When World Rugby Hall of Fame member Phaidra Knight was growing up in rural Georgia, she recalls, “girls just weren’t allowed to play football.” Throughout her youth, she circumvented this obstacle with an athlete’s dogged determination, enlisting neighbors to play one-on-one games, taking up basketball, and even cheerleading for the all-boys’ football team. Later, while completing her law degree at the University of Wisconsin, she was approached about joining the rugby team. Enticed by the sport’s blended elements of basketball and football, she went to training — and, she says, “I never looked back. I loved it, and I think part of it was the fact that I was never able to play football in this accepted environment as a kid.” Instead, Knight found herself “in this group of strong women who [thrived] on the fact that I [could] be there.” Rugby, she explains, “[fosters] a very unique camaraderie and energy that I haven’t experienced with any other sport.” Now, Knight brings that same spirit of inclusion to PSK Collective, a new line of activewear designed for women of “all shapes, sizes, ages and backgrounds” that launches today online at Walmart.
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The 42-piece collection borrows from both high-performing sportswear and edgy streetwear, with mesh, spandex, and French terry adorning cropped tops and roomy bottoms that will brighten up outfits both inside and outside the gym; rendered in spirited hues like royal blue, bright red, and pink. It’s also priced for access, with nothing in the collection exceeding the $70-mark, and designed to fit a variety of body types, with sizing from XS through 3X.
In a nod to Knight’s career-spanning advocacy for women in the world of sports, 15% of the collection’s profits with benefit the Women’s Sports Foundation, an agency founded by pioneering female tennis player Billie Jean King, where Knight is currently president. Among other things, the WSF runs programs that promote young women’s involvement in sports and defends equality in the field. “That’s the value that I bring from rugby into this collective. No matter what size, color, creed, race, physical ability you have — there’s a place for you in the game. That’s what the PSK collective is about, inclusivity. We think everyone can find something within this collection that they identify with, or that they love.”
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