April 16, 2025 • 40 mins
The Sports Bra–a bar in Portland dedicated exclusively to women’s sports, and the first of its kind in the world–was never just about sports. In this episode, founder Jenny Nguyen shares the origin story of “the Bra” including building a business rooted in community, the fanbase beyond sports lovers, and why giving people a space to feel seen is part of her ultimate strategy for growth.
00:53 Meet Jenny Nguyen: Founder of The Sports Bra
03:01 Jenny's Journey: From Basketball Dreams to Culinary Passion
06:25 Discovering a New Path: From Pre-Med to Chef
14:12 Opening The Sports Bra
21:13 Impact of Creating a Unique Space
24:07 Expansion and Franchising Decisions
32:03 Dreams and Future Plans
35:44 Inspiring a New Market
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
We sat around one night and I was just like,
can you imagine if, when we were like seven years old,
if our parents took us to a place like the
Sports Bra, what kind of impact I would have had
on us as kids on our lives like to walk
into a space and feel like you belong.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Welcome back to court Side, where we're going to break
down the business of women's sports with the people shaping
its future. I'm your host, Laura Karrenty. Today's conversation is
about something deeply personal, what it means to feel seen,
represented and celebrated. For so many of us who grew
up playing sports, we didn't always have that space off
the court where a passion felt reflected back at us.
(00:47):
But what if that space finally existed? What if there
was a place that honored women's sports the way they
deserve to be honored and dire. The Sports Bra and
its dynamic founder Jenny Wynn, a chef, former athlete, and
lifelong community builder and also my good friend. Jenny opened
the first ever bar dedicated exclusively to women's sports in Portland, Oregon.
(01:07):
But what she's created is so much more than a bar.
It's a cultural landmark, a lightning rod for fans and
founders alike, and the spark behind a fast growing national movement,
one that is seeing three x the amount of women's
sports bars opening up nationwide. In this conversation, Jenny shares
her incredible journey from hoop dreams to the kitchen line
to a five year stretch of unemployment that turned out
(01:29):
to be the quiet build up to her biggest idea yet.
We talk about how a pandemic light bulb moment led
to launching the sports Bra, why franchising was the unexpected
but perfect growth model, and what it means to create
space for people who've never had one. So if you're
a fan, a founder, or someone who's still wondering if
women's sports can be good business, buckle up. Jenny Winn
(01:51):
is here to show us what's possible when you bet
on passion, community and representation.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Let's get into it. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Jenny, the Founder, the one and only of the sports
Bra Portland to the world.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Hey girl, Hey, how's it going? Laura?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
The only place that could be better doing this is
together sitting at your establishment.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
So heard that. Jenny's so good to have you.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
On the show, and thank you for making the time,
as I was getting ready for today's conversation, I was
thinking back to a great plate of meatballs that we
shared in Hoboken, New Jersey, shout out to Augustino's, And
it was really there, after having read so much about
the founding of the sports bra really the pioneer in
the world of women's sports restaurant tours, that I really
(02:40):
got to learn the backstory you shared with me an
incredible journey that culminated into this incredible moment that effectively
landed in your lap, so to speak. And so I'd
love if you could just take us on that founder's
origin story because I always think it's so inspirational to
find out just how the sausage is made.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Well, geez, Laura, you know how much time you got,
it's pretty cool. Like I'm generally not a person who
believes in destiny or things you know, are the way
that they're supposed to be.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
I'm kind of chaos theory or whatever.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
But you know, born and raised in Portland, and first
generation Vietnamese America, and my parents came over during the
Vietnam War, and an only child. So combine all of
those things and you've got pretty colorful history of growing
up here, and I fell in love with basketball. It
was my first true love. Probably picked up a ball
around five years old, started dribbling and just never really
(03:33):
put it down, well not until I opened the doors
to the sports bra But yeah, basketball was my true love,
and I just it was my identity. It was what
I did. People knew me as Jenny the basketball player.
It kind of created a rift between my mom and
I because she didn't believe that Vietnamese girls played sports
at all, let alone basketball. She was just like she
put me into ballet, she put me into tumbling, and
(03:56):
then you know, I just identified as a basketball player
all throughout high I was a four year varsity player,
and I had this kind of delusion that I was
going to play college and then pro. I wasn't great
at basketball, just putting it out there. But then I
got a very tiny four hundred dollars a quarter scholarship
to a community college, local community college here, and I
(04:17):
was just like, I'm playing basketball in college, and I
was super excited. And you know, I didn't have any
plans on a career. I didn't have any plans on
like what I wanted to be when I grew up,
all I could see was basketball. So about two weeks
before my first freshman tip off, I blew out my
ACL at an open gym. And I was nineteen years old.
You know, I'd been going through my life failing invincible,
(04:40):
you know, at that age.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
And to be fair, I would argue, you still are,
but go on, I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
I appreciate that, and I just was devastated, you know.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
And I think a couple of years prior to that,
around seventeen, I came out to my friends and family
as gay, and so the combination of those two things
together plus get going into college, I was really kind
of distraught and kind of went through this phase of
like depression. I was picking fights with my friends, my family,
and I just wanted to.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Get away from everything. I just wanted to leave it
all behind.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
So I picked a college that was literally the furthest
away from my family but still in state so that
they could afford it. And I went there and it
ended up being just a really amazing college for me.
Lots of nature, and the food at the college was
really really bad, and so I picked up like a
frying pan for the first time, and I called Mom
(05:34):
and I was just like, Mom, give me some of
the recipes that I grew up with because I wanted
to start cooking home cooked food. And that's kind of
when I discovered like this hidden passion for food. I
had never dabbled in cooking at all, but like it
started out with moms. So I wrote home to Mom
and I was just like, Mom, I want the recipe
(05:55):
for tit kaw, which is this braized pork shoulder dish,
and that was what I cooked. And it was one
of those things where you could cook like a huge
batch and then freeze it. And so that's what I
started with, and then I started to ask her for more.
And the next thing I knew, I was cooking for
like all the girls in my dorm. And then I
was like having these meals where I'd have everybody chip
(06:16):
in whoever wanted to come chip in five dollars and
by the end of the week it'd be like a
thirty person dinner and like seven courses.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Amazing, and I loved it.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
And so by the end of my sophomore year, I
was dating this woman and she's like, I think that
you should be a chef.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Had it ever occurred to you prior to that. Absolutely not.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
At the time, I was pre med, honestly, because my
parents were just like, Oh, you don't want to you
don't know what to do with your life, be a doctor.
And so it took me like that entire sophomore year
to decide like, oh my god, am I going to
make this phone call to my family.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
So finally I did, and.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
They were devastated, like full on heartbroken, and I think,
you know, Dad basically gave me the best advice he
could have. He goes, Okay, I want you to get
the worst job you can think of in your field,
in that field, do it for a year, and if
you still want to do that for the rest of
your life, then go for it. And then mom chimed
(07:11):
in and she was like, but you have to finish
college first. So that's what I did. Yeah, I finished college.
