Seriously, think about it. Sometimes I feel swollen, and I need more stretch in some areas. Sometimes, my fit preference changes and I want to roll my shorts. Now, combine this with high-performance movement in a specific sport. Times this by all the sports (let’s say 20). Mix in massively different types of bodies, growth spirts, and body changes, by age group. That’s a crazy amount of variability. Before now, it was nearly impossible to create products that fit female athletes to our liking and our needs. What’s different now? The ability to capture this data and predict the best sizes for athletes by bodies and by sport.

My uniform made me too sick to play. Now I'm fixing that for every female athlete. I've walked this journey as a Team Captain, as an All-American, and as the athlete who couldn't compete because of sportswear that wasn't designed for my body. This isn't just business for me...it's personal. Every athlete experience I've had has shaped our mission: 1. Nearly leaving my sport due to eating disorders. My uniform reinforced that my body wasn't right for my sport. 2. Watching teammates physically stretching uniforms over luggage while shaming their bodies. 3. Seeing other locker rooms struggling in the same way. As Team Captain, I learned that it was my duty to care for every single person on the team. Their struggles and my struggles became my mission. When we inform products based on female athletes' bodies and needs, we take athletes from feeling restricted to giving them the freedom to perform. I don't just understand this problem. I've lived it. This is how we build: - Female Athlete-centered - Data-driven - Performance-focused

When we first got Superhera into the Georgetown University Bookstore, our product was hidden behind a column, on a rack with non-sportswear. No one could see it. I remembered Sara Blakely's story about Spanx being placed in the wrong department at Neiman Marcus. So I made friends with the store manager. I shared my personal Georgetown Athletics story and the value our product brings to student-athletes. Now we're on the hot aisle with our own rack and mannequin. The lesson? When you don't have money to pay for placement or when you do, be as scrappy as possible. And, Relationships are everything. Do whatever it takes to get on the hot aisle!!

You have to be best friends with everyone on your team. Here’s why that couldn’t be less true. I talked to a college athlete recently about team dynamics. She was telling me how it’s crazy that women’s teams have this expectation to all be best friends. She said that by forcing this, it created a lot of fakeness, talking behind people’s backs, and left the team worse off. I agree. I was not friends with a lot of people on my team. Especially when became in a leadership role, I had even less friends on the team. I didn’t hate anyone, but intentionally did not form friendships with a lot of the players. Because when it came down to winning and playing our best, the sport needed to be about that. I wrote in my book, Becoming a Superhero, that it’s actually more about Sisterhood than friendship. You might be thinking, doesn’t Sisterhood mean your closer? No. Sisterhood means that you have a deep resect for each other, you have the same values & goals, and you have each other’s backs. Sisterhood means that when the other team does a dirty slide tackle, you make sure they never touch your teammate again. Sisterhood means when your teammate is struggling, you’re there to help lift her up. I may not be friends with you, but you’re my sister, and I got you. Winning teams form a sisterhood, not a friendship. __________ If you want to learn how we’re informing better products and mindsets for female athletes… —> Sign up for my newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gANx9J29

After I left college soccer, I never wore shorts again until I created my own pair. Here’s how I launched a sportswear company to make female athletes feel good about wearing shorts: I remember being in hot summer days dying to wear shorts but feeling so insecure about my legs. Sportswear has always been emotional, physical, and psychological for me. I knew that it was for so many of my teammates. - Emotional: If we didn’t think we looked good, then we felt we weren’t good enough. - Physical: If we couldn’t move well in the gear, then we didn’t play well. - Psychological: If it didn’t feel good on our bodies, we felt bad about ourselves. Apparel has a compounding impact on female athletes’ health and performance. We saw it with our shorts. An NWSL athlete said to me , “I literally don’t stop wearing your shorts, and I fight with my sister for them.” I told her to by another pair please, haha. The way we built our shorts was simple:  - Capture measurements from as many athletes as possible - Capture actual feedback from athletes on what they want and don’t want - Build for their strengths and their insecurities (like thighs touching) As we capture more data collection at Superhera on female athlete needs, it’s increasingly important for us that we put female athletes’ voices at the forefront. Every product we make, will be how we created our first pair of shorts that made female athletes’ love their legs again. ______ If you want to learn how we’re informing better products and mindsets for female athletes… —> Sign up for my newsletter, and you’ll get The Freedom to Perform Playbook: https://lnkd.in/gANx9J29

Most companies focus on profit. Here’s how I built a business based on Ikigai instead: Ikigai is an awesome Japanese teaching that describes the perfect point between 4 areas, focused on YOU: 1. What you LOVE 2. What you’re EPIC at 3. What the world NEEDS 4. What you can be PAID for When athletes ask why SPRHRA products feel different, I tell them: “It’s because we started with my Ikigai as a female athlete.” Prior to SPRHRA, I was focused on how much money can I make, while grinding it out and having my soul sucked out of me. Then, I completed my Ikigai and wrote my book, “Becoming a Superhero.” It led me to discover that: • I am obsessed with giving female athletes the freedom to perform (What I LOVE) • I know female athletes locker rooms and the sports apparel business intimately (What I’m EPIC at) • I see female athletes who are struggling deeply with the way their apparel fits (What the world NEEDS) • We’ve created a female athlete fit that can inform any customization, for any sport, helping apparel companies build better products for athletes (what we get PAID for) But what really stands out is how Ikigai philosophy transforms my relationships with female athletes: I’ve literally talked these athletes through: • Anxiety feeling too fat or too thin to fit into their clothing • Social pressures to look a certain way on social media • How to navigate being a successful athlete and student • What their unique peak performance actually means When creating the best sportswear that fits, you need someone who knows the female athlete intimately. If you want to learn how we’re informing better products and mindsets for female athletes… —> Sign up for my newsletter, and you’ll get The Freedom to Perform Playbook: https://lnkd.in/gANx9J29

