Caitlin Clark's Wardrobe Off the Court Goes Beyond Iowa Hawkeyes Gear
The sports world is used to seeing Caitlin Clark in Iowa Hawkeyes gear, but even she has a life and wardrobe outside of basketball.
Published April 5 2024, 3:31 p.m. ET
The NCAA’s biggest star is about to take the biggest stage. The Iowa Hawkeyes are in the 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Final Four and each and every game with Caitlin Clark is must-see TV.
The must-see of it all is not hyperbole. Caitlin and the Iowa Hawkeyes are setting ratings records. According to The Walt Disney Company, their Elite 8 game broadcast of the Iowa Hawkeyes against the LSU Tigers on ESPN was the most-watched women’s college basketball game on record. Despite this, it seems like corners of the internet can't fathom what Caitlin looks like in street clothes and not wearing an Iowa jersey.
Caitlin Clark still looks like a human being when she's wearing street clothes.
During the aforementioned game, Caitlin was already trending on social media for sports reasons. When @30GotNext tweeted a still of Caitlin out of her typical Iowa gear, it made people realize that a person looks slightly different depending on the circumstances.
In what shouldn't be surprising to anyone who has ever used the internet once, some people are downright shocked that an athlete doesn't look the same when they’re in regular street clothes. For better or worse, this sentiment is also echoed whenever Caitlin shares a photo of herself in non-Iowa gear on Instagram.
Even when Caitlin is in non-Iowa basketball related clothing, she’s still unfairly criticized. When Nike Tech unveiled their new line with a photo shoot of Caitlin in pink tracksuit the most liked comment in the post is from katinkasink, who said, “Why is it pink? Caitlin could not be less of a pink young lady. Women and girls like other colors. Like yellow, blue, green, red.”
That isn't correct. Pink is a color, not a type of young lady. It’s also incorrect because Caitlin has worn pink on the court. The Iowa Hawkeyes wore pink in a February 2024 game against Illinois. The team did it as a part of the Play 4 Kay Initiative, which is a campaign that aims to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer research. Caitlin had "Keough" on the back rather than “Clark.” According to the Sporting News, it was in honor of family friend Dan Kenough. Dan fought colon cancer in 2012.
Does this remind anyone else of a certain episode of ‘The Office?’
The Season 5, Episode 12 episode of The Office is entitled “Prince Family Paper” but you’ll probably remember it as the “Is Hillary Swank hot?” episode. The four-and-a-half minute exchange between most of the Dunder Mifflin office on the merits of the award-winning actor's looks is essentially what happens on social media whenever a photo of Caitlin in street clothes is shared.
Fans can expect to see Caitlin in street clothes much more often very soon.
Caitlin is about to wrap up her remarkable run at Iowa and be one of the most coveted athletes making the move to the pros this offseason. Sooner or later, she won’t be in Iowa gear every time you see her. It seems like the worst corners of basketball Twitter just aren't ready.