Such great advice, Yeah, it really was. And I think
Dad was hoping that I would do it and then
like realize that, you know.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Go back to med school.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Yeah there's no way I would work in this. But yeah,
it ended up like backfiring. I like got a kitchen
job that was at the Red Robin, a local Red
Robin it was like the worst job that any nobody wanted,
this job. And as so like my first day, as
soon as those tickets started rolling in, I was like
the adrenaline hit.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I was fired up, and I was just like I
was hooked.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
I was absolutely hooked, something similar to playing basketball exactly.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
And I mean that's the thing is like I was
dating this woman and she was just like, literally the
only time I ever see you, like be truly happy
and fully yourself is either your on the basketball court
or you're in the kitchen. And when she said that
to me, I hadn't realized it because it was just
like it was so it was meditative for me, both
(08:10):
of those things. I mean, basketball was super fun. I
loved it. And then being in the kitchen, it was
so like there was there was this like this piece,
this calm that washed over me, and I would lose
hours in the kitchen. I'd turn around and be dark,
and I would have no idea what happened. And like
whatever I was worried about, whatever I was, you know, schoolwork,
coming out, what I was going to do with my
(08:32):
none of those things, like it all disappeared.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
It's interesting I had never made this connection, but from
point guard to directing the line in a kitchen has
a lot of transferable skills and qualities I would imagine totally.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Yeah, No, I mean I think I'd never put those
things together. But there's this team mentality about being in
a kitchen. I mean, for me, the kitchen was it
felt like more like a war zone and going through
a war together.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
But there's very much this.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
You know, you're always going to have like the weakest link,
just like on a team, but you play to their strengths, right,
and everybody chimes in together. There's everybody has their different
things they're really great at. You know, you have a sacia,
you and the soux chef, you have the prep person,
you have a dishwasher, and no matter what level or
what skill set you're at, it requires everybody for this
machine to work.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
And a business is very much like that, very much.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
So fast forward, you fall in love with food, you're
in the kitchen. It dawns on you that this is
a career potential. I know you navigated a few things
to get to the opening of the BRA. Talk about
when the BRA became a reality.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Oh man, So I don't know how many people know
this But between my fifteen plus year stint as a
chef and opening the sports Bra was about a little
over five years of me being unemployed, straight up no job.
I did a little side hustle, you know, to like
make ends meet, have some like extracurricular activities. But I
(10:02):
in twenty fifteen, I took my very first paid time
off vacation. I had become an executive chef, so I
had like saved up all this paid time off and
I was like, oh my gosh, this has never happened before.
And I took two weeks to go to Vietnam, and
it was my first time going, and I went with
my parents, and I had no agenda except to like
eat my way through that country and then to see
(10:23):
where my parents grew up. But what happened in those
two weeks was life changing. It really shifted my worldview,
and I came back decided that what I was doing
as a chef at the time wasn't what I wanted
to do with my life. I wanted to build some
form of community. I wanted to connect more with the
people in my life, the people that I loved. You know,
(10:43):
being a chef really didn't allow for a lot of
that to happen. So I put in my notice and
I quit my job. And I didn't know what the
next step was going to be for me, but I
thought that it would just like it would come, you know,
and I would figure it out. I was very comfortable
being unemployed. I had no qualms about not having a job.
I know that there are people out there who they
(11:05):
feel lost or bored. I am not that guy, like
I am. I was very good at retired life. But
what changed was the pandemic. Once the pandemic hit, it
like it was kind of like the slap across the
face where it was just like, oh my god, what
am I doing with my life? What are my priorities?
(11:26):
What's the most important thing to me? And how do
I want to show up for the world, and what's
the world do we want? Because I think there's so
many people who were just like, oh my god, this
is so abnormal, but we don't want to go back
to normal. Like it felt like an opportunity to change,
and so I kind of had this like giant push
pull feeling inside of my body where I was just
(11:46):
like been so comfortable for the last five years and
suddenly I was very disgruntled with my life, with myself,
and I was just like, I felt like I had
something to offer, but I didn't know what it was,
and so I was just like, God, the only two
things that I've ever been really good at, which I
wasn't even really that good at, was basketball and food.
(12:06):
And that's when the idea of the sports bra kind
of came back up. By twenty twenty, the sports Bra
had been this running joke between my friends and I
for a few years.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
By the way, what a brilliant name. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
When I came up with this idea of the sports bra,
it was just like this placeholder of a fantasy land.
It just started out as like this little idea and
then crew into this massive thing in my body that
I was just like, Okay, I either have to do
it or have to let it go. And then I
came to that proverbial fork in the road. I remember
(12:42):
it as just this one moment that kind of tipped
the scales, and it was when me and my girlfriend
at the time, she was a lifelong basketball player as well.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
She was much better than I was.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
She could have gotten full rides to college and all
kinds of things, but we sat around one night drinking,
and I was just like, can you imagine if when
we were like seven years old, if our parents took
us to a place like the Sports Bra, what kind
of impact that would have had on us as kids
on our lives like to walk into a space and
(13:15):
feel like you belong. And then she goes, yeah, imagine
if we were like twelve or thirteen, and I go
or nineteen and she goes twenty one, twenty five, And
so we both realized that we had never really been
in a space that saw us as female athletes, Like
that was a public sphere and not like the basketball
courts or not like an arena.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
It's so incredible to hear you say that, and just
thinking about my seven year old self and you know,
everybody piling the somebody's parents' car, And I think anybody
listening to this who's experienced even you know, youth sports
at the most fundamental level, can relate to that. But yeah,
startling when you think about prior to the Sports Bra,
that space literally did not exist. Talk about the process
(14:14):
as an entrepreneur, founder, restaurant tour, all of the things
culminating into the day you opened the doors for the
first time, What did it feel like and what was
the process?
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Like, I mean, when I was an executive chef, I
had people coming out of the woodwork being like, when
are you going to open your own restaurant? And I
was always like, never, There's no way, Like that is
so much work, it's so hard. I cut my teeth
in kitchens at mom and pop restaurants, so I knew
the turmoil and the hardships, and you know, I just
(14:46):
i'd seen that side of it. That's not a glory job.
But when it came to the bra you know again,
it lived in my heart and in my head and
it really took over my entire body. And I'd never
wanted something so bad that point where it felt like
I didn't have a choice but to do it, and
that the fear of failure just it didn't outweigh the
need to just try. But one thing I do want
(15:09):
to say is that I come from it came with privilege.
Like I have parents that live about twenty minutes away
from here. Mom would absolutely love it if I lived
in the basement for a little bit, like if I
needed to, she'd be like, oh my God, come come home.
So my my backup plan was like, if everything you
know went to crap, I could move in with my parents.
(15:31):
I have two hands, I was a chef, I'd transferable skills.
So my backup plan, like my my lowest low, wasn't
that bad. And so that that helped me to take
the risk. I know that there are people out there
who go into entrepreneurship with so much more risks. They
have families, mouths to feed, all of the things. So
I do want to I do want to say that
it was a It comes from a privileged place to
(15:54):
be able to take a risk like opening a business.
But really, you know, I had spent about seven and
a half as I'm hiring manager and about four and
a half years as an executive chef to a team
of about seventy five people, So that gave me a
lot of skills as far as planning inventory, the kitchen
stuff I understood. But out of running a small business,
(16:17):
I probably knew about point five percent of everything I
needed to know. And so really what it required was
for me to lose the ego and ask for help.
I mean immediately I knew that I needed so much
help to get this thing off the ground.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
And what was great?
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Was that once I kind of like shed that that
ego and like it was just like, you know what,
I'm just gonna ask this person. People were so excited
about the idea and the concept of the sports bra
that the word traveled real quick in the network, Like
there's the Lesbian Network, there's the basketball Network. People just
(16:55):
came out of the woodworks being like, I'm very good
at these things. How can I help? We need this
space to exist? What can I do? And so once
I realized that asking for help was actually a great
community builder and a way to hell have everybody have
a hand in this, it became a lot easier to
(17:18):
ask for what I needed, and in fact, people were
so genuinely excited to be a part of it.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
And at what point do you realize you don't just
have a business, You don't just have a bar, you
have a brand.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Honestly, I created the sports pretty pretty tunnel vision, you know.
I was just like, I just want this bar and
restaurant where people can come celebrate women's sports the way
it deserves to be celebrated, and just real tunnel vision.
I was just like, I feel like Portland's the city,
you know, I grew up here. I've grown up witnessing
(17:53):
people showing up for women's sports, like my whole life here,
and so to me, that's that was my vision. And
when I look back on my business plan, like, obviously
I keep all of my stuff because it's just it's great.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
To see great book, great movie material, all of the things.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
It's great to see.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
How how I didn't see it as something that could
be big. I just saw it as something that was
important and important to me, and I felt like there
was this community it would be important too. What I
didn't realize was how big that community is one and
two how expansive the different intersectionalities of the community is.
(18:33):
I mean, I would say fifty percent of the people
that come and visit the sports Bra aren't sports fans.
