How Liberty mascot Ellie the Elephant became a WNBA star

When the New York Liberty approached sportswear designer Gabe Stark earlier this year about purchasing a set of custom jersey dresses, he was thrilled. The Bronx native is a long-time fan of the WNBA team and founder of the Rare Breed BX clothing label. There was just one catch. These clothes would have to be a little different than his usual ones, Stark learned. They would have to fit an elephant.

“The challenge definitely fascinated me,” says the designer. “I’ve never worked with anyone who has a dick.”

Liberty mascot Ellie the Elephant became a fan favorite when it was introduced in 2021. (Her birth was part of a major revival for the franchiseincluding a new home at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn: She replaced a previous mascot, a golden retriever named Maddie, whose name was a nod to her original arena, Madison Square Garden.) With her dancing skills and crowdwork, Ellie quickly built a reputation followed on social media and soon gained respect as a pop culture figure. The New York Times featured it in the Style section last year under the headline “Have You Ever Seen an Elephant Twerk?” But she added something new to her bag of tricks this year: Literally bags, but also dresses, outerwear, jewelry and custom sneakers and other pieces. This elephant is now a fashion plate.

Her style has become a branding and merchandising opportunity for the Liberty. (Fans can purchase Ellie pennants, T-shirts and plush toys, as well as replicas of her signature braid.) It's also helped make her something of an influencer in her own right.

Ellie wears custom looks from designers sought by the Liberty, as well as clothing she bought off the rack and altered to fit the mascot. Just as the players' matchday outfits are photographed as they enter the arena, Ellie's outfits are also photographed. There's no shortage of human stars on this roster: New York finished the regular season with the best record in the league and now faces the Minnesota Lynx in the WNBA finals. But as the best-of-five series heads to Minneapolis in a 1-1 draw, the mascot offers a unique celebrity. As the Liberty made their playoff push, Ellie was introduced ELLEShe opened up about her beauty routine to fashion and walked the red carpet Glamour Women of the Year Awards.. The Elephant has begun to feel like the most stylish figure in sports.

“It attracts all kinds of fan bases,” says Criscia Long, senior director of entertainment at Liberty. “That makes Ellie an influencer. It's not just one thing. It's not just game day, it's not just dance, it's not just entertainment… Culture encompasses all of these different things, and I think that's what makes Ellie so powerful, bringing everyone together with all of these, so creating many new relationships in this space.”

That paid off. After spending all season refining her style, Ellie is now being approached by labels She want to get dressed herand not the other way around. Long says the Liberty is considering a “tariff card” to provide to brands interested in paying for the elephant to wear their pieces or appear on their social media. (Ellie has more than 180,000 followers on TikTok and 120,000 on Instagram.) And like any serious influencer, she receives a lot of unsolicited gifts.

So many labels have shipped clothes this year that Ellie's closet at Barclays Center is overflowing. She's long past the point of being able to fit her wardrobe on a single shelf, and organizing, curating, and displaying her clothes is an ongoing project. But it's a good problem to have, Long says.

It's also unusual for mascots, as they generally wear the uniforms of their respective teams, perhaps with a holiday twist here or a postseason upgrade there. On the one hand, this is due to the uniform brand identity, and on the other hand, it is due to the convenience. (It's not easy to dress a furry creature of less-than-human proportions.) For her first three seasons, Ellie wore a standard Liberty uniform, although she was known to wear custom-made shoes and the occasional tutu. But the team decided to do something different this year. They ditched the uniform and started thinking big.

As the female elephant became more and more popular because of her wild personality Dance skillswhy not embrace fashion too?

Similar to the players, Ellie usually comes to work in a carefully put together outfit to be photographed in style, then changes into her uniform for the game. The tunnel that leads into the arena resembles a runway. “When Miss Ellie is on the tunnel walk, it’s not just a walk, it’s a moment,” Long says. “So not only do things have to look good, they have to work, they have to last.” As for her actual uniform? This is where Stark's jersey dresses come into play. At Rare Breed BX, he creates similar designs for human females, and the team loved the idea of ​​still identifying the elephant as a member of Liberty, but with a little more flair. “Yes, it’s athletic, yes, it’s a uniform, but it’s still a dress,” Long says. “It's form-fitting.” The designer noted that his creations look just as good on an elephant as they do on a human.

“It emphasized Ellie’s femininity and her hips,” says Stark. “The only challenge was implementing a transom hole, which was nothing a two-inch vertical slot couldn’t fix.”

This gender identity was a distinguishing feature for the elephant. She may be a pachyderm – chosen to honor the elephants that circus founder PT Barnum led across the Brooklyn Bridge in 1884 – but she is clearly female. Most sports mascots are either male or of ambiguous gender. The few who don't are generally introduced as the wife or sister of a male counterpart. It's rare to see a mascot that's truly her own girl. And that's historically true for women's sports as well: At the start of this WNBA season, there were only two other mascots identified as female on each team's website. (Another was introduced mid-season by the Chicago Sky.) But none of these female mascots are as overtly feminine as Ellie, with her braided hair, large hoop earrings and penchant for handbags.

“Ellie’s femininity and New York authenticity make her an icon,” says Stark. “You can’t imagine Ellie without her silhouette and her hand on her hip.”

This identity is a conscious choice of freedom. The Elephant represents a roster full of women, and they wanted her to be a clear product of her team, her district and her league. That meant addressing what makes the WNBA different from the NBA or NFL. The group of Liberty employees responsible for Ellie's styling and marketing are made up of Black women—they jokingly call each other her “aunts”—and place a special emphasis on collaborating with Black and Brooklyn-based designers. They believe this was crucial to how well the elephant connected with the fan base.

“Ellie as a mascot really has such a big identity that represents Brooklyn,” Long says. “No matter where you go in the world, you're going to feel that culture, you're going to feel New York… It's something that's authentic to us, and to what we do here, to our lives and how we live.” . You can feel that with Ellie.”

They learned that not every look that works on a human will also work on an elephant. (It's important to consider not just their tail, but also the width of their legs.) But they've found that there's still a lot of experimentation to be done. Ellie loves sequins and matching sets. Accessories like hair bows are a must. She also never misses an opportunity to go all out on a theme: When she performed tribute dances for artists like Beyoncé and Missy Elliot, she had the elaborate costumes to match. And she loves showing off her curves.

“Miss Ellie is very screwed,” Long says. “It fits in a 2X or even an extra-large model. I think that just requires trust in the state you are in as an elephant, as a human being or as a being in general.”

Ellie herself does not speak to the media. Liberty has kept the identity of the man in the elephant suit top secret. But as Long spoke on her behalf, there was another obvious question for the stylish pachyderm: What's in her bag? (If it's rude to ask a lady what's in her purse –Sports Illustrated (had already crossed the line when she asked about her dress size.) Ellie has an impressive bag collection, now numbering almost 20 pieces, with a particular fondness for designer brand Telfar. So what does she use them for on game day?

It's simple: the elephant needs a place where he can keep all his love letters.

“She carries all the gifts that the fans give her,” Long says. “It's actually become very convenient because fans bring the most amazing and unique gifts, from bracelets to letters and things like that. She keeps everything.”