Lifestyle Brand GSTQ Names WNBA Star Kelsey Plum an Ambassador
Lifestyle and apparel brand GSTQ has named WNBA star Kelsey Plum of the Las Vegas Aces as its newest brand ambassador.
The 27-year-old athlete, who was named All-Star MVP at the WNBA All Star Game in Chicago on July 10, has been upping her profile not only as a prolific player on the court but as a budding style star before games in the tunnel, potentially the new stomping ground for brands looking to connect with female athletes.
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GSTQ founder Dany Garcia, an athlete as well, looked to the tunnel for the brand’s newest ambassador, who joins its first ambassador Robin Arzon. Garcia said she plans to develop the relationship with Plum long term.
“She has an appetite for more and we want to be a part of that journey,” Garcia said. “She’s an incredible leader, aspirational and inspirational. She embodies the spirit of GSTQ in her mind-set, her performance, who she is as a character and not being defined by limitations.”
Plum was drafted number one in the 2017 WNBA Draft to the San Antonio Stars (the team relocated to Las Vegas to become the Las Vegas Aces) just months after becoming the NCAA all-time scoring leader in Division I women’s basketball, breaking the NCAA record for points in a single season with 1,080 at the University of Washington.
Plum also holds awards including the Naismith College Player of the Year and the John R. Wooden Award both in 2017, is a two-time Turkish Super League champion in 2018 and 2019, was named WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year in 2021 and earned a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games in the Women’s 3×3 Tournament.
“If you’re looking for someone to emulate and be like, Dany Garcia is a bad–s woman,” Plum said. “She has done so much in her career and I feel her approach to business and life is something I relish and someone I want to be like today.”
Plum is currently having a breakout season alongside players A’Ja Wilson and Chelsea Gray and also set the record for most points in a WNBA All-Star Game this month. Plum believes that paying attention to her style helps her game.
“I never believed the saying when you look good, you feel good and when you feel good, you play good, but I changed my mind,” Plum said. “When I walk into the tunnel, I feel sexy and empowered and I take that into the court.
“I feel sexy and fierce in GSTQ,” she added. “I appreciate the ambition they have and feel our values are aligned and I’m excited to be partnered with the brand.”
Garcia launched GSTQ in 2021, offering tailored pieces with flexibility and movement like long suit jackets with a strap closure, hooded windbreakers, dresses and jumpsuits, among other styles. She said she had been ideating a clothing brand for decades but only began working on it three years prior to launch. She also tapped Faith Lucas as creative director, who formerly designed or consulted for Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, J.C. Penney and Xcel Brands.
The brand opened two pop-up shops in New York City and Atlanta that Garcia said she was “very pleased with” and added that more pop-ups are in the works, including in Los Angeles.
She was drawn to Plum as an ambassador because of how compelling female athletes are, and she knows as an athlete herself. Long before cofounding Seven Bucks Productions with business partner and former husband Dwayne Johnson, founding The Garcia Cos. and TGC Management, owning the XFL and producing films like “Hobbs and Shaw” and “Jungle Cruise” and TV shows like “Ballers” and “Young Rock,” Garcia was a professional bodybuilder, and her past life and experience with clothing helped inform GSTQ when it comes to fit and fabrication.
“Female athletes are just starting to get the traction,” Garcia said. “We did a show called ‘The Titan Games’ and the female athletes were so compelling because they would hit the physical wall first then the emotional walls and barriers and when you see them play sports you see that. I feel female athletes are getting an understanding that they can be so much more in competition and off the field.”
Garcia is excited about the WNBA as well. The league has received more attention over the years due to a myriad of factors like the respect female athletes get today in other sports such as tennis, soccer and gymnastics, but also for the league’s growing fashion profile that is residual of the NBA. While the men’s league grew the tunnel to be a showcase for fashion, the WNBA is mirroring this with its own tunnel where stars like Candace Parker, Sue Bird and now Kelsey Plum show out.
The WNBA has seen higher viewership over the years as well and the most recent game posted the highest All-Star Game viewership since 2015.
“That is the new runway,” Garcia said. “It is one that leads to the playing field or the court and has impact.”
“I just think the impact could be tremendous,” Plum said about the partnership. “When you have a brand like GSTQ for women and by women it speaks to the direction we need to go. When people can get behind the clothes and the vision I think that will be the massive impact we need.”
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