They come to be in community. They come to be
part of this culture and this vibe.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Talk about that a little bit because that's a really
really important insight.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Yeah, I think so. Well, there's a couple things. One
huge thing for me is when before I opened the
sports Bra, people were just like, God, do you think
there are enough women's sports fans to show up? Not
only that, but that dream and eat you know, the way,
because there was this idea that sports bars, yeah, are
for dudes to watch sports and then eat and drink,
(19:08):
and that women don't do that, you know, but also
the idea that if we don't have easy accessibility of
women's sports, how do you create fandom? You have to
be almost like a rabid fan to one find where
the game is showing, because it was so hard to
like even search times days when your league is playing,
(19:32):
and so creating that space, like for me, it was
just wicked into sports. But then I opened the space
for myself too, and as you know, a queer Asian woman,
I kind of combined like this intersectionality inadvertently. And so
what happened was when we announced that we were opening,
there was a bunch of queer newspapers from across the
(19:54):
country that were just like a new lesbian bar is
coming to Portland, and they'd reach out and be like, well,
that's not entirely true, but it's not false either, And
so you know, there was this like section of the
community that had been underrepresented. And when I thought about that,
I thought about how the idea of underrepresentation not only
(20:15):
in women's sports and on TV, but in so many fields,
including the food and beverage industry, including you know all
the things. How those are all areas that need to
be boosted, and so with the BRA we were able
to like tap into the intersectionality of not just women
in sports, but kind of this underrepresented, underappreciated, underinvested, and
(20:38):
lean hard into all of those things to kind of
give it a platform. So, yeah, I think people have
come there because it's super inclusive, and we always get
these phone calls where it's like are.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Guys allowed in there?
Speaker 1 (20:49):
And I mean everyone In fact, we're all ages too,
and so people come in with kids. It's like awesome,
it's super dreamy.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
How has that intersectionality shaped the programming? When you think
about the broad not just as a business, but as
a canvas, the content that's coming out of it, the
storylines that are developing. What are some insights you can
share just around how that has shaped and informed your
business as it continues to expand.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Oh my gosh, incredible And like since day one, my
eyes have been wide open, Like I had no idea
the impact of creating a space that had never existed before.
It kind of felt like Pandora's box or like some
kind of a wormhole like we had just it's like
four walls. But when you create a space that has
(21:35):
never existed before, it kind of opens the door to possibility.
And there were things that were coming to my inbox
through my DMS.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
What was the craziest thing you got in early days?
Speaker 2 (21:50):
I mean not crazy and that it was not you know, legit,
but like just you couldn't believe that so and so
reached out, or that this opportunity was born out of
opening the bra Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
No, I mean I think a couple things come to
mind right away. And one was when Buick emailed me
and was just like, love what you're doing. We want
to host a March Madness thing with you guys. And
I was just like, this is fake. So I sent
it to like a friend of mine who's in like
PR and marketing, and she vetted it and she was like,
(22:21):
oh no, this is real. And you know, Buick hosted
a giant watch party with us and it was massive,
and I just I had no idea. And it was
because you know, they wanted to sell more cars to
women and they were a huge supporter of n C
DOABA and like all kinds of things. And then there
was another thing where this woman she reached out and
(22:42):
she was the first black woman photographer for the NHL,
and she just reached out an email, wanted to connect
and I was just like freaking cool, and so we
just had a chat just like this and we started
to like id eight about what we could do together,
and from just that simple conversation, we decided to host
(23:02):
the very first black women's sports photography exhibition at the
Sports Bra. It had never been done before, and so
we took everything off of our walls. We did an
open call internationally to black women's sports photographers and we
had I don't know how many submissions, but she curated
it and eleven artists from across the world incredible, had
(23:27):
their photography at the BRA for an entire month, and
we held like a gallery exhibition, like a Champagne situation.
And to me, I don't know if there are so
many things that happened because of the BRA, because it
opened up the door to have like these connections that
(23:47):
maybe there wasn't There didn't seem to be a way
that those two things would ever touch.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
And then when the BRA opened, it was just like, Oh,
I wonder if this could be a collaboration right, and
those have been like infinite I feel like infinite numbers.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
You can't possibly contain the broad of those four walls
in Portland. And so let's pivot and talk about what
expansion looks like and how do you take this incredibly
special space and scale it because the community, as you
alluded to, does exist far beyond Portland. Talk to me
(24:22):
about what led to the investment in the decision to
move into a franchise model.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
I mean, honestly, I held the sports Bra close to
my chest. You know, the first year it was just
us just trying to get through the day. And then
by year two I have really had a decision to make.
I was like, do we want this to be a standalone?
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Is this it? Do I retire? Do I go on vacation? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (24:46):
For this, But like every single day I was witnessing
people walking through the doors or not they come through email, DMS, whatever,
And the idea of the sports Bra, even just the
idea and even just being there had transfer people, and
to me, it felt selfish to not spread the love.
(25:06):
And so immediately people were just like, you need to
franchise this. And when I hear franchise, I think big box,
soul lists, you know, all of these things. But I
had crossed franchise off my list, and so I was like, Okay,
we're going to do a corporate expansion. And I leaned
hard into researching corporate expansion for months. In fact, I
(25:27):
even went to cities, talked to brokers, scoped out spaces,
talked to potential investors, and every time I came back
to Portland and I felt more daunted by corporate expansion.
And to me, the key difference was that I opened
the sports Bra here in Portland, my hometown. So inadvertently
or subconsciously, I opened a space that is very authentic
(25:48):
to this community because I know it. And if I
were to open the sports Bra in any other city,
it would feel like the sports brought Portland, which could
be fine, but it wouldn't have that author to community
driven peace that I think is at its heart. And
so I finally was just like, let me read a
little bit more enfranchising, And as soon as I started
(26:09):
to look into it, I realized that that was the way,
Like you find people from those communities to own their
own business right and license out the brand, and you know,
you control a little bit of the menu control a
little bit of this, that and the other thing, but
really it is them bringing it to their communities and
that is irreplaceable. That that kind of connection is irreplaceable.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
And so Alexis actually reached out very early on in
year two for us, like so last year, I mean,
time is so weird. We haven't We're about to celebrate
our three year anniversary in April.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
It's incredible.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Early about this time last year, Alexis reached out via
a tweet, which I thought was fake because I have
a friend who always plays pranks on me. She sent
it to me. It was screenshot of a tweet. I
thought it was fake. It wasn't fake. I reached out
to him in a DM. He reached back out and
was just like, would love to love what you're doing,
(27:09):
would love to help whenever you're ready to do the
next step. And at that time I had no idea
and he was like, cool, let me know if you
need a need help. And as soon as I decided
on franchising, which was about eight months later, right, No,
it was a few months later, I let him know
and things happened really quickly after that.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
And when you announced that you were franchising. It was
like inundation when we spoke that, like all across the country,
people were reaching out in so much that you had
to have a vetted, like you know, process that you're
now engaging in.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
We had to rethink our funneling system.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Talk about that in terms of maintaining the guts and
the soul of the BRA and what's important to maintain
the level of inclusion that you've created, the quality of service,
the innovation and ideation around what you're building, and how
important it will be to ensure that that can scale.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
So I think one crazy thing is that we were
able to put pen to paper on a bunch of
our systems that I don't think any small business owner
really would do unless they had to. Like everyone talks
about like, oh yeah, we're going to put together a
sop and then they never get to it, because that's
how restaurants are.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
What's an sop? Standard operating procedures.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
You know.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
We were able to put down everything that you know,
our recipes, all these things that really are technical, and
those those things are relatively quote unquote easy. The hard
part is exactly what you're talking about. Building the culture
creating community space, making it authentic. And for me, it's
all about the people. And so when we're vetting these
(29:00):
potential franchisees, we're really looking for the right people. But
what is really great about the sports Bra and the
women's sports community in general is that it is not
something that folks take lightly. When I first opened the
sports Bra and it started to have the kind of
that rocket success, I thought that I didn't want to
(29:23):
let go of it into a franchise because I truly
believed at the time that only I understood what it
meant the sports Bra, what it meant what was that
it's heart and soul. And every single day I realized
that so many people just get it, they just understand it.
