Why TJ Maxx is sponsoring the ESPYs

The exclusive retail sponsor of the ESPY Awards isn’t a traditional, endemic sports brand. Instead, it’s TJ Maxx.

While the retailer isn’t necessarily known for sporting goods, it was a relatively early mover when fashion and beauty brands began tying up with women’s sports. TJ Maxx first started partnering with athletes, coaches, and sports broadcasters about four years ago, and has since moved into jersey sponsorships with NWSL team Boston Legacy FC, according to Emily Trent, TJ Maxx’s head of marketing.

The brand’s partnership with ESPN’s annual awards celebrating the best in sports performance, now in its second year, reflects TJ Maxx’s broader sports strategy, which centers on showcasing stories of “originality and individuality” with women athletes outside of their athletic careers.

“Four years ago, we saw this opportunity with women in sports,” Trent told Marketing Brew. “There was so much press around them, and it was really a little bit of a one-dimensional story on who they were as an athlete on the court, on the pitch, wherever it might be.”

Award winning

In addition to partnering with more than 55 athletes, coaches, and broadcasters on content in recent years, TJ Maxx has also teamed up with sports institutions, including Togethxr and ESPN. Since the ESPYs are a focal point for ESPN and “there’s so much momentum” around the show, Trent said the sponsorship opportunity stood out, adding that the crossover of sports with fashion made it especially practical for TJ Maxx.

“It’s a great place to have these athletes really be able to represent who they are, and they can allow fashion to do that,” she said.

TJ Maxx is further activating at the ESPYs as the sponsor of the Best Athlete, Women’s Sports award, and by styling Olympic rugby star Ilona Maher, who won the ESPY for Best Breakthrough Athlete last year and is returning as a presenter this year. The brand is also the presenting partner of the ESPYs Red Carpet Show, and it is currently running ads on ESPN starring Maher and USWNT and Chicago Stars FC forward Mallory Swanson.

Trent said her team looks to work with athletes who are “comfortable in their own skin” and interested in sharing their personal stories with audiences. Maher, for instance, is known for her work advocating for body positivity and her slogan “beast, beauty, brains,” while Swanson has been speaking about her return to the pitch following her pregnancy this season.

Out of uniform

Across their work in women’s sports, Trent said her team is looking to drive engagements with the brand’s content that indicate it’s “resonating with our consumers in a really, really strong way.” She declined to share specific KPIs or results, but said for the past four years, TJ Maxx’s women’s sports content has been “some of the most high-performing work that we have.”

As a result, the brand is leaning further into women’s sports, including through its multiyear, front-of-kit sponsorship with Boston Legacy, inked ahead of the team’s 2026 debut season. Front-of-kit deals in the NWSL have gone for about as much as $2.6 million per year, the reported value of Sutter Health’s sponsorship with Bay FC, though Ring and the Portland Thorns reportedly hold the record.

Beyond that, Maher is front and center in TJ Maxx’s new campaign platform, “Never Uniform, Always You,” after working with the brand on a sponsorship program last year.

Following the ESPYs, Trent said her team’s work in women’s sports will continue along the same paths that have been working for them in recent years, with an emphasis on athlete and media partnerships, as well as the Boston Legacy deal.

“I think soccer represents what we’re seeing” across women’s sports, Trent said. “It’s the authenticity, it’s the fan growth that’s happening, and it’s players that are unapologetically who they are…We’ll continue in all of those spaces.”