Round21 and DoorDash are marking the WNBA’s 30th anniversary with a limited-edition apparel collection rooted in the energy of the playoffs and the culture surrounding the game. Rebekah Gardner brings that story into focus, styling the collection through her own lens as the league celebrates how far it has come and where it’s headed next.
Rebekah Gardner’s first basketball tryout did not exactly suggest a future in the WNBA. She was eight years old, stepped onto the court, took her shot, and sent the ball toward the wrong basket. She can laugh about it now. “I’ve come a long way,” Gardner says.
She has, but what matters almost as much as the mistake is when it happened. The WNBA had just launched, Gardner was growing up in Los Angeles, and Lisa Leslie was becoming the kind of figure who could make professional basketball feel possible for a young girl watching from home. Gardner was still figuring out which hoop was hers while already becoming enamored with a league that was figuring itself out, too. “The WNBA had just started, and I’m from LA, so Lisa Leslie was a big thing,” she remembers. “When I first started, I was just having fun. I never thought that I would end up here on the New York Liberty.”
Thirty years later, there is something close to fate in the symmetry of it. Gardner is playing in the league she grew up watching as the WNBA celebrates its 30th anniversary, with the Liberty in the playoffs and women’s basketball commanding the kind of cultural attention that once felt aspirational. Gardner’s own route to this point required more patience than prophecy.
After UCLA, Gardner spent years playing professionally overseas before making it to the WNBA in 2022. By then, she had already watched the WNBA grow from the thing she looked up to as a kid into something we’re all watching from the edge of our seats.
“It’s almost surreal to see where it started,” Gardner says. “Now you see our arena, and the energy is unmatched. And it’s amazing for the young girls to see what they can work up to. I was looking up to it even when it wasn’t that popular.”
Fans aren’t clocking out at the final buzzer anymore. They’re watching the tunnel, saving the fits, and paying attention to what they wear when basketball isn’t on the schedule. The tunnel walk has become a fashion moment in its own right, and for WNBA players, personal style has become another way to hold the audience’s attention.
The Liberty Guard welcomes that attention because, to her, style and basketball come from the same impulse. “Fashion has become such a fun way for us to express ourselves, not only on the court, but off the court,” she says. “It shows off people’s personalities, and it also brings a lot more exposure to the sport.”
“If you watch basketball players, there are no two players that play exactly the same,” Gardner says. “How we play is an art, and everyone has their own unique way of playing. I feel like it’s the same with fashion.”
In LA, Gardner could keep it simple: jeans, a black or white tank, and she was out the door. New York made her more curious about what else an outfit could do. “Being here in New York, I definitely feel like my style has elevated,” she says. “Everyone here is just unique.” These days, that might mean boxers peeking out of denim, layered tank tops, or a bit of texture doing the work of an accessory. She still likes a clean canvas; she’s just learned not to stop there. The same thinking carries into her tunnel fits. Gardner starts with dependable basics, then lets the accessories set the tone. “Accessories are key,” she says. “Having great basics, I feel like you can build around.”
Gardner’s own sartorial point of view is becoming increasingly easy to spot. She describes her style as sporty and feminine before landing on a phrase that suits her better: “tomboy-girly.” There is usually some tension in the look. Something athletic pushed against something polished, something oversized offset by something closer to the body, a familiar basic made less familiar through proportion, texture, or (one of Rebekah’s favorite ways to spice up any ensemble) a very good shoe.
That sensibility gives the DoorDash x Round21 WNBA 30th anniversary collection a natural entry point into Gardner’s wardrobe. The black cotton tee and hoodie keep the silhouettes simple, letting the graphics do the talking: “Thirty Years of WNBA” across the front with basketball iconography worked into the lettering, and a larger illustration of a red-and-white ball dropping through an elongated net on the back. The artwork first appeared during the 2026 WNBA All-Star festivities before being reworked for the playoff drop.
Round21 is what keeps the collaboration from drifting into generic brand-merch territory. The women-owned label is rooted in basketball culture, with sport, art, and personal expression already embedded into its point of view. That makes the collection feel connected to the world Gardner actually inhabits, not simply dropped into it for the occasion.
Fresh off a win over the Minnesota Lynx, Gardner was back on the Barclays Center floor in the collection, styling it the way she would anything else in her closet. A thigh-high boot pushed the sportswear somewhere more feminine, oversized sunglasses sharpened another look, and metallic trousers gave the collab a little more attitude. “I love the sporty,” she says. “I just like to add a little bit of feminine.”
That push and pull is where Gardner is most comfortable. She doesn’t dress as though being an athlete is something to disguise in order to be fashionable. The sportswear becomes an inception point...something to have a little fun with. A jersey can become a dress. A sweatshirt can take on a boot. A basic can stay basic until the styling decides otherwise. “I’ve come a long way,” Rebekah reflects. “But fashion is something that really excites me now.”
She’s come a long way in her career, too. There is the eight-year-old in Los Angeles shooting toward the wrong hoop while watching Lisa Leslie show her where the game could lead. There are the years spent playing, waiting, and working her way into the league. And there is Gardner now, in New York, playing playoff basketball during the WNBA’s 30th anniversary while the culture around the game catches up to what she saw in it years ago.
For now, Gardner has one accessory in mind that no amount of layering can approximate. “I’m looking forward to getting another ring and enjoying the moment,” she says. “You never know how many opportunities like this you’ll get.”