There's this deep love and passion and connectedness to women's
(29:46):
the women's sports community that it wouldn't take much to
foster that. And those are the folks who are reaching out.
They have a deep passion, deep love. Many of the
folks that come through the pipeline have never even been
to the sports Bra, and they're willing to, you know,
leave their jobs, put their four oh one k's in
(30:07):
and open this space in their communities.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
They're going all in. They're going all in.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Where can we expect to see it? What territories, regions?
Any breaking news.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
No breaking news, But we we have a careful rule
out plan. We're really excited. We opened it up nationwide
in October. We opened up kind of the you know,
if you're interested, here's an inquiry form to fill out.
In the first twenty four hours, we got two hundred
and fifty responses in the first forty eight hours. We
kind of had to like shut it down from all over,
(30:41):
from all over, including internationally, even though on the website
it's clearly USh.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
You can't fall people for shooting on the show.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Yeah, they're just like, well, just put mine at the
top of the international list. But yeah, so it's all over.
And what's interesting is that about half of the states,
about twenty five states, they don't require a registration in
so it's open to franchising immediately, and then the other
twenty five it requires registration, and some of these states
(31:10):
take a long time, and so because of franchise laws
are so strict, we can't even speak to people in
some of these states. In some of these twenty five states,
So as we do the roll out, people will probably
be surprised for some of these locations, but a lot
of it is because some of these major states with
major metropolitan areas are register states that take quite a
(31:33):
while to go through the whole rigamar role.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Yeah, interesting insight.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
As we bring on more registered states, which are happening
constantly every month, every couple weeks, there's one more state
that we're adding to the map on our franchise website.
But once we add that, then we're opening those channels again. So,
for example, Texas just opened up, and so we just
started reaching back out to all those folks from Texas inquired.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
So you've got a great pipeline.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Yeah, so you're rolling out nationwide potentially globally, as the
pipeline already exists.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
You've popped up globally.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
What's the thing that you're dreaming about in the back
of your mind that if there was a blank check
and an opportunity you would add.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
To the portfolio? Oh, Laura, blank check. God there.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
I have a lot of ideas, you know me, I'm
swimming with ideas, and I wake up to ideas, I
go to bed with ideas. I mostly have a really
strong team around me that can be like let's put
a pin in that, or there's no way that's happening,
or let's foster that idea. I love that, which is great,
which is really good for me. I need like the
reality check and these are people I trust, so.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
It's like, okay, true, I understand.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
I mean I love the idea of some type of
content creation and channel. What whether it's it just a
YouTube channel or what. But like the stories that come
through the sports Bra, even just in Portland, the people
who sit in the barstools, the folks coming through the
doors with their kids, people in their seventies. I mean,
(33:10):
there is endless amounts of stories to be told around
women's sports and what it means to have a space
like the sports Bra. I mean you know the book Humans.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
Of New York. Oh yeah, yeah them of the amount
of stories that are sitting.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Amount the stories exactly, So I mean there's content there.
And then as we franchise, you know, these are going
to be locations that we can build the content in
these other cities and these other communities. I think that
that's one thing. And I think that the idea of
the sports Bra is exactly what you said earlier. It
is not contained in those four walls, even if those
four walls exist in one hundred and fifty other cities
(33:44):
across the globe, it is It is a community, It
is a culture. It is creating an experience of fandom,
and that doesn't require four walls. It could be out
in a field. It could be in the parking lot,
you know, the ultimate tailgate.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
You know. I have all these ideas of.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Rallying, you know, doing a secret pop up, you know,
two hours before a little like an elementary school softball
game or something. Two hours before that we just promo
it be like, guess what we're going there. We're gonna
give away T shirts and we're all going to the game,
and we're going to cheer our minds out, and maybe
we bring like markers and posters and everybody just full
(34:26):
on fills out that field and show these girls like
true fandom, you know, and just do secret pop ups.
I feel like that in different communities across the country
as we franchise out is an awesome way to not
only spread you know, there's branding, it's kind of like
an opportunity to connect.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
Well. It's interesting because food in BEV is the vehicle.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
It's not the business if you really think about it, right, Like,
at the end of the day, what you've tapped into
is the power of convening and tapping into a passion
that was yours and literally putting it on sterile and
building business around it.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
I mean, it's truly remarkable.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
And not just that, but to grow fandom so not
to really give the fans what they've always wanted.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
How many new fans are coming through the BRA that,
like you can tell like they weren't expecting to end
up there that evening.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Oh my god, I mean, I wish, I wish we
could track it.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
But we know for a fact that at least half
of the people that come to the BRA are not
sports fans. And then we know for a fact that
about eighty percent of everybody coming to the BRA is
there for the first time. We get a ton of tourism.
People come in with their luggage.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
I'm so curious to know you've inspired not just the
art of gathering in the women's sports space, You've also
inspired an entire economic industry in that now there are
women's sports establishments popping up around the country independently, but
I'm sure connected. Can you talk about when you started
to see the emergence of that what it meant. I'm
(35:57):
sure invalidating the thesis, of course, but in terms of
the growth and traction of what the Fantasy Land created.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
Yeah, it is kind of unbelievable. You know.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Early on, folks who wanted to open their own women's
sports bars were reaching out and it was almost like
kind of like the Godfather, you know, they were just
like very inspired, how has it been, asking all the
questions and really like can I get your blessing? And
it's just like, oh my god, you don't ever, you know,
you don't have to ask me. But the community at
first was very very tight and small, and like I
(36:30):
was able to answer these emails and tell them my challenges.
And then one by one, you know, more and more
people started to do it, and that community of that
first like five now people are reaching out to like
Jillian at a bar of their own. People are reaching
out to Gen in Seattle and you know Jax that
watched me in Long Beach, and just like so there's
(36:52):
like this core group of folks. So it's no longer
just you know, me obviously will always be the first,
but there's this core group of folks that people can
chime in, and there's a slack channel that literally every
day one or two people get added to and it's
folks who are holding watch parties, folks who are just
creating these spaces that have been so needed. And what
(37:16):
is crazy to me is that, you know, being in
the women's sports culture and the community and hearing the
fandom and the appreciation, like, I get it and I
am so appreciative of it. But what was more shocking
was we we brought on a franchise consulting agency, which
is one of the best on the planet to help
(37:38):
us franchise out and when we started to speak to them,
they really were just like, listen, We've done this with
over two hundred and fifty companies and what the sports
bra is doing is very special. And it was very
clear to me that we had opened up a new market.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
New market. Can you put that?
Speaker 2 (37:58):
And I'm not asking you to open up the books,
but like, can you quantify how quick and what the
potential of that market is?
Speaker 3 (38:08):
Oh, I tip of the iceberg. I have no idea.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
I mean, where we know that sports bars are like
a three billion dollar market annual market.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
I can't tell you. Women in the US.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
I can't tell you what the women's sports bar potential is,
but seeing the white space and the growth and the
trajectory and the demand in just the last two years
that we've been open increase, I mean, it really is
the tip of the iceberg.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
I love that well, Jenny.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
I am just so enamored with your journey and know
that you are just at the beginning of what will
be one of the greatest entrepreneur stories in sports and entertainment.
