Regan Kielmeyer thought she was in trouble when she got an email from the athletic director at Loyola University. When she started to read the email, all she could say out loud was “Oh my God.”
Kielmeyer wasn’t in trouble. She was being invited to be one of the faces of Under Armour’s 2024 Pride campaign.
Under Armour’s national “Sport for All” campaign features three LGBTQ+ college athletes modeling the Baltimore-based apparel company’s latest Pride collection. Kielmeyer, who played attack for Loyola Maryland, is one of two athletes from Maryland universities taking part, alongside Maryland women’s basketball’s Shyanne Sellers.
Kielmeyer said the company wanted the whole campaign to be “athlete driven” and inspired by the stories of LGBTQ+ college athletes, rather than just a line of merchandise with rainbows. Under Armour had known who Kielmeyer was because it outfits Loyola Maryland athletics.
When the company reached out to Kielmeyer in November, it had a pamphlet for her describing why it wanted to partner with her based on her social media presence and personality.
“It felt like all I really had to was say yes,” Kielmeyer said.
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Providing LGBTQ+ representation on a national level is a huge honor, the attacker said. By sharing her story, she’s telling people there’s more than one way to live their lives.
Under Armour’s promotion of its Pride collection — and the fact that it has one at all — is in sharp contrast with athletic wear rival Nike, which did not release a collection for the first time since 1999.
“People have been saying that they knew these sorts of stories existed but they never heard it on such an impressive platform before,” Kielmeyer said.
There are people who have never seen LGBTQ+ representation, she said. Under Armour’s global promotion of its Pride campaign means those people might see that representation for the first time.
When Sellers came out as a junior in high school, she didn’t see a lot of LGBTQ+ representation in her life.
“I’m proud to represent something that reaches many people and helps break down barriers with other LGBTQ+ student-athletes,” she said in a personal essay for Maryland athletics.
She hopes that by being involved in the Under Armour campaign she can help others find the courage to be themselves.
The athletes worked with Under Armour staff to create video stories to go with the campaign. Kielmeyer worked with UNIFIED, the Under Armour allyship group, in “story mining” sessions to help the athletes tell meaningful stories with their videos.
The photo shoot took place in January and lasted about 12 hours.
Each athlete had a theme for their video, with background colors chosen to represent that theme. Kielmeyer’s theme was light, with soft yellow and orange hues as her backdrop.
Kielmeyer sports a cropped version of the Under Armour Pride hoodie, with the rainbow sports bra peeking out underneath it. A seamstress on the site of the shoot cropped the hoodie specifically for Kielmeyer to model.
Sellers rocks the pride sports bra with a pair of baggy purple pants and the UA Phantom 3 SE Pride shoes.
The theme of Sellers’ clip is peace, and her background is shades of baby blue.
“Protect this house means protecting my peace and protecting who I am,” Sellers said.
LGBTQ athletes are the center of the campaign, but UNIFIED was also a part of the process, helping with everything from product design and development to the photo shoot.
Under Armour will donate a portion of the sales to its community partners Unmatched Athlete and Rainbow Labs, while also donating to organizations on behalf of Sellers, Kielmeyer and Perkins.
“It’s almost impossible to put into words that Under Armour would do this for collegiate athletes and then on top of that LGBTQ+ athletes,” Kielmeyer said.
