Women’s sports kit - Cricket girls on Dragon’s Den last night

[IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads]

Did anyone see these brilliant girls on Dragon’s Den last night here?

Two teenage cricketing sisters have launched a brand of women’s cricket kit. Most importantly white trousers with built in period protection shorts! DD(14) has played cricket for several years (and mucked about at it since she was too young to compete) and getting women’s specific kit has always been a problem. As has playing in white! DD turned up at her league age group final wearing her navy training shorts rather than “whites” as she was on her period.( Her coach raised an eyebrow, dd told him that he needed her more than she needed him (true, she’d already been asked to join a different club the following season), but they won. I think there was a small fine for non compliant kit).

Apart from addressing a problem head on, and creating a very nice looking brand, the 16&17 year old sisters who presented to the Dragons were so professional.

I’m a cyclist and have seen a few women’s cycle wear brands come and go.
I wish
Maiden Cricket the very best of luck. Girl Power all round.

edited for typos

And they got investments from every Dragon 😃

This is so important.
I know many if the top women's rugby teams have dark shorts for their kit as requested by the players.
And Wimbledon allow dark shorts under the white dresses as an exemption from the all white rule.
More sports need to be allowing this at every level.

I saw them too. V impressive. Hope they do well.

I saw them ! They were amazing! I hope they do really well !

I'm an equestrian and we are now allowed to wear dark coloured breeches to compete in. One make has brought out white breeches with a different coloured rear which have been massively successful.

Cricket and other sports really need to get with the times. Good luck to the company.

Great idea I hope young girls like the product line.

DD(14) has been looking at their website this morning and making a list! She’s not sure about the varsity jumper with “Maiden” across the front though, but the actual playing kit looks excellent.

Brilliant. I will be watching this on iPlayer later.

I saw a clip of this on Facebook. Looks great! To be fair, loads of club teams have non white for much of their kit, much less all white than there used to be. The protection trousers are a brilliant idea.

Glad to see they offer all team personalisations too. The two girls presenting it were wonderfully clear and professional.

The club were wrong not to let her wear the navy but if she really said those words and I was the coach, I wouldn’t want her on the team. She sounds rude and arrogant. But yes the dragons den girls were brilliant!

Limited over cricket is usually played in coloured kit. It’s only test cricket in whites and the majority of women/players won’t play test.

that's not true.

Most Saturday county league cricket is played in whites. Notionally they are men's leagues but more and more women and girls play in those leagues as well or instead of in women's teams. Especially the girls on county pathways.

My daughter has played in these leagues from the age of 12 (she's now 17). She has worn black bottoms or shorts underneath the white trousers.

Apparently they turned down the Dragons’ offers in the end as it was too high a percentage of the company, but raised funds elsewhere and the company has gone into business and been running for a year or two (I was looking it up earlier and found a news report that said that, don’t have it to hand).

well done to them. They’re 18 and 19 now, which is impressively young to run a business like this. The younger one was only 16 when they did the presentation so wasn’t allowed to be cross questioned and the business manager of the company had to do that part.

they were so professional with the presentation and clearly explained why white was a problem, without embarrassment, as well as explaining about the issues with fit and sizing of men’s kit. I thought the prices they were quoting seemed very reasonable too, so I hope that means they’re doing well.

There is lots of talk about how girls drop out of sport and how women don’t do enough, and there are so many reasons that could be addressed like kit, sizing of equipment, training and nutrition for females - sports anaemia, continence issues, so really good for them for tackling one of the issues that came up in their sport. Simple ideas could easily be incorporated more widely and make a real difference.

Agreed, similar experience here.

The women’s league DD plays in wears black leggings and coloured club shirts.

The period proof trousers will be a game changer, if they really are.

She wasn’t quite that arrogant, but there’s a backstory, around the coach who didn’t believe that women should play hardball cricket, who always put his (pretty mediocre) son in to bat 1st, no support from the wider club , and was leaving anyway. She’d mentally checked out of the club, and was there to make up numbers. I mean she’s good, but they wouldn’t have got a team together without her due to school holidays. We did have words about her attitude though!

@milkeyway starting young, young women and equally young men need to stand up for themselves. This concept of not wanting to appear arrogant or rude etc. is a good reason why women earn less in the workplace and end up making less progress in their careers. equally why young girls drop out of sport during the teen years.

i've met many coaches during my life (kids in competitive sports) and genuinely they develop a style and rapport with the kids and know exactly how much banter and back chat is appropriate.
comments that the team needs me more than the deductions involved in blue shorts is totally appropriate.

Yes. Plus the dragons realised this was an important movement bigger than the investment in just the kit. can’t remember exactly how it was phrased but was great to see a panning mostly men getting it.

My son’s a swimmer. They’ve just moved from “whites” poolside to black bottoms and white T shirt.

Also they’ve introduced the ability to wear period bikini bottoms under race tech suits for competition.

Equipment and kits made for female bodies (as opposed to small men’s gear) is an issue in every sport.

I’m in Horseracing, one of the few sports (as part of the wider equestrian sector) where men and women compete against each other on level terms. The other 2 being sailing and motorsport.

I was at an event focussed on women in sport a few weeks ago and a representative of F1 was talking about female drivers having to bring their own cushions to put in the cars because the seats were designed around male bodies - longer leg/arm length, generally taller, etc) which was a massive safety concern.

Well done to these two young women for working to make a difference.

As @LikeGoldToAiryThinness has alluded to below, they turned down the Dragons in the end here

Very silly of them to turn away 5 dragons!

No, because dragons like gold too much.

They were mentioned on the radio this afternoon, hope they continue to do well! I don’t watch Dragons Den but sounds like these two are worth seeing.

My dd (10) has quite a bit of Maiden kit (bag, pads and some clothing) and I she loves it.

What I would say is the trousers do not have period protection, just a pair of shorts built in which offers ‘an extra layer of protection’, that aside they are excellent trousers, I love the adjustable length as dd is v tall and getting trousers that fit at the waist and length is practically impossible and these will fit for much longer because of this.

Their customer service has been very good as well.

Why? It was a business decision. If the company is still ticking along well and growing, it may end up being a sound business decision.

Was Dolly Parton "silly" to refuse to give "I Will Always Love You" along with half of the publishing rights to Elvis?

I don’t think I’ve seen any girls county teams playing in whites (admittedly partly because of the format played by girls). They all seem to wear darker colours. Same with girls school cricket. For girls playing in men’s teams for Saturday cricket at club level, the majority don’t seem to have an issue with girls wearing dark trousers with a white top.

Having said that, that company looks great. A lot of the issues with female cricket gear is to do with fit as much as colour. It’s improved massively over the last few years though. For example, it’s now possible to buy women’s fit pads and gloves which makes a difference.