So that doesn't even get into food and bev, but
just congratulations on everything you've built in such record time
and excited to see the continued trajectory and pop up
(39:08):
in more places with you around the world.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
Thank you so much, Laura.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
I appreciate it, and I appreciate your support and all
the things and the ability to tell the story.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Everybody, go follow Jenny and the BRA and make sure
you check it out when you're in Portland and coming.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
To a city near you. That's it.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
I'm your host, Laura Krenti, founder and CEO of Deep
Blue Sports and Entertainment. Our executive producer is Jesse Katz,
and this show is produced by Ryan Martz along with
associate producers Meredith Barnes and Rachel Zuckerman. Court Side is
an Iheartwomen's sports production and partnership with Deep Blue Sports
and Entertainment. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
(39:48):
wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
Want more, follow, rate.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
And review court Side wherever you get your podcasts, and
stay in the game by following us on social media
at iHeart Women's Sports. And don't forget to subscribe to
our newsletter. In the show notes, thanks for listening. We'll
see you next time. Quart Saide
We sat around one night and I was just like,
can you imagine if, when we were like seven years old,
if our parents took us to a place like the
Sports Bra, what kind of impact I would have had
on us as kids on our lives like to walk
into a space and feel like you belong.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Welcome back to court Side, where we're going to break
down the business of women's sports with the people shaping
its future. I'm your host, Laura Karrenty. Today's conversation is
about something deeply personal, what it means to feel seen,
represented and celebrated. For so many of us who grew
up playing sports, we didn't always have that space off
the court where a passion felt reflected back at us.
(00:47):
But what if that space finally existed? What if there
was a place that honored women's sports the way they
deserve to be honored and dire. The Sports Bra and
its dynamic founder Jenny Wynn, a chef, former athlete, and
lifelong community builder and also my good friend. Jenny opened
the first ever bar dedicated exclusively to women's sports in Portland, Oregon.
(01:07):
But what she's created is so much more than a bar.
It's a cultural landmark, a lightning rod for fans and
founders alike, and the spark behind a fast growing national movement,
one that is seeing three x the amount of women's
sports bars opening up nationwide. In this conversation, Jenny shares
her incredible journey from hoop dreams to the kitchen line
to a five year stretch of unemployment that turned out
(01:29):
to be the quiet build up to her biggest idea yet.
We talk about how a pandemic light bulb moment led
to launching the sports Bra, why franchising was the unexpected
but perfect growth model, and what it means to create
space for people who've never had one. So if you're
a fan, a founder, or someone who's still wondering if
women's sports can be good business, buckle up. Jenny Winn
(01:51):
is here to show us what's possible when you bet
on passion, community and representation.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Let's get into it. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Jenny, the Founder, the one and only of the sports
Bra Portland to the world.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Hey girl, Hey, how's it going? Laura?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
The only place that could be better doing this is
together sitting at your establishment.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
So heard that. Jenny's so good to have you.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
On the show, and thank you for making the time,
as I was getting ready for today's conversation, I was
thinking back to a great plate of meatballs that we
shared in Hoboken, New Jersey, shout out to Augustino's, And
it was really there, after having read so much about
the founding of the sports bra really the pioneer in
the world of women's sports restaurant tours, that I really
(02:40):
got to learn the backstory you shared with me an
incredible journey that culminated into this incredible moment that effectively
landed in your lap, so to speak. And so I'd
love if you could just take us on that founder's
origin story because I always think it's so inspirational to
find out just how the sausage is made.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Well, geez, Laura, you know how much time you got,
it's pretty cool. Like I'm generally not a person who
believes in destiny or things you know, are the way
that they're supposed to be.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
I'm kind of chaos theory or whatever.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
But you know, born and raised in Portland, and first
generation Vietnamese America, and my parents came over during the
Vietnam War, and an only child. So combine all of
those things and you've got pretty colorful history of growing
up here, and I fell in love with basketball. It
was my first true love. Probably picked up a ball
around five years old, started dribbling and just never really
(03:33):
put it down, well not until I opened the doors
to the sports bra But yeah, basketball was my true love,
and I just it was my identity. It was what
I did. People knew me as Jenny the basketball player.
It kind of created a rift between my mom and
I because she didn't believe that Vietnamese girls played sports
at all, let alone basketball. She was just like she
put me into ballet, she put me into tumbling, and
(03:56):
then you know, I just identified as a basketball player
all throughout high I was a four year varsity player,
and I had this kind of delusion that I was
going to play college and then pro. I wasn't great
at basketball, just putting it out there. But then I
got a very tiny four hundred dollars a quarter scholarship
to a community college, local community college here, and I
(04:17):
was just like, I'm playing basketball in college, and I
was super excited. And you know, I didn't have any
plans on a career. I didn't have any plans on
like what I wanted to be when I grew up,
all I could see was basketball. So about two weeks
before my first freshman tip off, I blew out my
ACL at an open gym. And I was nineteen years old.
You know, I'd been going through my life failing invincible,
(04:40):
you know, at that age.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
And to be fair, I would argue, you still are,
but go on, I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
I appreciate that, and I just was devastated, you know.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
And I think a couple of years prior to that,
around seventeen, I came out to my friends and family
as gay, and so the combination of those two things
together plus get going into college, I was really kind
of distraught and kind of went through this phase of
like depression. I was picking fights with my friends, my family,
and I just wanted to.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Get away from everything. I just wanted to leave it
all behind.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
So I picked a college that was literally the furthest
away from my family but still in state so that
they could afford it. And I went there and it
ended up being just a really amazing college for me.
Lots of nature, and the food at the college was
really really bad, and so I picked up like a
frying pan for the first time, and I called Mom
(05:34):
and I was just like, Mom, give me some of
the recipes that I grew up with because I wanted
to start cooking home cooked food. And that's kind of
when I discovered like this hidden passion for food. I
had never dabbled in cooking at all, but like it
started out with moms. So I wrote home to Mom
and I was just like, Mom, I want the recipe
(05:55):
for tit kaw, which is this braized pork shoulder dish,
and that was what I cooked. And it was one
of those things where you could cook like a huge
batch and then freeze it. And so that's what I
started with, and then I started to ask her for more.
And the next thing I knew, I was cooking for
like all the girls in my dorm. And then I
was like having these meals where I'd have everybody chip
(06:16):
in whoever wanted to come chip in five dollars and
by the end of the week it'd be like a
thirty person dinner and like seven courses.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Amazing, and I loved it.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
And so by the end of my sophomore year, I
was dating this woman and she's like, I think that
you should be a chef.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Had it ever occurred to you prior to that. Absolutely not.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
At the time, I was pre med, honestly, because my
parents were just like, Oh, you don't want to you
don't know what to do with your life, be a doctor.
And so it took me like that entire sophomore year
to decide like, oh my god, am I going to
make this phone call to my family.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
So finally I did, and.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
They were devastated, like full on heartbroken, and I think,
you know, Dad basically gave me the best advice he
could have. He goes, Okay, I want you to get
the worst job you can think of in your field,
in that field, do it for a year, and if
you still want to do that for the rest of
your life, then go for it. And then mom chimed
(07:11):
in and she was like, but you have to finish
college first. So that's what I did. Yeah, I finished college.
Such great advice, Yeah, it really was. And I think
Dad was hoping that I would do it and then
like realize that, you know.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Go back to med school.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Yeah there's no way I would work in this. But yeah,
it ended up like backfiring. I like got a kitchen
job that was at the Red Robin, a local Red
Robin it was like the worst job that any nobody wanted,
this job. And as so like my first day, as
soon as those tickets started rolling in, I was like
the adrenaline hit.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I was fired up, and I was just like I
was hooked.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
I was absolutely hooked, something similar to playing basketball exactly.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
And I mean that's the thing is like I was
dating this woman and she was just like, literally the
only time I ever see you, like be truly happy
and fully yourself is either your on the basketball court
or you're in the kitchen. And when she said that
to me, I hadn't realized it because it was just
like it was so it was meditative for me, both
(08:10):
of those things. I mean, basketball was super fun. I
loved it. And then being in the kitchen, it was
so like there was there was this like this piece,
this calm that washed over me, and I would lose
hours in the kitchen. I'd turn around and be dark,
and I would have no idea what happened. And like
whatever I was worried about, whatever I was, you know, schoolwork,
coming out, what I was going to do with my
(08:32):
none of those things, like it all disappeared.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
It's interesting I had never made this connection, but from
point guard to directing the line in a kitchen has
a lot of transferable skills and qualities I would imagine totally.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Yeah, No, I mean I think I'd never put those
things together. But there's this team mentality about being in
a kitchen. I mean, for me, the kitchen was it
felt like more like a war zone and going through
a war together.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
But there's very much this.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
You know, you're always going to have like the weakest link,
just like on a team, but you play to their strengths, right,
and everybody chimes in together. There's everybody has their different
things they're really great at. You know, you have a sacia,
you and the soux chef, you have the prep person,
you have a dishwasher, and no matter what level or
what skill set you're at, it requires everybody for this
machine to work.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
And a business is very much like that, very much.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
So fast forward, you fall in love with food, you're
in the kitchen. It dawns on you that this is
a career potential. I know you navigated a few things
to get to the opening of the BRA. Talk about
when the BRA became a reality.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Oh man, So I don't know how many people know
this But between my fifteen plus year stint as a
chef and opening the sports Bra was about a little
over five years of me being unemployed, straight up no job.
