Ep. #20 How Title Nine is Working To Create a Better Sports World for Women, ft. Missy Park

In Ep. #20, Caroline sits down with Missy Park, the CEO & Founder of Title Nine. Title Nine is an American manufacturer of clothing for women athletes. Missy founded Title Nine in 1989, and has grown the brand to become the largest independently-owned and operated retailer of women's fitness clothing. Title Nine’s mission is to encourage women to own, risk, and lead in the world of sports, business, and beyond.

In this episode, Missy tells the story of how she came to start Title Nine, and how the company has spent 32 years in the business of putting women first. Most recently, Missy and her team gave $1 million to the soccer players of the U.S. Women’s National Team in an effort to help close the gender pay gap for the team. 

By the numbers, the U.S. Women’s National Team is the most successful team in the history of international women's soccer, winning four Women's World Cup titles, four Olympic gold medals, an Olympic bronze medal, and eight CONCACAF Gold Cups. They just made it onto podium at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and took home the bronze medal. And they’re currently ranked #1 in the world by FIFA. 

On the other side of that coin, the United States Men’s National Soccer Team has never won a World Cup, they’ve never won any Olympic medal, and they’re currently ranked 20th in world. YET, players on the US Women’s National Team earn $9,000 less per win than the Men’s team, and over a 5-year period, the women have been paid $64 million less than their male counterparts. Essentially, is that players on the women’s national team make 38 cents for every dollar that their male counterparts make. 

After watching the documentary "LFG" in 2021, Missy was moved to write the biggest check in the history of Title Nine. Title Nine's donation of $1 million to the USWNT players to put the women’s team on the same pay scale as the USMNT for six games of the 2020 Olympics. 

This episode was recorded on August 10, 2021. 

Listen to the full episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Amazon Music, and learn more about Title Nine here: https://www.titlenine.com/.