Ulta Beauty is getting in on beauty’s big sports bet.
Coinciding with National Girls and Women in Sports Day on Wednesday, the retailer has launched its Ulta Beauty Roster, an inaugural collective of six women athletes across games and ages who will collaborate with Ulta on social content and on-the-ground activations.
The launch joins a proliferating number of sports-beauty partnerships, with CeraVe and Nutrafol signing on last fall as respective sponsors of the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball, while in 2025 competitor Sephora became a partner of the off-season women’s basketball league Unrivaled; a founding partner of the WNBA’s newest Golden State Valkyries team, and a sponsor of the national women’s professional softball league.
Related Articles
With the debut of its roster, Ulta looks to empower girls and women across sports while differentiating its approach.
“We want to be a force that can support young beauty lovers to live their confidence and be able to feel good about playing tough sports, being sweaty, and having to be aggressive on the field or court, but at the same time having that be a beautiful moment,” said Kelly Mahoney, chief marketing officer at Ulta.
Members of the roster’s first cohort include 18-year-old pickleball world champion Anna Leigh Walters; Los Angeles Sparks forward Dearica Hamby; tennis star Emma Navarro; volleyball player Madisen Skinner; Gotham FC forward Midge Purce, and 44-year-old flag football world champion Vanita Krouch.
As part of the initiative, Ulta is launching a Roster for Change grant program, which will provide support for local sports organizations in need of funding for transportation, participation fees and equipment and facilities upgrades. The program will begin accepting applicants in late February at ubroster.com.
The roster’s pro athletes will also offer guidance to local sports teams via the grant program.
“Our roster athletes [will] host masterclasses and talk about what it means to be performing at the professional level, and be an inspirational sounding board for athletes in the local communities,” said Mahoney.
For the second year in a row, Ulta will also activate around the Super Bowl on Sunday, hosting activations outside of Levi’s Stadium in the days leading up to the game, including locker-room glam sessions and more.
The Super Bowl has become a growing marketing hotspot for beauty brands in recent years, and this year brands including E.l.f. Beauty and Tree Hut will both debut 30-second spots during the game.