I did a little side hustle, you know, to like
make ends meet, have some like extracurricular activities. But I
(10:02):
in twenty fifteen, I took my very first paid time
off vacation. I had become an executive chef, so I
had like saved up all this paid time off and
I was like, oh my gosh, this has never happened before.
And I took two weeks to go to Vietnam, and
it was my first time going, and I went with
my parents, and I had no agenda except to like
eat my way through that country and then to see
(10:23):
where my parents grew up. But what happened in those
two weeks was life changing. It really shifted my worldview,
and I came back decided that what I was doing
as a chef at the time wasn't what I wanted
to do with my life. I wanted to build some
form of community. I wanted to connect more with the
people in my life, the people that I loved. You know,
(10:43):
being a chef really didn't allow for a lot of
that to happen. So I put in my notice and
I quit my job. And I didn't know what the
next step was going to be for me, but I
thought that it would just like it would come, you know,
and I would figure it out. I was very comfortable
being unemployed. I had no qualms about not having a job.
I know that there are people out there who they
(11:05):
feel lost or bored. I am not that guy, like
I am. I was very good at retired life. But
what changed was the pandemic. Once the pandemic hit, it
like it was kind of like the slap across the
face where it was just like, oh my god, what
am I doing with my life? What are my priorities?
(11:26):
What's the most important thing to me? And how do
I want to show up for the world, and what's
the world do we want? Because I think there's so
many people who were just like, oh my god, this
is so abnormal, but we don't want to go back
to normal. Like it felt like an opportunity to change,
and so I kind of had this like giant push
pull feeling inside of my body where I was just
(11:46):
like been so comfortable for the last five years and
suddenly I was very disgruntled with my life, with myself,
and I was just like, I felt like I had
something to offer, but I didn't know what it was,
and so I was just like, God, the only two
things that I've ever been really good at, which I
wasn't even really that good at, was basketball and food.
(12:06):
And that's when the idea of the sports bra kind
of came back up. By twenty twenty, the sports Bra
had been this running joke between my friends and I
for a few years.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
By the way, what a brilliant name. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
When I came up with this idea of the sports bra,
it was just like this placeholder of a fantasy land.
It just started out as like this little idea and
then crew into this massive thing in my body that
I was just like, Okay, I either have to do
it or have to let it go. And then I
came to that proverbial fork in the road. I remember
(12:42):
it as just this one moment that kind of tipped
the scales, and it was when me and my girlfriend
at the time, she was a lifelong basketball player as well.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
She was much better than I was.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
She could have gotten full rides to college and all
kinds of things, but we sat around one night drinking,
and I was just like, can you imagine if when
we were like seven years old, if our parents took
us to a place like the Sports Bra, what kind
of impact that would have had on us as kids
on our lives like to walk into a space and
(13:15):
feel like you belong. And then she goes, yeah, imagine
if we were like twelve or thirteen, and I go
or nineteen and she goes twenty one, twenty five, And
so we both realized that we had never really been
in a space that saw us as female athletes, Like
that was a public sphere and not like the basketball
courts or not like an arena.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
It's so incredible to hear you say that, and just
thinking about my seven year old self and you know,
everybody piling the somebody's parents' car, And I think anybody
listening to this who's experienced even you know, youth sports
at the most fundamental level, can relate to that. But yeah,
startling when you think about prior to the Sports Bra,
that space literally did not exist. Talk about the process
(14:14):
as an entrepreneur, founder, restaurant tour, all of the things
culminating into the day you opened the doors for the
first time, What did it feel like and what was
the process?
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Like, I mean, when I was an executive chef, I
had people coming out of the woodwork being like, when
are you going to open your own restaurant? And I
was always like, never, There's no way, Like that is
so much work, it's so hard. I cut my teeth
in kitchens at mom and pop restaurants, so I knew
the turmoil and the hardships, and you know, I just
(14:46):
i'd seen that side of it. That's not a glory job.
But when it came to the bra you know again,
it lived in my heart and in my head and
it really took over my entire body. And I'd never
wanted something so bad that point where it felt like
I didn't have a choice but to do it, and
that the fear of failure just it didn't outweigh the
need to just try. But one thing I do want
(15:09):
to say is that I come from it came with privilege.
Like I have parents that live about twenty minutes away
from here. Mom would absolutely love it if I lived
in the basement for a little bit, like if I
needed to, she'd be like, oh my God, come come home.
So my my backup plan was like, if everything you
know went to crap, I could move in with my parents.
(15:31):
I have two hands, I was a chef, I'd transferable skills.
So my backup plan, like my my lowest low, wasn't
that bad. And so that that helped me to take
the risk. I know that there are people out there
who go into entrepreneurship with so much more risks. They
have families, mouths to feed, all of the things. So
I do want to I do want to say that
it was a It comes from a privileged place to
(15:54):
be able to take a risk like opening a business.
But really, you know, I had spent about seven and
a half as I'm hiring manager and about four and
a half years as an executive chef to a team
of about seventy five people, So that gave me a
lot of skills as far as planning inventory, the kitchen
stuff I understood. But out of running a small business,
(16:17):
I probably knew about point five percent of everything I
needed to know. And so really what it required was
for me to lose the ego and ask for help.
I mean immediately I knew that I needed so much
help to get this thing off the ground.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
And what was great?
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Was that once I kind of like shed that that
ego and like it was just like, you know what,
I'm just gonna ask this person. People were so excited
about the idea and the concept of the sports bra
that the word traveled real quick in the network, Like
there's the Lesbian Network, there's the basketball Network. People just
(16:55):
came out of the woodworks being like, I'm very good
at these things. How can I help? We need this
space to exist? What can I do? And so once
I realized that asking for help was actually a great
community builder and a way to hell have everybody have
a hand in this, it became a lot easier to
(17:18):
ask for what I needed, and in fact, people were
so genuinely excited to be a part of it.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
And at what point do you realize you don't just
have a business, You don't just have a bar, you
have a brand.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Honestly, I created the sports pretty pretty tunnel vision, you know.
I was just like, I just want this bar and
restaurant where people can come celebrate women's sports the way
it deserves to be celebrated, and just real tunnel vision.
I was just like, I feel like Portland's the city,
you know, I grew up here. I've grown up witnessing
(17:53):
people showing up for women's sports, like my whole life here,
and so to me, that's that was my vision. And
when I look back on my business plan, like, obviously
I keep all of my stuff because it's just it's great.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
To see great book, great movie material, all of the things.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
It's great to see.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
How how I didn't see it as something that could
be big. I just saw it as something that was
important and important to me, and I felt like there
was this community it would be important too. What I
didn't realize was how big that community is one and
two how expansive the different intersectionalities of the community is.
(18:33):
I mean, I would say fifty percent of the people
that come and visit the sports Bra aren't sports fans.
