The way we interact with sports is changing. Once an environment that was tribal and often obsessive, with audiences pledging allegiance to certain clubs, teams and sporting worlds at a young age and sticking with them for life, the experience is now more varied. Younger audiences are drawn to sports for reasons of fashion or lifestyle as well as participation and fandom, and this is changing how clubs, leagues and the entire sporting ecosystem appears in our lives.

This was the insight shared by Lauren Hartstone of branding agency Sibling Rivalry at the recent Offf festival. Hartstone has been working in sports branding for the past five years, creating design for leagues and broadcasters and helping to shape the future direction of the sector. She is candid that working in sports was not immediately a natural fit for her, however, that she did not have a sporting background or even much of an interest in that world.

In fact, she was actively put off by the prevalent design styles that are popular in sports broadcasting, which struck her as old-fashioned and gaudy. But perhaps a new perspective was a benefit at a time when the industry was changing so rapidly due to the demands of new audiences, the arrival of new sports on the mainstream stage (pickleball anyone?) and wider interest in the sector from fashion and TV.