I tore my ACL 3 times before I discovered “what” was causing it. I think we’ve been missing the “what” for female athlete performance and health this whole time. I had a coach recently tell me, that I was good at understanding process “how”, but I was missing the “what.” Huh? I said. Let’s use ACL tears as an example. Women tear their ACL at sometimes 4-8x the rate of men, yet only 6% of of ACL research is done on women. I often hear, you can tear your ACL is so many ways, it’s relatively unknown why. After tearing my ACL 3 times, I got so sick of that answer. When really, the answer was: they didn’t know the “what.” • What: identifies or defines the condition itself, “What is an ACL?” • How: the mechanism or process of injury, “How do female athletes tear their ACL?” So I tried an alternative route, something that would identify what in my body was causing this injury, and that would transform the way my body feels. I started doing Postural Restoration (PRI) therapy. PRI focuses on correcting postural asymmetries and imbalances to improve movement and reduce my knee pain. What I discovered, was that my postural chain (the connector from cranium to feet) was completely off. • My ribs flared up, not down. • My head was far forward, not back.  • My jaw was down, not level. • My pelvis tipped far forward, putting my knees in and awkward, vulnerable position. My body was pulling in opposite directions, and was completely stressed out. This stressed out state became my normal. It's what my body adapted to. It’s not just that the world lacks research on women’s ACLs, but we lack the ability to identify the “what” for women. The "what", is identifying and defining key components of the unique female athlete body: her measurements, her sport, her demographic data. The same is true in understanding all aspects of female athletic performance. If we honed in on the “what”, we might be able to understand how specific apparel, gear, and shoes impact female athletes’ performance and health. Out of frustration from injury and not knowing how my body performs, I’ve become driven to further female athlete-specific research and solutions in sportswear with SPRHRA. We have to stop adapting female athlete systems designed for men, and start designing for the female athletes’ unique “what.”

It was a cold, night practice in the Spring after my sophomore year. I was in my dorm room choosing between 3 pairs of terrible fitting practice shorts. Thank goodness I hadn't eaten too much that day, so that my thighs didn't swell. The tightness of my shorts just reinforced that my soccer thighs were too big. I couldn't stand it. If my shorts were too tight, it meant I was out of shape for my sport. But that didn't make any sense. I could play 90 minutes in the midfield, crush a fitness test... so I knew I wasn't out of shape. But, no, I was out of shape... because my shorts didn't fit. What followed was the restrictive eating and obsessive working out, just to fit into my sportswear. Sensation, how something feels on each part of our body, is not something we talk about as women. But it's deeply important to our mood, confidence, and how we think about ourselves. I created SPRHRA because I knew that if we revolutionized the sensation female athletes had with their sportswear, we could transform how they feel on the pitch and thus how they perform. At the SFIA - Sports & Fitness Industry Association conference, I had the opportunity to share these sensations female athletes experience and my personal story. 4 years ago, we wouldn't have had a panel dedicated to understanding Women and Girls' Experiences in sport. Now, we do. Now, we get to tell our stories and build companies that can transform female athletes' lives forever. To be on a stage with the women who have been trailblazers in the sports and sports equipment industries, was one of the coolest experiences of building SPRHRA yet. Susan Riley Janelle Anderson Erin Griffin

The Director of Ops at a Big 10 school told me they only order men's sizes except for one item that is uniquely women's. Men's Shirts. Men's Loose Shorts. Men's Hoodies. Women's Volleyball Spandex. I wasn't shocked. I lived this reality as a college athlete in 2016. We would beg our equipment manager not to order anything in women's sizes. Women's was so tight and "slimming" as if it was made for the interpretation of what a woman's body should be like. We would so much rather have a baggy shirt than something we couldn't move in. What shocked me was realizing that in 2024, this is still the norm. At Superhera, we're changing the conversation. We're proving that designing specifically for female athletes isn't just the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do. When athletes perform better, teams win more. When teams win more, programs thrive. Our mission isn't just about the best-fitting sportswear. It's about elevating women's sports, one perfectly-fitting uniform at a time.

Most female athletes won’t call themselves a Superhera. I didn’t. I thought it might come with a burden I already struggled with: feeling the need to be perfect all the time. The definition of a Superhera is not just a female athlete who wins or is perfect. It's a female athlete who uses her superpowers to elevate her team members beyond what they can imagine. Here’s why most female athletes are Superhera’s anyway: • Create impact that serves as a microcosm for women everywhere (like equal pay) • Form a sisterhood-like bonds that are stronger most relationships I've experienced • Win with little resources (like wearing men’s clothing or not getting enough field time) I wrote a book, “Becoming a Superhero” to study these female athletes, and to prove Superhera leadership existed. But even through I wrote the book and proved what a Superhera was, I named my sportswear company SPRHRA. I was too shy to name my company Superhera. I thought it was too obvious. I could call all my teammates Superhera’s, but… Could I even call myself a Superhera? I loved the idea that people could not pronounce, SPRHRA. Because then that meant you had to know the story. And it worked, for the first year and a half of being in business. But as we grew up, I knew we need a change. I knew I didn’t want to shy away from owning Superhera anymore. I didn’t want to educate people on how to pronounce the name. I wanted to educate them on what we’re doing. For me, this is more than just a name change. It’s v2 of building this company. It’s v2 of me leading this company. As the name evolves, so does the business, and so do I. With that, I’m so excited to announce our name evolution to: Superhera. It’s a statement about who were are and what Superhera’s on every field, gym, track are doing: giving female athletes the freedom to perform.