EXCLUSIVE: Alix Earle Is Sports Illustrated Swimsuit’s First Digital Cover Star
After 60 years of storied printed issues, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit is launching a monthly digital product, and the first one is fronted by one of today’s biggest TikTok stars.
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit is launching its first digital issue on Friday with content creator and “Hot Mess” podcast host Alix Earle as the cover star.
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“The photoshoot was different than I had initially thought because we were playing around with a bunch of different fashion pieces as well as swimwear,” Earle told WWD in an exclusive interview. “We actually did half of the photoshoot inside and then the other half of the photoshoot was outside on the beach. It’s really cool that we got to incorporate a lot of storytelling aspects into this piece and tell a lot about my life through these pictures. I was a little bit shocked at first when I saw what we were doing, but it was so incredibly amazing and I think it’s going to be a really cool piece.”
Earle’s digital cover coincides with the influencer walking her first runway at Sports Illustrated Swimsuit’s 60th anniversary show on Saturday. Earle will walk the runway solo and with her younger sisters.
“I had always been a fan of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issues and I just remember seeing all of these amazing women growing up and I really became invested as I got older,” Earle said. “I got to talk to [editor in chief] MJ [Day] about the brand and what the brand stands for, and seeing all of these amazing strong confident women with their powerful stories — I am definitely a fan and I’ve been a fan for a while.”
Day explained Earle was a natural fit for the magazine’s first digital cover as she “really speaks to the digital environment” and “exists there in such a hugely powerful way.”
“She’s extremely transparent,” Day said. “We love what she stands for as a person where she’s granted her fan base and her followers this unparalleled and unprecedented access to her life, which I think really represents what we stand for as a brand and someone who does that not just for herself, but also for the sake of the young women who look up to her.”
Earle, who has 6.8 million followers on TikTok, leveraged her vast following in September for the launch of her “Hot Mess” podcast, which has quickly become popular among her fan base. Earle uses the podcast to give an even closer look at her life and to discuss topics like friendships, relationships and mental health.
“It’s been really amazing to see how I’m able to retain my audiences’ attention for an hour — sometimes over an hour — as opposed to a 30-second or three-minute video on social media,” Earle said. “It’s just been a lot of sharing my life and my experiences — the good and bad — and it’s just given me a different way to connect with my audience. It’s been a really cool process and I’ve also learned a lot about myself through it.”
Earle’s digital issue is the first of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit’s digital series, which will be released monthly or bi-monthly, and will complement the magazine’s annual print issue.
Day explained the magazine wanted to introduce the digital issue to give readers more content outside of the annual printed product.
“We’re going to be delivering you the same type of beautiful, artistic content that you associate with the print product of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, but with a spin on it,” she said. “We’re able to dive so much deeper digitally because you’re limited in ways with the print product by the number of pages you have and the number of photos you can run, and I think in the digital space we have such a better opportunity to really dive deeper into the people, the personalities and the conversations that we’re wanting to have in a way that is unique to a digital product.”
Day explained Earle’s issue will include two stories with the influencer alongside the fashion editorial photoshoot, as well as “curated content, travel guides and unfiltered moments.”
Earle’s issue also comes a few weeks after Sports Illustrated Swimsuit’s 60th anniversary printed issue, which included 27 models that have been pivotal figures in the issue’s history, such as Kate Upton, Chrissy Teigen, Tyra Banks, Winnie Harlow, Christie Brinkley, Chanel Iman, Megan Rapinoe and many others.
“This image, to me, was a defining image in the magazine and for the brand,” Day said. “Oftentimes when you do anniversary issues, it tends to be a retrospective and what I wanted this image to achieve was to show people where we were as a brand as we sit today. While there were obviously nods to the past, even those nods to the past were still very much a part of the present.”
The anniversary spread and Earle’s digital issue also come after several tumultuous months for Sports Illustrated. In January, the magazine’s publisher, The Arena Group, stopped paying its licensing fee for publishing rights to Authentic Brands Group, which owns the magazine’s intellectual rights. This led to reports that Sports Illustrated was ceasing operations and laying off most of its employees.
In March, a shutdown was averted when Authentic closed a 10-year licensing deal with digital media company Minute Media to continue the publication’s website and print issues.
Going forward, Day said she is excited to see the future of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit’s digital issues and plans for more captivating content that reflects the vision and values of the publication.
“There are so many topical things that can be addressed in the digital universe,” she said. “We’re really excited to do all of those things and keeping conversations going, sharing and learning more and better. It really is the way we want to stay in front of people, continue to reach people and do more and be more as a brand.”
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