Tobin Heath: It has been such an interesting journey so far. I think about our careers and lives as both dreaming and doing at the same time; that it’s like dreaming in action. I mean, it’s like we’re in Inception or something. It’s kind of crazy. We even talk about being here for the past three championship weekends (2023, 2024, 2025) and how much has evolved and grown, and it’s happening so rapidly.
So much about our our own careers, and even starting RE, was just an extension and a natural progression of what we were already doing. RE really came out of our pay equity fight, and also revamping our own Players Association, which is its own business in itself. So we had a lot of learning and education in kind of this weird way while we were players – of what it would even mean to create a company. In hindsight it was revolutionary. What RE ultimately was, and is to this day, is our vehicle to continue to reimagine and redefine and reinvent the women’s sports ecosystem and business. All we have built came out of our frustrations as women’s athletes and what was lacking.
Instead of being frustrated and bitter, we were like, ‘these are actually incredible business opportunities,’ and ‘let’s build and let’s create.’ That’s what we’ve done. In a lot of ways, we have created this awesome surfboard – the waves are coming and the waves are getting bigger, and we’re excited to to ride them, to shape the culture, shape the narrative into one that actually represents our culture, our voices, our stories and our diverse community.
Women’s sports has yet to even scratch the surface of what it is. It’s so unique and exciting, women actually getting to tell their stories from their perspective. Their voices, their outfits, their life experiences. It’s so powerful, and we don’t even know what’s going to come of it. It’s not sports, you’re not really reinventing how to kick a soccer ball, although we can get into that. But like, the actual culture, culture is sports and that’s what’s so exciting. It’s being able to shape, define, enjoy and be authentic to our culture.