They come to be in community. They come to be
part of this culture and this vibe.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Talk about that a little bit because that's a really
really important insight.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Yeah, I think so. Well, there's a couple things. One
huge thing for me is when before I opened the
sports Bra, people were just like, God, do you think
there are enough women's sports fans to show up? Not
only that, but that dream and eat you know, the way,
because there was this idea that sports bars, yeah, are
for dudes to watch sports and then eat and drink,
(19:08):
and that women don't do that, you know, but also
the idea that if we don't have easy accessibility of
women's sports, how do you create fandom? You have to
be almost like a rabid fan to one find where
the game is showing, because it was so hard to
like even search times days when your league is playing,
(19:32):
and so creating that space, like for me, it was
just wicked into sports. But then I opened the space
for myself too, and as you know, a queer Asian woman,
I kind of combined like this intersectionality inadvertently. And so
what happened was when we announced that we were opening,
there was a bunch of queer newspapers from across the
(19:54):
country that were just like a new lesbian bar is
coming to Portland, and they'd reach out and be like, well,
that's not entirely true, but it's not false either, And
so you know, there was this like section of the
community that had been underrepresented. And when I thought about that,
I thought about how the idea of underrepresentation not only
(20:15):
in women's sports and on TV, but in so many fields,
including the food and beverage industry, including you know all
the things. How those are all areas that need to
be boosted, and so with the BRA we were able
to like tap into the intersectionality of not just women
in sports, but kind of this underrepresented, underappreciated, underinvested, and
(20:38):
lean hard into all of those things to kind of
give it a platform. So, yeah, I think people have
come there because it's super inclusive, and we always get
these phone calls where it's like are.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Guys allowed in there?
Speaker 1 (20:49):
And I mean everyone In fact, we're all ages too,
and so people come in with kids. It's like awesome,
it's super dreamy.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
How has that intersectionality shaped the programming? When you think
about the broad not just as a business, but as
a canvas, the content that's coming out of it, the
storylines that are developing. What are some insights you can
share just around how that has shaped and informed your
business as it continues to expand.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Oh my gosh, incredible And like since day one, my
eyes have been wide open, Like I had no idea
the impact of creating a space that had never existed before.
It kind of felt like Pandora's box or like some
kind of a wormhole like we had just it's like
four walls. But when you create a space that has
(21:35):
never existed before, it kind of opens the door to possibility.
And there were things that were coming to my inbox
through my DMS.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
What was the craziest thing you got in early days?
Speaker 2 (21:50):
I mean not crazy and that it was not you know, legit,
but like just you couldn't believe that so and so
reached out, or that this opportunity was born out of
opening the bra Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
No, I mean I think a couple things come to
mind right away. And one was when Buick emailed me
and was just like, love what you're doing. We want
to host a March Madness thing with you guys. And
I was just like, this is fake. So I sent
it to like a friend of mine who's in like
PR and marketing, and she vetted it and she was like,
(22:21):
oh no, this is real. And you know, Buick hosted
a giant watch party with us and it was massive,
and I just I had no idea. And it was
because you know, they wanted to sell more cars to
women and they were a huge supporter of n C
DOABA and like all kinds of things. And then there
was another thing where this woman she reached out and
(22:42):
she was the first black woman photographer for the NHL,
and she just reached out an email, wanted to connect
and I was just like freaking cool, and so we
just had a chat just like this and we started
to like id eight about what we could do together,
and from just that simple conversation, we decided to host
(23:02):
the very first black women's sports photography exhibition at the
Sports Bra. It had never been done before, and so
we took everything off of our walls. We did an
open call internationally to black women's sports photographers and we
had I don't know how many submissions, but she curated
it and eleven artists from across the world incredible, had
(23:27):
their photography at the BRA for an entire month, and
we held like a gallery exhibition, like a Champagne situation.
And to me, I don't know if there are so
many things that happened because of the BRA, because it
opened up the door to have like these connections that
(23:47):
maybe there wasn't There didn't seem to be a way
that those two things would ever touch.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
And then when the BRA opened, it was just like, Oh,
I wonder if this could be a collaboration right, and
those have been like infinite I feel like infinite numbers.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
You can't possibly contain the broad of those four walls
in Portland. And so let's pivot and talk about what
expansion looks like and how do you take this incredibly
special space and scale it because the community, as you
alluded to, does exist far beyond Portland. Talk to me
(24:22):
about what led to the investment in the decision to
move into a franchise model.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
I mean, honestly, I held the sports Bra close to
my chest. You know, the first year it was just
us just trying to get through the day. And then
by year two I have really had a decision to make.
I was like, do we want this to be a standalone?
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Is this it? Do I retire? Do I go on vacation? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (24:46):
For this, But like every single day I was witnessing
people walking through the doors or not they come through email, DMS, whatever,
And the idea of the sports Bra, even just the
idea and even just being there had transfer people, and
to me, it felt selfish to not spread the love.
(25:06):
And so immediately people were just like, you need to
franchise this. And when I hear franchise, I think big box,
soul lists, you know, all of these things. But I
had crossed franchise off my list, and so I was like, Okay,
we're going to do a corporate expansion. And I leaned
hard into researching corporate expansion for months. In fact, I
(25:27):
even went to cities, talked to brokers, scoped out spaces,
talked to potential investors, and every time I came back
to Portland and I felt more daunted by corporate expansion.
And to me, the key difference was that I opened
the sports Bra here in Portland, my hometown. So inadvertently
or subconsciously, I opened a space that is very authentic
(25:48):
to this community because I know it. And if I
were to open the sports Bra in any other city,
it would feel like the sports brought Portland, which could
be fine, but it wouldn't have that author to community
driven peace that I think is at its heart. And
so I finally was just like, let me read a
little bit more enfranchising, And as soon as I started
(26:09):
to look into it, I realized that that was the way,
Like you find people from those communities to own their
own business right and license out the brand, and you know,
you control a little bit of the menu control a
little bit of this, that and the other thing, but
really it is them bringing it to their communities and
that is irreplaceable. That that kind of connection is irreplaceable.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
And so Alexis actually reached out very early on in
year two for us, like so last year, I mean,
time is so weird. We haven't We're about to celebrate
our three year anniversary in April.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
It's incredible.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Early about this time last year, Alexis reached out via
a tweet, which I thought was fake because I have
a friend who always plays pranks on me. She sent
it to me. It was screenshot of a tweet. I
thought it was fake. It wasn't fake. I reached out
to him in a DM. He reached back out and
was just like, would love to love what you're doing,
(27:09):
would love to help whenever you're ready to do the
next step. And at that time I had no idea
and he was like, cool, let me know if you
need a need help. And as soon as I decided
on franchising, which was about eight months later, right, No,
it was a few months later, I let him know
and things happened really quickly after that.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
And when you announced that you were franchising. It was
like inundation when we spoke that, like all across the country,
people were reaching out in so much that you had
to have a vetted, like you know, process that you're
now engaging in.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
We had to rethink our funneling system.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Talk about that in terms of maintaining the guts and
the soul of the BRA and what's important to maintain
the level of inclusion that you've created, the quality of service,
the innovation and ideation around what you're building, and how
important it will be to ensure that that can scale.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
So I think one crazy thing is that we were
able to put pen to paper on a bunch of
our systems that I don't think any small business owner
really would do unless they had to. Like everyone talks
about like, oh yeah, we're going to put together a
sop and then they never get to it, because that's
how restaurants are.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
What's an sop? Standard operating procedures.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
You know.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
We were able to put down everything that you know,
our recipes, all these things that really are technical, and
those those things are relatively quote unquote easy. The hard
part is exactly what you're talking about. Building the culture
creating community space, making it authentic. And for me, it's
all about the people. And so when we're vetting these
(29:00):
potential franchisees, we're really looking for the right people. But
what is really great about the sports Bra and the
women's sports community in general is that it is not
something that folks take lightly. When I first opened the
sports Bra and it started to have the kind of
that rocket success, I thought that I didn't want to
(29:23):
let go of it into a franchise because I truly
believed at the time that only I understood what it
meant the sports Bra, what it meant what was that
it's heart and soul. And every single day I realized
that so many people just get it, they just understand it.
There's this deep love and passion and connectedness to women's
(29:46):
the women's sports community that it wouldn't take much to
foster that. And those are the folks who are reaching out.
