When the San Diego Wave retires Alex Morgan’s iconic No. 13 jersey on Sunday, one chapter of her legacy will close. But her other trademark, the pink pre-wrap headband, will live on, worn by countless players who have mimicked her since 2012.

It was this signature look that started the two-time World Cup winner on a path that would guide her seamlessly into a successful post-playing career in business. Morgan has since earned record sponsorship deals, partnered with some of the world’s biggest brands, and capitalized on her image. And it all started with a simple, but essential way to keep her hair out of her eyes.

Like many girls playing high school and club soccer, Morgan wore colorful headbands in her hair growing up and electrical tape on her shin guards over top of her socks. At the University of California, Berkeley, she didn’t have a particular color that she favored.

“I would wear blue, red, pink, whatever. Then I met my now-husband, Servando, and his mom was going through chemotherapy for breast cancer. I thought wearing pink felt like a small way to support her, something I could carry into every game,” Morgan told The Athletic. “Over time, it just stuck.

‘That pink headband became my signature, something I’ve worn since I was 18 years old. Seventeen years later, it’s still part of who I am.”

(Marc Atkins / Getty Images)

Morgan’s improvisation not only became her go-to look on the pitch but also a fashion staple. Fans quickly copied her. Several U.S. women’s national team players also use pre-wrap as headbands, exploring a wide range of colors, but pink belongs to Morgan.

Her former co-captain, Lindsey Heaps, specifically chose red to avoid them matching while sharing the pitch.

“One of the first times I wore pink, someone said I’m trying to copy Alex Morgan,” Heaps told The New York Times in 2023.

Pre-wrap, also known as M-wrap, was developed by Mueller Sports Medicine in the basement of a Wisconsin pharmacy in the early 1970s, initially designed to prevent football players’ ankles from rolling. Its most unexpected product placement didn’t come on NFL or college football sidelines, where the foam underwrap was originally meant to sit beneath athletic tape, but on the heads of women athletes. When referees banned hard-plastic barrettes and other clips over injury concerns, players turned to pre-wrap as a soft, practical alternative.

On Morgan’s head, it became iconic. It also marked the beginning of her business ventures, which have followed her into the next phase of her career post-playing.

(Christian Petersen / Getty Images)

Morgan was in her early twenties, her first couple of years as a professional soccer player, and on her way to London for the Olympic Games. The pink pre-wrap was starting to gain popularity, even becoming part of people’s ‘Alex Morgan’ Halloween costumes. Morgan approached Mueller Sports, telling them she was a big supporter of its product, asking whether it wanted to explore a partnership moving forward, “because I was naturally supporting the brand, and it would be great to support each other on this journey. They were on board right away.”

“Alex actually came to Mueller,” John Cayer, the company’s current president, tells The Athletic. “She came to us and said, ‘I love this product. Could we work together?’ This was back in 2012. She wasn’t a superstar by any means yet. But she went on to become one of the top athletes in the world, men or women.”

Mueller quickly inked a deal with Morgan, placing her face on packaging that still lines the aisles of some stores’ sporting-goods sections.

“She wasn’t just an endorser; she set a trend, a trend that’s continued until now,” Cayer says. “We’ve seen it not just in soccer, but volleyball, really anywhere you need to hold the hair back.”

Other U.S. women’s national team stars, including Heaps, Julie Ertz, Rose Lavelle, Becky Sauerbrunn and Crystal Dunn picked up the pre-wrap, often in team colors. But only Morgan had a sponsorship deal. “One superstar is enough,” Cayer says, laughing.

(Marc Atkins / Getty Images)

Her partnership with Mueller made her one of the earliest athletes in women’s soccer to proactively build a brand partnership, well before name, image and likeness (NIL) deals reshaped the landscape. Their partnership continued until last year, when Morgan retired from professional soccer.

“I think my story with Mueller is a good one, because for most of my career, brands would come to me with their creative ideas about how they wanted to use me,” Morgan said. “With Mueller, it was the opposite. I was already using their product authentically, and I wanted to partner with them.

