TikTok generation buys into savvy Lionesses as Euros glory beckons

Football team's appeal to fans has made them valuable to sponsors and a launchpad for wider women's football

- Rory Smith

Six weeks ago, before Michelle Agyemang's sudden star burst and Chloe Kelly's smiling sangfroid, before the nerve-shredding ordeal of Italy and the emotional trauma of Sweden, before the country fell for the Lionesses all over again, Leah Williamson reported for England duty in a Nike crop top, oversized Nike jeans, and a pair of silver T90 Shox Magia that might, at first glance, be mistaken for AstroTurf boots.

There was a time, not long ago, when England's players regardless of gender attended training camps under instructions to wear only team-issued kit.

Despite the Football Association relaxing those rules a little in recent years, the majority of the men's side still hew to those general guidelines. The women's team, by contrast, have embraced "arrivals day" as an event in itself.

In June, for example, as the players were deposited at St George's Park for their preparatory camp for these European Championships, they did so in shimmering silver footwear (Williamson), a customised England tracksuit (Grace Clinton) and knee-length jorts (Alex Greenwood).

If there might be a temptation to feel that presenting a group of elite athletes awaiting their third consecutive major final through the lens of their clothes is both sexist and reductive, it should be resisted.

There is, first and foremost, sharp commercial sense in transforming the atrium at St George's Park into a brief, impromptu runway. The Lionesses may be "national treasures", as Lisa Parfitt, co-founder of the sports marketing agency The Space Between, put it, but unlike their male counterparts, they still draw the bulk of their income from endorsements.