Copyright Inc. Magazine
Jennifer Sey had never been to the White House before—not even on a field trip. So when the 56-year-old received an invitation to the White House, she assumed the email was fake. But the message was very real. With 24 hours’ notice, Sey flew across the country to Washington, D.C., and passed through three rounds of security before being directed by White House staffers to her spot on the dais right behind President Trump. When Trump signed his executive order in February banning transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports at institutions receiving federal funding, Sey, a former elite gymnast who made the U.S. Women’s National team seven times and won the all-around national championship in 1986, was positioned squarely behind the podium. Underneath her blue blazer, she wore a T-shirt emblazoned with “XX-XY” in red, white, and blue. The letters, a reference to sex chromosomes, were visible just to the right of the president’s flag-pinned lapel. After finishing his remarks, Trump turned around and Sey volunteered to take his written notes. White House cameras panned to children’s sneaker-clad feet in the room and spotted the same four letters printed in green on a pair of half-calf socks. That design is the logo for Sey’s startup, XX-XY Athletics. Sey, a former retail executive who spent over two decades at Levi Strauss & Co., where she rose to chief marketing officer and brand president, launched the apparel company in March 2024. Over the past year and a half, the brand has become an increasingly prominent and polarizing symbol. XX-XY’s T-shirts and hats have appeared at contentious school board meetings, on the sidelines of youth sporting events, at Turning Point USA conferences, and courtside at the U.S. Open. Members of Trump’s cabinet, including War secretary Pete Hegseth and director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, have been seen wearing the brand, as has 18-time Grand Slam singles champion (and outspoken Trump critic) Martina Navratilova. On social media, the startup’s ads have racked up tens of millions of organic views with shares from J.K. Rowling, Bill Ackman, and Megyn Kelly. The Denver-based company, which sells an assortment of high-performance workout gear, including bike shorts, joggers, matching sets, quarter-zips, skorts, tennis dresses, and leggings, bills itself as the “only athletic brand that stands up for women’s sports.” Inventory includes T-shirts with the slogan “Real Girls Rock,” hoodies with the message “Save Women’s Sports,” and hats imprinted with “Woman™.” Its website also includes a mission statement that shoppers will not find browsing any of its competitors: “Sex matters. It is the single biggest determinant of athletic performance. It is unfair and dangerous to allow males (XY) to compete in girls and women’s (XX) sports. For women to compete safely and fairly, women’s sports need to remain female.” This matter-of-fact approach has resonated with a like-minded segment of consumers and the timing couldn’t have been better. The company released its first products—a collection of T-shirts, sweats, and hats—just as the debate over transgender athletes in women’s sports erupted into one of the most polarizing issues of the 2024 presidential campaign. By November, President Trump won re-election, and XX-XY had generated over $1 million in revenue. To Sey, her nine employees, and her more than 200 brand ambassadors, who are mostly female college athletes, the brand is “pro-women” and championing a return to “the initial and actual intent of Title IX,” which was passed in 1972 to give women and girls equal opportunity in the education system. XX-XY’s critics, including transgender athletes and advocates for the transgender community who spoke with Inc., call the brand’s message “transphobic,” “hateful,” “fear-mongering,” and “morally reprehensible.” Sey knows that her views enrage plenty of people. She says, “I have no issue with anyone, but sports are not about inclusiveness. Sports are about exclusiveness. People don’t make the team.” She has gotten so used to defending herself and her company that she outlined a list of responses to her detractors on XX-XY’s website, like frequently asked questions. Isn’t that anti-trans? (Girls and women deserve safety, privacy, and fairness.) Isn’t that bigoted? (Women’s sports exist for a reason. There is no bigger determinant of athletic performance than sex.) Shouldn’t trans people be allowed to play sports? (People should play either in the category of sex they were born in or in an open category.) Isn’t this a fringe issue? (This affects all female athletes.) The incessant pushback has only helped XX-XY grow even faster, Sey says. As the brand has increased its sales, its clothing has become an ideological badge allowing its customers, while lifting weights at the gym or sitting in the stands at their kid’s volleyball match, to immediately signal where they stand on the issue of transgender athletes, as well as athletes with differences in sexual development, competing in women’s sports. Some have likened XX-XY T-shirts to “the next MAGA hat.” Others cast the company’s message as more than a matter of disagreement, particularly when both states and the federal government have rolled back health care, education, and legal protections for transgender people. In one of his first executive orders, Trump declared the federal government would recognize only two immutable, biological sexes, male and female, as defined by reproductive cells, not along gender identity, and ordered agencies to enforce that standard for government-issued identification documents, such as passports—a policy that has been blocked by a federal judge. Trump also revoked a Biden-era executive order aiming to combat discrimination based on gender identity. Advocates for the transgender community see XX-XY as an example of how this fight has moved to the private sector. Speaking to Inc., a GLAAD spokesperson accused the company of harassment against a marginalized group of people. “We have seen these folks trying to kind of capitalize off the anti-trans movement,” they said. “This is not a winning business strategy.” Sey is betting against that. Armed with strong gross margins, which she says are 20 points better than she projected, glowing reviews from her customers, who compare the product quality to Alo, and the advertising prowess of her creative director Brett Craig, who has produced Super Bowl commercials for Taco Bell and Dr Pepper, she has ambitions to become the next Vuori, which analysts estimate generated $1 billion in 2024 revenue and is a hotly anticipated IPO. By her estimation, she has the most important number on her side: 79 percent. When The New York Times and Ipsos conducted a poll in January asking if transgender female athletes should be allowed to compete in women’s sports, 79 percent of respondents, including two-thirds of Democrats, said no. Sey and her supporters argue this clear majority puts XX-XY firmly in the mainstream, despite its vocal critics.
