The calendar says it is Mother's Day weekend, which means the jewelry brand Gorjana is in the midst of its annual ritual of marketing to mothers and the daughters who shop for them. But the California-based company, known for its dainty gold layering pieces, has lately found another audience worth courting: women who sweat for a living.

Gorjana has been quietly assembling what it calls the Gorjana Sports Club, a roster of female athletes who serve as brand ambassadors across tennis courts, basketball arenas, and university athletic departments. The effort formally began last summer, according to Jennifer Darrow, the company's director of marketing, after the brand noticed that sports-related content was outperforming other material on its channels.

"We are partnering with athletes as our brand ambassadors," Ms. Darrow said. "We don't do a lot in the media and entertainment space. We don't have a lot of celebrity or influencer partners — these are the women who we want to be speaking on our behalf."

The initiative is headlined by the tennis player Jessica Pegula and the basketball star Cameron Brink, both of whom were already wearing Gorjana before the partnerships were formalized. (This is the preferred origin story for brand relationships in 2025: the ambassador who was a customer first.) Ms. Darrow said her team looks for athletes "who are at the top of their game" and for whom "personal style and jewelry is very much a part of who they are."

The company is not, Ms. Darrow acknowledged, in a position to operate like Nike or Adidas. "We can't carry a roster of 70," she said, "so we have to be pretty selective."

Last September, Gorjana expanded beyond individual athletes with a sponsorship of Arizona State University Athletics, covering all of the school's women's teams and its spirit squad. Ms. Darrow said she is open to similar collegiate arrangements and has begun exploring conversations about professional team partnerships as well.

The proof of concept, she said, remains Ms. Pegula, who after three years as a partner still appears on television wearing seven to ten Gorjana pieces at a time. It is the kind of long-term validation that cannot be purchased in a single Instagram post — though it does help if the ambassador keeps winning.

Original story published in Marketing Brew: "How jewelry brand Gorjana found its place in sports"