Liberty's Sabrina Ionescu, Breanna Stewart Redefine WNBA Superstar
For years, WNBA athletes rarely afforded the space or financial backing to build their personal brands into cultural forces. Deals were modest. Signature shoes for women’s players were all but nonexistent. The tunnel walks barely made it into social media, let alone fashion pages.
That era is over, and no one embodies the change more than Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu, the New York Liberty duo who are redefining what a modern WNBA superstar looks like. Basketball is what they do, but who they are is bigger than the game.
Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello has seen firsthand how the game, and the business around it, has changed. “It’s been great,” she said. “And it’s, you know, about time — because they’re obviously the best at what they do.”
The Stewie Brand
Breanna Stewart has done everything a basketball player can do: Two-time WNBA MVP, three-time WNBA champion, three-time Olympic gold medalist. Now, she’s building just as much impact off the court. Her partnership with Puma has produced the Stewie sneaker line, which was the first women’s basketball signature shoe in over a decade. With four editions already on shelves, Stewart is proving there’s real market power behind female athletes.
Just recently, Stewart debuted the Stewie 4 “Timeless” against the Washington Mystics. Postgame, she shared insight into the design:
“My timeless shoes and they come mix match. Honestly, I had like, a meet and greet at Snipes, so they were pre-releasing early there. So, shout out to them. But yeah, for the fours [Stewie 4] I wanted to have, like, color and vibes and like, just a little bit of wild. Yeah. So basically, on the shoe, it says it past, present and future overlap... So, it’s just to pay homage to everyone that’s just been a part of what we’re doing here.”
Chatted with Stewie post-game about the Stewie 4 Timeless she rocked against the Mystics last night. @breannastewart
— Kenny Saint-Vil, MBA (@kennysaintvil) August 29, 2025
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Liberty's Breanna Stewart Reveals Bold New Kicks https://t.co/Rb90bxNBvF pic.twitter.com/uD0ygluQV8
But her brand goes deeper than footwear. Stewart has become a voice for athlete empowerment and equity. In 2023, she co-founded Unrivaled, a new women’s professional 3-on-3 league designed to give WNBA players competitive opportunities and better pay in the offseason.
Her presence in New York has also pushed her into fashion and culture spaces. Stewart has treated the tunnel walk like a runway with fire game day fits and most recently used the runway to tease her new “I love Stew York” collection that launched on her birthday — the collection sold out day one of its release.
The Sabrina Brand
Sabrina Ionescu’s rise has been equally iconic. The first overall pick in 2020, Ionescu quickly became a household name and played her game into an expansive portfolio of partnerships. Her Nike Sabrina sneakers are the first unisex signature shoes from a women’s player, worn by athletes across both the WNBA and NBA. The Sabrina’s are the second most worn shoe in the NBA behind the Nike Kobe 6.
Off the court, Ionescu has assembled a sponsorship slate that includes: Tissot, State Farm, Body Armor, Beats, AT&T, Michelob Ultra. She has invested in sports and tech ventures like Bay FC, a National Women’s Soccer League expansion club, and Thirty-Five Ventures, Kevin Durant’s media and investment firm.
Her SI20 Foundation and community outreach reflect another dimension of her brand, which builds opportunities for kids to play and learn.
A New Era of Athlete Branding
For Coach Brondello, who played professionally during the WNBA’s formative years, this level of visibility is unprecedented. “Stewie and Sabrina, you know, with their brands, what they’ve done and that’s not just the shoe deals and everything, it’s all the other deals they’re getting and impacting because they can reach so many people,” she said. “They talk about them.”
She’s quick to note how different things looked two decades ago. “Back in my era, probably it was Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes… they might have had a shoe, but they didn’t have the whole brand,” Brondello said. WNBA athletes didn’t have what Stewie and Sabrina have now - the reach, the influence, the opportunities.
In the WNBA’s early years, even legendary stars rarely had opportunities to push their brands this far. Now, Stewart and Ionescu are showing what’s possible when talent meets market vision - and when brands finally wake up to the influence of these prolific women athletes. Together in New York, they’ve turned Liberty games into cultural events: part sports spectacle, part fashion show, part business summit.
The Liberty stars are rewriting the blueprint for what a WNBA career can look like with personal brand power. The future of the league won’t just be measured in statistics. Thanks to leaders like Stewart and Ionescu, it’ll be measured in equity, visibility, and influence.
Brooklyn-based sports journalist and digital creator. Telling stories through hoops while covering the New York Liberty.