ELLIE’S SIGNATURE STRUT starts a good 20 feet from the runway.
Her Nike Air Force 1s, green and bedazzled, peek out from beneath a sparkling floor-length gown in seafoam green. Less than three hours before a 3 p.m. New York Liberty tipoff against the Connecticut Sun, a group of influencers, media members and Ellie’s content team wait for the Liberty mascot to reveal her tunnel look. The black carpet runway is set up in the underbelly of Barclays Center, not far from where players roll up in their cars and head into the locker room.
“If you’re waiting for players, they came by already,” a Liberty staff member informs the crowd. We missed Breanna Stewart and Natasha Cloud by a few minutes. Still, no one moves, waiting for Ellie to pop around the corner.
Since Ellie debuted in May 2021, when the Liberty moved from Madison Square Garden to Barclays, the mascot’s popularity has reached unprecedented heights. She has her own merch and has been featured in Vogue, SLAM, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. On TikTok, where Ellie has 196,000…
