Sequel Tampon Inks Partnership With Indiana Fever Before WNBA All-Star

Sequel tampon founders Amanda Calabrese (COO) and Greta Meyer (CEO) set out to change the game in women’s healthcare and feminine products, particularly, in a design and market that had been largely untouched for more than 80 years. Thus, it is no surprise that an innovative company that has exploded onto the market and transformed a much needed product would pair and partner with the WNBA’s Indiana Fever.

The Fever, known globally for their young star in former Iowa player, NCAA record holder, and 2024 No. 1 WNBA draft pick Caitlin Clark, also completely transformed the franchise in this off-season. The Fever moved former general manager Lin Dunn to a senior advisor role and named Amber Cox as COO and GM. Cox wasted no time hiring head coach Stephanie White from the Connecticut Sun and then added an onslaught of veteran league talent (i.e., DeWanna Bonner, Sophie Cunningham, Sydney Colson, Natasha Howard) to surround Clark, former 2023 No. 1 pick Aliyah Boston, Kelsey Mitchell, and Lexie Hull.

These calculated risks seemed to be paying off for the Fever despite battling injuries so far this season, as the team just won the WNBA’s Commissioner’s Cup 74-59. The Fever defeated last year’s winners and the current top of the WNBA standings the Minnesota Lynx, even without Clark on the floor.

It was no surprise that when Sequel announced their partnership with the WNBA’s most watched team that it generated a new level of buzz for the company. In the partnership which includes working with Sequel ambassador Hull, Sequel will be featured in Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the home of the Fever and the NBA’s Indiana Pacers. According to Calabrese this was an exciting move meant to show all women the superiority of their product. She said, “A huge component of this partnership is that we’re going to be available in all of the fan bathrooms in Gainbridge Fieldhouse, so not just the best athletes but the best fans. A huge part of this is showing our future customers that if this product works for your role models who are pushing it to the limit and testing this product in very critical moments, it will work for you in whatever you need to accomplish.”

In addition to being featured in Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Sequel has a spotlight game on July 13th against the Dallas Wings, a much anticipated match-up between Clark and this year’s No. 1 overall draft selection in UConn’s Paige Bueckers. This was intentionally chosen as it is held a week before the All-Star game which is hosted by Indianapolis and Gainbridge Fieldhouse this year.

Calabrese said the game will include, “We have a bunch of really cool branded surprises throughout the game, but it’s also an amazing opportunity for us to sample with Fever fans that are going to be able to try us out in the bathroom. They’re going to be able to participate in some fun game moments, but then when they’re leaving the stadium, they’ll get some Sequel tampons to take home with them.”

Sequel Journey from Inception to Signing with the Fever

Sequel co-founders Calabrese and Meyer met at Stanford where they both used their Engineering degrees and former athlete experiences to locate a gap in the market that needed to be addressed. Calabrese said, “Seven out of 10 women report not trusting their tampon, and so we wanted to understand why. There’s a lot of discussion around discomfort and dryness, but also leakage. We determined that the issues were because of the shape and construction of tampons. Sequel was really born out of working on a more fluid, mechanically efficient design for a tampon to help with even absorption, thereby combating dryness, and helping prevent premature leaks so that you can actually use the tampon to its full capacity.”

Sequel spent several years working to patent their product which now holds 11 patents in the US and received FDA approval in 2023. Calabrese said co-founder and CEO Meyer was instrumental in this stage, “It was years of patience with research and development and having an incredible engineering team led by my co-founder Greta Meyer. She was able to find some of the best tampon engineers in the world as well as advisors that worked in everything from the testing that we would need to do for FDA clearance, all the way through to at scale manufacturing. And a lot of patience went into that, building out the technology, our patent portfolio, and all of the things that really make this product incredible.”

From the design and patent stage, the company raised over $8 million with venture capitalists firms to be able to manufacture and scale the product where Calabrese credited the vision of their earliest investors to see the value of women’s sports and women athletes as potential partners and influencers for the brand, “They [investors] opened doors for us from day one and believed in us when people thought that women’s sports was a niche.”

Sequel then landed a partnership in 2023 with Albaad, the leading manufacturer of personal hygiene products. Sequel continued to grow and now uses its online store where customers can buy packs of tampons directly or enroll in a subscription based service, as well as the power of social media to market and sell their tampons.

Particularly, the co-founders have found profound success on TikTok, “We’re available on TikTok shop where we see a ton of traction. Product discovery is amazing on TikTok shop because it’s an amazing chance for us to get to tell new customers our story in a really fun way,” stated Calabrese. TiktTok traction has been high with over a hundred thousand views on a video once a week and one video as high as four and a half million views.

All of this momentum has led to Sequel to create an exclusive partnership with Stanford Athletics, Audi Field in Washington, DC, home to the NWSL’s Washington Spirit, DC United, and USL’s DC Power, and now the Indiana Fever.

Pairing with the Fever and with Sequel ambassador Hull will pay off in dividends claimed Calabrese, “Our association with one of the most watched and loved professional sports teams in the world is, I just don’t have words for what that can mean for a small business, for us.” She continued, “When you partner with an organization like the Indiana Fever, that is a commitment to go deep with an organization, and a lot of our effort is focused on just making this partnership the most successful collaboration possible. But we are always looking for other opportunities, especially in places where we can impact the female fan experience. Because on the business side of things, women who watch sports, those are women that we know will resonate with our story. They have some connection to sports, moving their bodies, understanding critical moments, and having role models in women’s sports.”

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