Jenny Nguyen founded The Sports Bra in 2022.
It started as an inside joke among friends. When The Sports Bra was just an idea, Jenny Nguyen would say something like, “At The Sports Bra, we would do this instead of this,” comparing the concept to any traditional sports bar that didn’t meet the mark.
While the rest of a bar was watching a football game, Nguyen and her friends would be in a corner watching a women’s basketball game, which they’d request to have turned on, with the sound off. After a women’s NCAA match Nguyen called “one of the most epic games in basketball history” in 2018, she realized her frustration of not having a place solely dedicated to women’s sports.
“I grew frustrated, and I blurted out loud to this group of friends that the only way we’re going to watch women’s sports, the way it deserves, is if we had our own place,” said Nguyen, a former basketball player.
But it stayed as a mere joke with friends for four years until Nguyen made The Sports Bra, a sports bar centered around women’s athletics, a reality in 2022. Before opening the first and only location in Portland, Oregon, the bar had a ton of hype from local media organizations and the Kickstarter campaign it used to fundraise.
“At no point in my mind was it ever going to be a reality—not for me, at least,” said Nguyen, who spent 15 years working in kitchens before making the jump to business ownership. The success and popularity of the bar’s Kickstarter in February 2022 was the turning point. “I realized, oh my gosh, maybe this is something that people do want and maybe this is an idea that can work. … We hadn’t even opened the doors yet, and people were talking about what it meant to have a space dedicated like that.”
It’s easy to find a sports bar in any city—even ones specifically dedicated to certain teams. Some notable, well-known options are Buffalo Wild Wings, Hooters and Twin Peaks. Smaller examples are Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux and Mugshots Grill & Bar.
Renee Montgomery is a two-time WNBA champion with the Minnesota Lynx in 2015 and 2017. She invested in The Sports Bra.
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But when it comes to bars that show women’s sports, the options are few and far between.
The brand, which Nguyen cheekily calls “The Bra,” debuted its franchise inquiry website in October 2024 and in 2025 signed deals for four new cities: Las Vegas, Indianapolis, Boston and St. Louis. Ideally they’ll all be open by year’s end, with St. Louis set for the spring.
Early on, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian—an owner of the National Women’s Soccer League team Angel City FC and husband of tennis legend Serena Williams—invested in the concept.
The Sports Bra earned an investor in two-time WNBA champion Renee Montgomery, the brand announced in January. Her championship wins were with the Minnesota Lynx in 2015 and 2017. She retired after 2019, when she played for the Atlanta Dream, of which she’s now a part owner and vice president.
Initially, Montgomery wanted to open a franchise in Atlanta, but her busy schedule wouldn’t accommodate it. So when The Sports Bra did another fundraising round last year, Nguyen reached out to see if she was interested. Montgomery wanted to be an adviser too, which Nguyen called a “two for one” and a “no brainer.”
“Alexis Ohanian as our first investor was our business validator,” Nguyen said. And then having Renee sign on as a strategic creative adviser is a validator around how important The Bra is—and not just as a business, not just as food and beverage, but as a brand around women’s sports.”