Every brand has a voice. This one just happened to also have a sense of humor.

Sports Her Way was a Baltimore-based retailer dedicated to the female athlete—outfitting women and girls across every sport, though lacrosse was always the bread and butter in a region where the sport runs deep. The relationship began with the brand's teamwear catalog, which established a visual language that would carry through everything that followed.

That foundation shaped the 2011 campaign, a moodier purple-to-black series that leaned into personality—tying a new Timonium location to the turn of the season (The leaves aren't the only things changing), needling pop culture (Watch your back, Bieber, a nod to the brand's own devoted following), and embracing the unglamorous reality of the sport (Sweat is the new black and This season’s hottest color? Dirt.).

In 2012, the visual system shifted to a bolder, photo-driven red palette—and with it came a new idea: everything you need to play like a girl. Not an apology, but a statement, aimed squarely at young women who were often an afterthought in a sport, and a retail world, built around someone else. The line held its ground through the rest of the year's work, from calling out the real hazards of contact sports (Battle your opponent, not your bra straps) to squeezing double duty out of a single ad, part gear guide, part hall pass (Gear to get you to the playoffs—and to class on time).

Different seasons, different looks, same throughline: never talk down to the athlete, and never take yourself too seriously while you're at it.