Youth volleyball is on fire – a growth trajectory that mirrors what we’ve experienced over the past decade in youth basketball. Some evidence…
- Last year, 92,000+ fans (🤯) attended a University of Nebraska women’s volleyball game – the largest attendance at a women’s sporting event ever
- #2 most popular high school sport for girls (recently passing 🏀)
- Female participation +15% since 2022 / Male participation +40% since 2017!
- The number of youth volleyball clubs has more than DOUBLED (now 6,000+) over the past 20 years.
This boom presents both exciting opportunities and familiar challenges for coaches and admins. Understanding the dynamics of this growth, and some of the surprising parallels it shares with basketball, can help us better serve our young athletes. At a fundamental level, there are some obvious similarities:
- Both largely played indoors
- High energy – lots of play in the air with a premium placed on elite athleticism
- Ball control requirements, specifically requiring hand dexterity (no 💦 hands please!)
- Emphasis on teamwork and communication
- Minimal equipment requirements (especially when compared to baseball, football, etc.)
And of course, between the rise of both sports is the increasing professionalization of youth participation. What begins amongst young athletes as casual play has evolved into a structured pathway to a college scholarship (and now of course, NIL 💰) with competitive travel teams, specialized coaching, and year-round training. While this dedication reflects a growing passion for the sport, it also requires a more strategic approach from coaches and admins in areas like player recruitment, scheduling, and in the area where we’re the experts – team unifoms!
While the specific styles and garment requirements differ, team uniforms are yet another shared commonality. Both must be:
- Durable: Hold up through countless practices, games, and washes season after season.
- Breathable: Designed with moisture-wicking fabrics and ventilated zones to keep athletes cool and comfortable during intense play.
- Flexible: Allow for full range of motion, whether crushing a spike or driving to the rack.
- Elevated Branding: Customized to feature team colors, logos and identity befitting a team’s brand as well as player numbers and names for easy recognition on the court.
- Comfortable: Minimizing chafing or restrictions that could impede performance.
- Functional: Offering players every advantage available to them on and the court, as seen in POINT3’s DRYV technology and game changing backpack program!
Going one level deeper, this overlap means that many of the production relationships, quality standards, and design considerations for basketball uniforms can be directly applied to volleyball. Utilizing similar fabric technologies and production methods for both sports allows for economies of scale where POINT3 can offer better quality products at industry leading prices. And for organizations managing multiple sports programs, coaches and admins who have navigated the complexities of outfitting basketball teams will find themselves right at home when it comes to selecting and ordering volleyball uniforms.
The growth of youth volleyball is more than just a trend; it’s a testament to the enduring appeal of team sports and the vital role they play in youth development. And while POINT3 may be relatively new to the volleyball space, this is very familiar territory. For the last 10+ years, we’ve outfitted THOUSANDS of youth programs with best-in-class team gear and award-winning customer service. Whether on the basketball or volleyball court, our mission remains the same – keeping athletes and coaches focused on the games they love with products that perform.
See you on the court.