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Laura Youngson didn’t expect to focus so much on soccer cleats when she organized a group of women to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and play a high-altitude match.The point of the 2017 game was to highlight inequality in sports for women and girls. On that front, Youngson achieved her goal with the match becoming the subject of a documentary and landing the group in the Guinness Book of World Records.Still, something bothered Youngson as the match unfolded. Glancing at the athletes’ feet, she was struck that all the women were wearing men’s or boy’s soccer cleats instead of gear that was designed specifically for them. The realization led her to launch IDA Sports, which makes soccer cleats for the unique athletic needs of women.“There was this real commercial gap for performance footwear for women,” said Youngson, whose IDA cleats are worn by players including Washington Spirit midfielder Courtney Brown. “As the game is growing, we’re in this moment when everything’s professionalizing, but the footwear wasn’t really keeping pace, so I wanted to go and change that.”IDA is among a growing number of companies founded in recent years to prioritize women in sports.These aren’t just lifestyle or athleisure brands. Moolah Kicks, for instance, makes women’s basketball shoes designed specifically for women’s feet and counts Courtney Williams of the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx as one of its partners. Lindsay Housman founded Hettas, a performance running shoe company. Saysh, Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix’s running shoe company, allows buyers to make free exchanges when their size changes during pregnancy.Beyond shoes, Liv Cycling makes performance bicycles for women and there’s even Indiana Fever partner Sequel tampons, which have spiraled grooves that help prevent leaks during strenuous activities.The companies are entering the market at a time when interest in women’s sports is intensifying.The WNBA has shattered attendance records recently, lifted by the star power of players like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. National Women’s Soccer League teams are worth 29% more this year than they were a year ago, with both Angel City and the Kansas City Current now valued at over $250 million. Several new pro sports leagues have formed in recent years, including the Professional Women’s Hockey League and the 3-on-3 Unrivaled basketball league. The Women’s Professional Baseball League is set to launch next year.Overall, women’s sports generated global revenue of $1.88 billion in 2024 and is projected to rake in $2.35 billion this year, according to consulting firm Deloitte. Commercial revenue, including sponsorships and merchandising sales, surpassed $1 billion globally for the first time last year. No more ‘shrink it and pink it’ All that growth means more opportunities for women-owned brands and a chance to reject the “shrink it and pink it” mentality in which companies were criticized for taking men’s products and selling them to women by making them pretty rather than functional.“Marketing is all about understanding the needs of consumers,” said Dae Hee Kwak of the Center for Sport Marketing Research at the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology. “So thinking of the needs of the women’s sports fan and athlete, who understands them better than women, right?”Leela Srinivasan, CEO of the sports marketing and sponsorship platform Parity, said men’s products simply weren’t built for women’s bodies.“Women in motor sports will tell you that even the way the seat belts are designed, they don’t fit right, they don’t fall in the right places,” Srinivasan said. “You talk to Lynn Saint James, the motor sports legend, about how she couldn’t reach the pedals. Nothing has been designed with women’s bodies in mind.”Bonnie Tu, who founded Liv Cycling, experienced that problem with bicycles.“Whenever I’d go for vacation, I would take a bike from the hotel,” Tu said. “Most of the time, I would get myself hurt because the bike doesn’t suit me well. Because most of the bikes are meant for men, no matter if it’s a mountain bike or it’s road bike, it was all for men.”Youngson similarly looked at biomechanical needs when designing cleats for IDA, resulting in a product that features a wider toe box, narrower heel and shorter studs than men’s boots.For those who have spent decades in and around women’s sports, these shifts represent a profound change. Natalie White, who founded Moolah Kicks after playing basketball in college and working on the business side of several WNBA teams, recalled always playing the sport in boy’s and men’s shoes.“It wasn’t until I was a senior in college and I saw an advertisement that had more top WNBA players holding out men’s shoes that it really hit me, ‘Oh, my God, this is crazy.’ When you begin your career, through pro, you’re not only going to be playing in equipment that isn’t fit for you, but you’re going to be promoting it?” White said. “Oh my gosh, crazy.”The bigger shoemakers, including Adidas and Nike, have developed women’s soccer and basketball shoes in recognition of the growing market and the needs of the female athlete. Sabrina Ionescu has a signature shoe with Nike and, this past summer, Adidas released its first player edition of Adidas’ F50 Sparkfusion cleat with NWSL star Trinity Rodman. Women want products without pandering Kwak said that in addition to products made specifically for them, women also value authenticity as consumers. And that means working with women’s leagues, athletes and sometimes causes involving equity and social justice.IDA, for example, has partnered with the players’ unions for both the NWSL and the Gainbridge Super League, a top-tier domestic professional women’s soccer league that launched last year.Coalition Snow, a women-led ski and snowboard company based in Reno, Nevada, not only makes sure of safe and fair working conditions throughout its supply chain, it also uses recycled material for packaging and partners with a nonprofit to plant trees in rural Kenya for every board or pair of skis sold.Liv Cycling sponsors women’s racing teams and competitions, like the Tour de France Femmes, in addition to community clubs. Athlete involvement in the creation of products helps, too. It’s really what personalizes these companies compared to the sporting goods giants.But it’s all about taking that first leap, Youngson said.“As the game grows and professionalizes, it should be attractive to brands,” Youngson said. “So then you’re going, ‘Why aren’t you doing it?’ Because the money’s there, the game’s there. Why can’t we have all of this choice around us in the same way that the men’s game has?” AP Sports Writer Alyce Brown contributed to this report. Anne M. Peterson, AP Sports Writer
