There’s Never Been a Better Time to Run a Women’s Sports Bar
As ludicrous as it sounds now, with athletes like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese dominating headlines, “nobody watches women’s sports” was a common refrain just a few years ago. In April 2022, Jenny Nguyen, a former chef, challenged that notion when she opened the Sports Bra, a bar located in Portland, Oregon, that is dedicated solely to women’s sports. It wasn’t an easy feat: After being denied business loans from banks and small-business associations, Nguyen used her own savings, a Kickstarter campaign, and loans from friends and family to make it happen. “When I went to open, people were like, ‘I give it two months,’” Nguyen says. “Even I had doubts if it was going to be successful.”
Today, the bar is a temple to women’s sports. Only female athletes appear on the TVs and decorate the walls. The majority of the customers are women, and they order from a menu featuring cocktails like the Title IX. But the bar represents more than just sports: It’s also an oasis for the LGBTQ+ community, of which Nguyen is a proud member. It attracts feminists, local craft-beer aficionados, and fans of Vietnamese clay-pot-style pork ribs, a nod to Nguyen’s heritage.
The success of the Sports Bra has paralleled the increased attention toward women’s sports, which Deloitte predicts will surpass $1 billion in revenue for the first time ever in 2024. The bar brought in nearly a million dollars in revenue in its first eight months in business and quickly attracted sports celebrities like former WNBA icon Sue Bird and ESPN commentator Carolyn Peck. Now, with investment from Alexis Ohanian’s 776 Foundation, “the Bra,” as Nguyen calls it, hopes to open franchise locations across the U.S. and use the returns to develop future generations of female athletes. Nguyen currently lives in Vancouver, Washington, and this is how she gets it done.
On the rise of women’s sports:
Coming out of the pandemic, there was a lot of doubt about the Bra and there was a lot of fluctuation in women’s sports. But we were already starting to see a shift. To me, it started with the U.S. Women’s National Team winning the battle for equal pay. Sedona Prince’s NCAA video went viral prior to that. So we started to see some shifts and changes, and then the Bra opened. I remember having a hard time finding content for our TVs. Two years later, we don’t have enough TVs. We don’t have enough time in the day to show all the women’s sports that are available. I recognize our role in being a part of that. Not only have we been alive and here to witness it, but the fact that we exist has also helped to elevate women’s sports fandom.
On her typical morning:
I usually wake up around 7:30 or eight. I lie in bed for an hour and just catch up on sports-news highlights. I have quite a few subscriptions to newsletters, like women’s-sports newsletters, and so I get a bunch of news from that. And then I’ll get out of bed around nine. Usually someone’s making coffee, either my girlfriend or I, then I go on a morning walk.
On the ritual that grounds her:
If I can get a walk in the morning and one in the evening, then I am feeling good about everything. I’m a birder. Going out and seeing and hearing birds is a great reminder of our insignificance in the universe. Whether or not we succeed or fail or die, nature will continue, the earth will continue. For some people, that’s a really depressing thought, but for me it’s the opposite. I feel a sense of freedom when I think about how insignificant, in the grand scheme of things, all of what is happening with me personally really is.
On a typical workweek:
I haven’t been going into the Bra every day. I go in probably two or three days a week just to be there. They don’t really need me there anymore, but I like just being in the space. I have a to-do checklist that I keep on me at all times, and I add to it and check things off every day. So I go through my checklist and then I’m emailing a lot, doing interviews, Zoom meetings. That’s pretty much a full day.
On learning how to relax:
As my life has gotten more crazy and busy and hectic and unpredictable, I’m finding ways to have “me” time in really short snippets. In the past, if I were to go on vacation, it would take me a whole day to unwind. I’ve gotten much more efficient at those moments, the ability to relax and reset in a 15-minute break and just check in with myself to make sure I’m feeling good. I probably will get up and take a walk outside, just go upstairs if I’m at the Bra — my office is downstairs — and I’ll chitchat with some customers or catch up with the server. Hearing other people’s stories has been a great way to reenergize and recharge.
On her evening routine:
Lately, it’s been a hot shower, tea, and a couple episodes of Bridgerton!
On ambition:
My parents would yell at me when I would say this out loud, but I have been the most non-ambitious, unmotivated career person. When it came to kitchen work, I loved it while I was doing it, but I wasn’t motivated. When the Bra launched, it birthed a whole different perspective on what is possible for me. I’ve never dreamed so big in my entire life, and it’s absolutely frightening. It’s miraculous when I think about how much I’ve learned or done in the last two years. If you talked to 40-year-old Jenny in 2020 and said, “Can you ever imagine that you would do X, Y, and Z?,” I’d be like, “Absolutely not.” I had been unemployed for five years at that time, so to go from unemployed to what’s happening now is pretty dramatic. But I think that it’s always been inside of me.
On expanding the business:
Alexis reached out via Twitter early last year. He was just like, “Hey, let me know when you’re ready to go big or to expand.” I got a text from a friend because I’m not on Twitter very often, and all it was is a screenshot of the tweet, and I’m just like, “That shit’s fake.” I didn’t respond for two whole days. Then I slid into the DMs and was so casual, “Hey, thanks for the shout-out. Here’s my email if you ever want to connect.” Within probably two or three hours, he emailed me back.
Every month, he’d check back in, and he’d always end it with “No rush, whenever you’re ready,” which said a lot to me. This wasn’t just a flash in the pan. I also knew his history with investing in women’s sports. I wasn’t considering an investor, honestly, but partnering up with 776 and Alexis would be amazing for the brand and for networking connections. It took me months and months until I decided on franchising. But the general feeling was that it was always going to happen; it was just a matter of when.
On creating a safe space:
I opened the Sports Bra with women’s sports being the ultimate focus. The intent was to uplift it, to promote it, to support it, to give people a place to come and celebrate it. Then, little by little, I started to add things that were based on my lived experiences. Having been a chef, I knew that there were women food-and-beverage industry workers that were often overlooked. When I wrote the menu and filled out the tap list, I was like, I wonder how many women are making beer? Turns out hundreds of women are making beer in Portland.
As a queer person, what always bothers me is when I get kicked out of women’s restrooms, or when I have to bring my girlfriend with me because she has long hair and is very apparently cis so I don’t get accosted. So turning the restrooms into non-gender-specific restrooms was key because I wanted to be comfortable, and I felt like it would help other people be comfortable. Then, of course, I’m going to hang a Pride flag, I’m going to hang a Black Lives Matter flag. We have artwork that says “protect trans kids.” It was my way of creating a space that I felt comfortable in, and that people of all walks of life could come in and feel seen and represented.
On dealing with impostor syndrome:
There are moments where it’s like, Am I good enough to do this? But especially in this next phase with the franchise build-out, I do have the knowledge that I built the Bra from the ground up. A whole team helped me to do it, but to say that I don’t deserve it, or that it was all these other people and not me, would be a disservice to my efforts.
It took me a long time to say that I was proud of myself, because maybe it’s Asian culture, maybe it’s American culture, but women aren’t allowed to be proud or have confidence. It’s looked upon as being full of yourself or conceited or arrogant. Somebody said it way better: The entire world is always trying to dim other people’s shine, and don’t be the person to do that to yourself. If you do something great, own it.