In 2023, women’s tennis star Jessie Pegula slid into jewelry brand Gorjana’s DMs, expressing interest in working with the brand. Though it had never worked with an athlete before, the brand’s team saw an exciting opportunity. Founded in 2004, Gorjana opened its 110th standalone boutique this week.
The partnership with Pegula, who currently has 292,000 Instagram followers, started with some in-store events and a photo shoot. Soon after, Gorjana decided to expand its work with athletes, launching a partnership with Cameron Brink, forward for the Los Angeles Sparks, in 2024. Brink currently has 1.4 million Instagram followers. “[Brink] was a customer at the Stanford store up in NorCal while she was going to school up there,” said Iva Pawling, Gorjana’s CMO.
The decision to grow the athlete partnership program was based on the fact that “there is an organic connection [between the athletes and the brand] — and our customers felt that and responded to it,” Pawling said.
The contracts for these partnerships include the athletes’ participation in photo shoots, interviews and social content, and connecting with fans at in-store meet & greets. “Our hope is to create meaningful connection between our Gorjana athletes and our customers, and our partnership agreements are designed to foster that relationship for all parties,” Pawling said.
As the brand started to build out its roster of athlete partners, the team decided it needed “an umbrella for them to sit under and to make it something substantial,” Pawling said. And so, the Gorjana Sports Club was born.
This month, Gorjana formally introduced its full roster of athlete ambassadors, which now encompasses both pro-level and college-level athletes. The partnerships were featured across all of the brand’s marketing channels, including in social posts and on in-store collateral. Joining Pegula and Brink are sisters Lauren and Sienna Betts (51,000 and 15,000 Instagram followers, respectively), both basketball players at UCLA; Kyra Zaengle (3,000 Instagram followers), a college beach volleyball recruit at USC; Reilyn Turner (20,000 Instagram followers), a soccer player in the U.S. Women’s National Team Players Association; and Merritt Beason and Brooke Nuneviller (103,000 and 196,000 Instagram followers, respectively), pro volleyball athletes in the U.S. Pro Volleyball Federation. Each of these women has, at a minimum, a year-long contract with the brand — some contracts are longer.
“We’re proud to partner with a brand that helps our players feel as confident and radiant off the pitch as they are on it,” said Annie Reid, partnerships and business director of the USWNTPA. “It’s more than a fashion partnership — it’s a reflection of how far our players have come and the power of celebrating them on their terms.”
Gorjana has been building out the Sports Club since January, Pawling said, noting that the brand plans to continue to expand its sports partnerships.
For her part, Pegula wore Gorjana pieces while playing in last year’s U.S. Open. “The necklaces were a complete [tangled] mess because she was playing her ass off, right?” Pawling said. “There is no better execution for us than seeing people work their absolute hardest in our jewelry. The jewelry is meant to be worn every day. It’s meant to make you feel great. It’s just this added layer to whatever you have going on. So to see that execution with Jess was awesome.”
As a WNBA player, Brink can’t play in jewelry, Pawling said, but noted that athletes’ off-court style has grown “so significantly” over the last few years. “We really believe that these female athletes are the ultimate influencers,” she said.
Gorjana has taken a 360-degree approach to marketing its new initiative. On August 19, the brand took influencers to watch Pegula play at the U.S. Open. Once again, this year, Pegula is competing while wearing the brand’s jewelry. She also participated in a meet-and-greet at Gorjana’s Upper East Side store on August 18.
In addition, all athletes in the Gorjana Sports Club are featured in a brand TV commercial that’s currently running. “We have a strong return on the sports networks, like ESPN,” Pawling said. “We had some early data reads confirm that, yes, this is resonating with our consumer.”
Finally, the athletes are featured in the brand’s current direct mail catalog. It’s the brand’s first catalog focused purely on storytelling, rather than new jewelry launches — and yet, it’s outperforming its August 2024 iteration, driving a 45% sales lift.
Pawling said the brand’s marketing strategies are based on a combination of data and gut instinct. And the Sports Club, Pawling said, “ties directly into both our retail and consumer engagement strategy.”
“From in-store experiences to digital storytelling, the Gorjana Sports Club creates fresh touchpoints that drive traffic, engagement and loyalty,” she said.
And, overall, she said, women’s sports give people something to feel good about.
“We firmly believe that everyone is impacted by sports,” Pawling said. “Whether you’re a player or a parent or a fan that goes to one game [and becomes a bigger fan], sports have this intrinsic ability to create community and bring people together, which we’re all craving to a pretty high degree. It gives us something to celebrate.”
Gorjana is privately owned and operated by husband and wife duo Gorjana and Jason Reidel; Jason is the CEO, Gorjana is the CCO. The brand declined to comment on revenue.