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Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano was named to the newly created position of CEO of the IRS on Monday, making him the latest member of the Trump administration to be put in charge of multiple federal agencies.As IRS CEO, Bisignano will report to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who currently serves as acting commissioner of the IRS, the Treasury Department says. It is unclear whether Bisignano’s newly created role at the IRS will require Senate confirmation.The Treasury Department said in a statement that Bisignano will be responsible for overseeing all day-to-day IRS operations while also continuing to serve in his role as commissioner of the Social Security Administration.Bessent said in a statement that the IRS and SSA “share many of the same technological and customer service goals. This makes Mr. Bisignano a natural choice for this role.”The move to install Bisignano at the IRS adds another layer to the leadership shuffling that has occurred at the agency since the beginning of Trump’s term. Bessent was named acting commissioner in August after Trump removed former U.S. Rep Billy Long from the role less than two months after his confirmation, and nominated him as ambassador to Iceland.The four acting commissioners who preceded Long in the job included one who resigned over a deal between the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security to share immigrants’ tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and another whose appointment led to a fight between former Trump adviser Elon Musk and Bessent.Mike Kaercher, deputy director of the Tax Law Center at the New York University School of Law, points to a possible conflict of interest in Bisignano holding leadership roles at SSA and the IRS. “Putting the same person in charge of both the IRS and SSA creates a conflict of interest when SSA wants access to legally protected taxpayer data,” Kaercher said.With two day jobs, Bisignano joins a number of other Trump administration officials to wear multiple hats, including Bessent, Marco Rubio, Sean Duffy, Jamieson Greer and Russell Vought.IRS and Social Security advocates expressed concern about the new appointment.Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and Disability Policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, pointed to Bisignano being named to a position that appears to avoid congressional approval.“If the Trump Admin asked for the Senate’s advice & consent, would they really want the same person running the government’s biggest program AND overseeing the implementation of the extraordinarily complex new tax law?” she said on the Bluesky social media app.And Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, an advocacy group for SSA recipients and future retirees, said Bisignano’s “divided attention will create a bottleneck that makes the inevitable problems that arise even harder to correct. Never in Social Security’s 90-year history has a commissioner held a second job. Bisiginano’s new role will leave a leadership vacuum at the top of the agency, especially since the Republican Senate hasn’t even confirmed a deputy commissioner.”Bisignano has served as CEO of Fiserv, a payments and financial services tech firm, since 2020. He is a onetime defender of corporate policies to protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination. Fatima Hussein, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday that the government shutdown is putting more stress on air traffic controllers who already have an extremely stressful job, as well as threatening a program that small communities rely on to help subsidize airline service.Controllers are expected to continue working without a paycheck, Duffy said, so they are now worried about how to pay their bills in addition to worrying about keeping flights safe. And there have started to be instances of controllers calling out sick, leading to delays at several airports Monday.“Now what they think about as they’re controlling our airspace is, how am I going to pay my mortgage? How do I make my car payment? I have a couple kids at home. How do I put food on the table? I’m working six days a week. Do I have to take a second job and drive Uber when I’m already exhausted from doing a job that’s already stressful to think about how I can make extra money because the government may not provide me a paycheck?” Duffy said.Travelers at Newark Liberty International Airport, where Duffy held his news conference, said controllers should be paid for their work.“Everyone should get paid for what they are doing. Of course it bothers me,” said Daniel Johansson from North Carolina.A traveler from Utah, Nancy Taylor, agreed.“Yeah, that would be hard to work for no pay,” Taylor said. “But I think they understand the importance of their job. And the safety that provides to us as travelers. They need to get paid.”The Transportation Department has been able to keep the air traffic controller academy in Oklahoma City open for now with funding from previous years, but Duffy is still concerned about the potential impact on efforts to hire and train new controllers in the hope of eliminating a longstanding shortage. Duffy said the support staff who train controllers after they come out of the academy could be laid off.The head of the air traffic controllers union, Nick Daniels, stayed away from political comments, but he urged Congress to end the shutdown. “We need to bring this shutdown to a close, so that the Federal Aviation Administration and the committed aviation safety professionals can put this distraction behind us, and completely focus on their vital work,” Daniels said.Duffy said there has already been a small uptick in controllers calling out sick in a few places. Anytime that gets worse and creates a shortage of controllers, the FAA reduces the number of takeoffs and landings to ensure controllers aren’t overwhelmed and the system remains safe. But that creates delays and possibly cancellations. Near the end of the 35-day shutdown during the first Trump administration, there were widespread flight delays because of shortages of controllers.By Monday evening, the FAA was reporting that staffing shortages were creating delays in the Burbank, Newark and Denver airports. The worst problems were in Burbank, where California Gov. Gavin Newsom said no controllers were on duty during the evening, leading to average delays of two-and-a-half hours at that airport.The Essential Air Service program that subsidizes airline service to small communities across the country will also quickly run out of money. Duffy said that program enjoys strong bipartisan support and provides an important lifeline to many small communities. It is especially important in Alaska, where flying is the only way to travel between many communities.“That money runs out this Sunday. So there’s many small communities across the country that will now no longer have the resources to make sure they have air service in their community,” Duffy said. Associated Press videographer Joseph B. Frederick contributed to this report from Newark, New Jersey. Josh Funk, AP Transportation Writer
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