Sparkle one piece cheer outfit professional#

Today, competing means entering VarsityвЂ™s world.

In 2004, Varsity bought the National Cheerleaders Association, and has rolled up a dozen more, including its main competitor in 2015, Jam Brands. In the early 1980s, ESPN began showcasing the new sport, giving it wide distribution. ItвЂ™s with equipment and apparelВ that Varsity makes its money, вЂњeverything from the sequinedВ uniforms on cheerleadersвЂ™ backs to the big bows in theirВ poofed-up hair.вЂќ The key to VarsityвЂ™s monopoly is its chokepoint controlВ of major cheerleading competitions. Its founder, Jeff Webb, started Varsity in the 1970s to offer high school training camps and clinics, eventually creating competitions for cheerleaders. The key player in the cheerleading world is Varsity Brands, which makes its money from cheerleading apparel, camps, and competitions. Families involved in cheerleading are above average in terms of affluence, and even non-top athletes spend between $2,500 to $10,000 a year.ДЄnd thatвЂ™s where the monopoly comes in.

Sparkle one piece cheer outfit professional#

ItвЂ™s an expensive sport, especially at the top, with top athletes spending $15,000 or more a year forВ competition uniforms, practice clothes, jackets, personalized bags, summer camps, tumbling classes, squad practices with professional cheerleading programs, and choreography fees.

And yet thousands of young girls wear cheer leggings and t-shirts, practice arm motions and cartwheels nonstop, and obsess over Instagram star вЂњcheerlebrities.вЂќ The sport causesВ more than half the catastrophic injuries for female athletes in America, including skull fractures. Cheerleaders are disciplined and often fanatical. High school and college-age athletes participate in high profile competitions, get sponsorships, endure immense amounts of pain, and show off in contests and on social media. But cheer goes way beyond high schools: there are now thousands of competitive dance teams, with members ages 7-17 who enter competitions, with something like 3.3 million who cheer in any given year, and 1.3 million cheerleadersВ across America who cheer for more than 60 days a year. Today, most cheerleaders are girls and young women, with one estimate of 400,000 in public high schools alone. There were many later famous men who were cheerleaders, everyone from FDR to Jimmy Stewart to George W. ItвЂ™s also an expensive sport, especially after a company called Varsity Brands bought the National Cheerleader Association in 2004 and built the perfect monopoly, thanks to acquisitions, vertical integration, and lobbying to prevent regulation.Д¬heerleading is a huge part of American culture, evolving from a male-oriented sideline spectacle in the 1940s to a serious female-dominated sport that sits between dance and gymnastics. Cheerleading is a huge part of American culture.