PWHPA partners with EOS’s Parity to gain athlete sponsorship opportunities

PWHPA and EOS’s Parity Sign Exclusive Partnership

Elites Optimization Services (EOS) has entered into an exciting partnership with the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA). Parity, EOS’s first product, will be the PWHPA’s exclusive online sponsorship tool. This collaboration between two female-focused entities is an important step in both of their missions.

Hockey is one of many sports familiar with gender pay disparity, despite women playing the game for the same number of years as men (more than 130, to be precise). The vast majority of professional women’s hockey players also work regular hours, fitting inadequate and circadian rhythm-interrupting ice time around full-time careers as realtors, teachers, physical therapists, and firefighters, to name a few. In a scenario all-too-familiar to female athletes, these women pay to play, funding their own travel and lodging, gear acquisition, and health insurance with very little athletic wages to supplement their incomes. More often than not, world-class players experience financial losses each season.

The PWHPA, formed in 2019, is composed of women from all experience levels: Olympic and World Champions, recent NCAA graduates, and veterans have come together across team and country lines to form an organization that prioritizes a sustainable future for females in the sport. One of the mission statements on the PWHPA website is, “To collaborate with like-minded organizations to make hockey more inclusive for women today and for the girls of the next generation.” Enter, Parity.

“The PWHPA is proud to partner with Parity, and help improve the gender wage gap for female athletes. Although we have come a long way, there is still a huge need to close this gap,” stated Jayna Hefford, former commissioner of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League and Hockey Hall-of-Famer. Hefford is the PWHPA Operations Consultant. “Parity and the PWHPA will work together to bring awareness to the gender wage gap and to provide visibility for our PWHPA members. We are excited to join a community of female athletes who want to push for positive change, and we look forward to supporting our fellow athletes who deserve more.” A fellow winter athlete will be integral to the announcement of this agreement. “I have been an athlete all my life, but growing up, I never felt like there were financially viable opportunities in sports for women,” shared Lauren Gibbs, 2018 Olympic bobsled silver medalist and EOS/Parity Director of Marketing, “this partnership takes a step in the right direction to solve that.”

An online platform designed to match professional female athletes with brands they align with for sponsorship opportunities, Parity was built for this kind of dynamic relationship. Using a unique survey to gather data on the passions and interests of PWHPA players, Parity will pair athletes with sponsors for authentic and impactful social media posts. The micro-influencer market will be highly valuable to sponsors within the context of the significant fan base of women’s hockey: Some pre-COVID women’s games drew in-person crowds over 14,000, on par with certain National Hockey League team averages. Furthermore, the PWHPA’s Dream Gap Tour, launched in 2019 to showcase women’s hockey talent for youth fans in multiple North American cities, will only serve to bolster girls’ fandom. The growth of girl’s hockey already approaches three times that of the boys’ game. The future is female.

Parity parent company EOS was founded to aid all athletes in their transitions out of sport. While EOS sees this service as essential and fully believes in the unique skills of all professional athletes, the Parity project thus far has shown EOS staggering female talent inside and outside of sport. Therefore, four scholarship recipients from the PWHPA membership have been selected to participate in EOS’s professional development services. Kassidy Sauvé, Micah Zandee-Hart, Demi Crossman, and Hayley Scamurra will take part in a two-year caree coaching and mentorship program, carefully crafted to help them succeed in pursuits beyond hockey. Buckeye-turned-Clarkson Golden Knight Sauvé, Cornell product and mentor herself Zandee-Hart, Colorado native (nicknamed “the agitator” by collegiate opponents) Crossman, and Northeastern University and Buffalo-area talent Scamurra will fine-tune resumés, elevator pitches, networking skills and more under the guidance of the EOS team as part of the Parity and PWHPA exclusive partnership.

Scholarship recipient Scamurra shared in a Women’s Hockey Tribune article from October 2019, “I’m hoping that the PWHPA is able to create a sustainable league where the players are treated professionally on and off the ice. A league that young girls can aspire to. And a league where women can treat hockey as their full-time job.” Parity athlete advisor and PWHPA member Rebecca Johnston said of this partnership, “Focusing on furthering the game of women’s hockey through PWHPA and Parity is of great importance to me. As a 3x Olympic medalist in hockey, I have been fortunate to have had incredible opportunities and experiences throughout my career playing the sport I love.”

In society, female athletes are often pitted against each other. The communities rallying together in the PWHPA and Parity are aligned in their view that the diversity of interests and backgrounds amongst female professional athletes is limitless and invaluable. Together, they will draw more sponsorship dollars to the genuine and powerful online female athlete presence they’ve formed.

Elites Optimization Services (“EOS”) is a start-up sports company with the goal of changing the future of athletes from all around the world through knowledge and technology. EOS’s primary product is Parity, an online influencer platform specifically designed for professional female athletes.

Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association’s (PWHPA) mission is to promote, advance, and support a single, viable professional women’s ice hockey league in North America that showcases the greatest product of women’s professional ice hockey in the world. The organization aims to provide a united voice to players advocating for the creation of a sustainable professional league. PWHPA is working to accomplish its mission by coordinating training needs and programming opportunities during the 2020-2021 season and collaborating with like-minded organizations to make hockey more inclusive for women today and for future generations. To learn more about PWHPA and the Dream Gap tour visit www.pwhpa.com.