They have a deep passion, deep love. Many of the
folks that come through the pipeline have never even been
to the sports Bra, and they're willing to, you know,
leave their jobs, put their four oh one k's in
(30:07):
and open this space in their communities.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
They're going all in. They're going all in.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Where can we expect to see it? What territories, regions?
Any breaking news.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
No breaking news, But we we have a careful rule
out plan. We're really excited. We opened it up nationwide
in October. We opened up kind of the you know,
if you're interested, here's an inquiry form to fill out.
In the first twenty four hours, we got two hundred
and fifty responses in the first forty eight hours. We
kind of had to like shut it down from all over,
(30:41):
from all over, including internationally, even though on the website
it's clearly USh.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
You can't fall people for shooting on the show.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Yeah, they're just like, well, just put mine at the
top of the international list. But yeah, so it's all over.
And what's interesting is that about half of the states,
about twenty five states, they don't require a registration in
so it's open to franchising immediately, and then the other
twenty five it requires registration, and some of these states
(31:10):
take a long time, and so because of franchise laws
are so strict, we can't even speak to people in
some of these states. In some of these twenty five states,
So as we do the roll out, people will probably
be surprised for some of these locations, but a lot
of it is because some of these major states with
major metropolitan areas are register states that take quite a
(31:33):
while to go through the whole rigamar role.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Yeah, interesting insight.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
As we bring on more registered states, which are happening
constantly every month, every couple weeks, there's one more state
that we're adding to the map on our franchise website.
But once we add that, then we're opening those channels again. So,
for example, Texas just opened up, and so we just
started reaching back out to all those folks from Texas inquired.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
So you've got a great pipeline.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Yeah, so you're rolling out nationwide potentially globally, as the
pipeline already exists.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
You've popped up globally.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
What's the thing that you're dreaming about in the back
of your mind that if there was a blank check
and an opportunity you would add.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
To the portfolio? Oh, Laura, blank check. God there.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
I have a lot of ideas, you know me, I'm
swimming with ideas, and I wake up to ideas, I
go to bed with ideas. I mostly have a really
strong team around me that can be like let's put
a pin in that, or there's no way that's happening,
or let's foster that idea. I love that, which is great,
which is really good for me. I need like the
reality check and these are people I trust, so.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
It's like, okay, true, I understand.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
I mean I love the idea of some type of
content creation and channel. What whether it's it just a
YouTube channel or what. But like the stories that come
through the sports Bra, even just in Portland, the people
who sit in the barstools, the folks coming through the
doors with their kids, people in their seventies. I mean,
(33:10):
there is endless amounts of stories to be told around
women's sports and what it means to have a space
like the sports Bra. I mean you know the book Humans.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
Of New York. Oh yeah, yeah them of the amount
of stories that are sitting.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Amount the stories exactly, So I mean there's content there.
And then as we franchise, you know, these are going
to be locations that we can build the content in
these other cities and these other communities. I think that
that's one thing. And I think that the idea of
the sports Bra is exactly what you said earlier. It
is not contained in those four walls, even if those
four walls exist in one hundred and fifty other cities
(33:44):
across the globe, it is It is a community, It
is a culture. It is creating an experience of fandom,
and that doesn't require four walls. It could be out
in a field. It could be in the parking lot,
you know, the ultimate tailgate.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
You know. I have all these ideas of.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Rallying, you know, doing a secret pop up, you know,
two hours before a little like an elementary school softball
game or something. Two hours before that we just promo
it be like, guess what we're going there. We're gonna
give away T shirts and we're all going to the game,
and we're going to cheer our minds out, and maybe
we bring like markers and posters and everybody just full
(34:26):
on fills out that field and show these girls like
true fandom, you know, and just do secret pop ups.
I feel like that in different communities across the country
as we franchise out is an awesome way to not
only spread you know, there's branding, it's kind of like
an opportunity to connect.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
Well. It's interesting because food in BEV is the vehicle.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
It's not the business if you really think about it, right, Like,
at the end of the day, what you've tapped into
is the power of convening and tapping into a passion
that was yours and literally putting it on sterile and
building business around it.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
I mean, it's truly remarkable.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
And not just that, but to grow fandom so not
to really give the fans what they've always wanted.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
How many new fans are coming through the BRA that,
like you can tell like they weren't expecting to end
up there that evening.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Oh my god, I mean, I wish, I wish we
could track it.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
But we know for a fact that at least half
of the people that come to the BRA are not
sports fans. And then we know for a fact that
about eighty percent of everybody coming to the BRA is
there for the first time. We get a ton of tourism.
People come in with their luggage.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
I'm so curious to know you've inspired not just the
art of gathering in the women's sports space, You've also
inspired an entire economic industry in that now there are
women's sports establishments popping up around the country independently, but
I'm sure connected. Can you talk about when you started
to see the emergence of that what it meant. I'm
(35:57):
sure invalidating the thesis, of course, but in terms of
the growth and traction of what the Fantasy Land created.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
Yeah, it is kind of unbelievable. You know.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Early on, folks who wanted to open their own women's
sports bars were reaching out and it was almost like
kind of like the Godfather, you know, they were just
like very inspired, how has it been, asking all the
questions and really like can I get your blessing? And
it's just like, oh my god, you don't ever, you know,
you don't have to ask me. But the community at
first was very very tight and small, and like I
(36:30):
was able to answer these emails and tell them my challenges.
And then one by one, you know, more and more
people started to do it, and that community of that
first like five now people are reaching out to like
Jillian at a bar of their own. People are reaching
out to Gen in Seattle and you know Jax that
watched me in Long Beach, and just like so there's
(36:52):
like this core group of folks. So it's no longer
just you know, me obviously will always be the first,
but there's this core group of folks that people can
chime in, and there's a slack channel that literally every
day one or two people get added to and it's
folks who are holding watch parties, folks who are just
creating these spaces that have been so needed. And what
(37:16):
is crazy to me is that, you know, being in
the women's sports culture and the community and hearing the
fandom and the appreciation, like, I get it and I
am so appreciative of it. But what was more shocking
was we we brought on a franchise consulting agency, which
is one of the best on the planet to help
(37:38):
us franchise out and when we started to speak to them,
they really were just like, listen, We've done this with
over two hundred and fifty companies and what the sports
bra is doing is very special. And it was very
clear to me that we had opened up a new market.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
New market. Can you put that?
Speaker 2 (37:58):
And I'm not asking you to open up the books,
but like, can you quantify how quick and what the
potential of that market is?
Speaker 3 (38:08):
Oh, I tip of the iceberg. I have no idea.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
I mean, where we know that sports bars are like
a three billion dollar market annual market.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
I can't tell you. Women in the US.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
I can't tell you what the women's sports bar potential is,
but seeing the white space and the growth and the
trajectory and the demand in just the last two years
that we've been open increase, I mean, it really is
the tip of the iceberg.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
I love that well, Jenny.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
I am just so enamored with your journey and know
that you are just at the beginning of what will
be one of the greatest entrepreneur stories in sports and entertainment.
So that doesn't even get into food and bev, but
just congratulations on everything you've built in such record time
and excited to see the continued trajectory and pop up
(39:08):
in more places with you around the world.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
Thank you so much, Laura.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
I appreciate it, and I appreciate your support and all
the things and the ability to tell the story.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Everybody, go follow Jenny and the BRA and make sure
you check it out when you're in Portland and coming.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
To a city near you. That's it.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
I'm your host, Laura Krenti, founder and CEO of Deep
Blue Sports and Entertainment. Our executive producer is Jesse Katz,
and this show is produced by Ryan Martz along with
associate producers Meredith Barnes and Rachel Zuckerman. Court Side is
an Iheartwomen's sports production and partnership with Deep Blue Sports
and Entertainment. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
(39:48):
wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
Want more, follow, rate.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
And review court Side wherever you get your podcasts, and
stay in the game by following us on social media
at iHeart Women's Sports. And don't forget to subscribe to
our newsletter. In the show notes, thanks for listening. We'll
see you next time. Quart Saide
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