“That mindset really shaped how I approach my businesses today. Looking back, it was an important trial run 10 or 15 years ago, when I was starting out and learning how this whole world worked.”

(Friedemann Vogel / Getty Images)

Morgan is one of the most financially successful women’s soccer players in the world. In 2021 alone, she held 23 endorsement deals, according to a recent SponsorUnited report.

“Michael Jordan made Jordans. Same with Shaq. His business empire really took off post-basketball. The key is planting those seeds early,” 2017 U.S. Open women’s singles champion Sloane Stephens told The Athletic. Following her success in the U.S. Open, Stephens made partnership deals of her own with Dagne Dover, Lemon Perfect, Free People Movement and Kindbody among others.

“You can’t wait until the last whistle. You start building, so that when the transition comes (at the end of your playing career), it feels natural,” she said. “Alex Morgan did that brilliantly. Long before athlete partnerships were mainstream, she made the pink pre-wrap her signature. Kids copied it, and it became part of her brand identity.”

And while the UC Berkeley graduate often prioritized soccer, Morgan admits she was always interested in the business side of things.

“In soccer, over the last 15 to 17 years, I’ve sacrificed a lot and left plenty on the table to help this league (the NWSL) grow. Like many of my teammates, I often took less than I deserved,” said Morgan, who recently shared on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast that she made $300 per match in her first season, then 22 games long, in the NWSL.

“Now, the league is in a place where players are earning six figures, and soon, seven figures, which is incredible. But that wasn’t the case for me,” Morgan told The Athletic. “So moving forward, I made sure I got my true value. I took less for too many years, and I’m not doing that anymore.”

Beyond endorsements, over the past five years, Morgan has built a diversified business portfolio.

She is a co-founder of the women’s sports media and commerce company Togethxr, which she launched alongside snowboarder Chloe Kim, swimmer Simone Manuel and basketball’s Sue Bird, as well as Trybe Ventures, which she co-founded with her husband, former MLS player Servando Carrasco. She also holds minority stakes in both the Wave and the Unrivaled women’s basketball league.

Most recently, Togethxr announced that Michele Kang-owned London City Lionesses, the newly-promoted Women’s Super League (WSL) team, will feature ‘Everybody Watches Women’s Sports’ on the front of their kits in the season that begins this weekend as part of a new partnership. The slogan is part of Togethxr’s clothing line that generated $6 million in revenue, according to the company.

“She has led the way in thinking about how athletes engage with the brands they work with, and if it will feel real to the audience,” said Emily Sisson, senior vice president of sponsorships, athlete and partner marketing at OneTeam Partners. “When it comes to partnerships with women and women athletes, I do think that the most successful ones are the ones that are truly the most natural for the women to engage with daily. Alex wrote the playbook when it comes to that.”

Morgan with her daughter at a San Diego Wave game in September 2024 (Meg Oliphant / Getty Images)

On Sunday, the Wave is giving out 10,000 commemorative pink headbands at Snapdragon Stadium in honor of Morgan and her impact. The club said there is no commercial partnership with Mueller for the day. And while Morgan is not planning on doing another how-to video on Sunday, she does have a helpful and nostalgic TikTok pinned to her account for those wanting to wear pre-wrap the Morgan way.

These days, Morgan doesn’t reach for the pink pre-wrap as often, though rolls of it are still stashed in her garage and tucked away in closets. Her five-year-old daughter, Charlie, has a stash of her own, in every color, lining the bathroom.

“She wore it for a while. She loves headbands,” Morgan said.

Unlike Mom, Charlie’s favorite color is not pink, but she just might have the next big business idea.

Morgan said: “If I could find a pre-wrap that has sparkles in it (for her), I mean, game over.”

(Illustration: Kelsea Petersen / The Athletic; Carmen Mandato / Getty, Jamie McDonald / Getty)