WNBA star Brittney Griner has been busy since her triumphant return back to the U.S. after being detained in Russia for nearly a year.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist has partnered with sports product developer round21 to create The Brittney Griner “Connected by Cause” Collection, which are two retail capsules designed to express the power of coming together through cause – in and beyond the game, per a news release shared with ESSENCE.
Proceeds from the collection will go toward Bring Our Families Home Campaign, an advocacy campaign aimed at helping wrongfully detained individuals come back home.
The WNBA star was arrested in February 2022 for possession of vaping cartridges with traces of cannabis, which is illegal in Russia. She was then sentenced to a nine-year prison term, and was detained for several months with little contact with loved ones until she was finally returned home in December 2022 with the support of the Biden Administration.
“I’m never going overseas to play again unless it’s to represent my country,” Griner said in her first press conference post-release. “The whole reason a lot of us go over is the pay gap … to support our families, to support ourselves. So I don’t knock any player that wants to go overseas,” she said.
“I’m hoping that our league continues to grow. I hope a lot [more] companies start to invest in our craft,” she added.
The project will be released in two phases, on May 19 – the day of Griner’s first WNBA game back with the Phoenix Mercury – and the second edition debuting on June 6 at round21.com, wearebg.org.