• After traveling to over 50 cities in Europe, I've enjoyed visiting some lesser-known locations.
• Bath, England, is a great place to visit for Roman ruins and beautiful architecture.
• I also loved traveling to Bruges, Belgium, which is both historic and romantic.

I've visited over 50 cities in Europe, and while I love global tourist hubs like London and Paris, I also try to seek out smaller cities and towns.

With over 13 million Americans predicted to travel to Europe this summer, it could be the right time to check out the off-the-beaten-path destinations on your travel bucket list.

These are five lesser-known destinations in Europe I recommend visiting.

Bath, England, is just a 90-minute train ride from London.

As you probably could have guessed from this city's name, Bath is known for its Roman baths. These baths, dating back to AD 70, are some of the best-preserved Roman ruins in the world.

Bath is known for its beautiful Georgian architecture, which can be admired in places like the Royal Crescent, which features a crescent-shaped row of 30 houses.

I also loved visiting the Circus, which is made up of townhouses arranged in a circular pattern. These areas showcase Georgian architecture and are what makes walking around Bath feel unique.

If you're a book lover, you can visit during the annual Jane Austen Festival in September, where people dress up, and the city is taken back in time.

The train from London to Bath takes about 90 minutes, making this city the perfect day trip.

Mostar is a beautiful city in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Mostar really surprised me. It didn't look like anywhere else I'd been, with the towering Old Bridge connecting the two sides of the city. The 16th-century bridge, rebuilt after the 1990s war, is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The city also has a well-preserved Ottoman quarter with charming cobblestone streets. During my time in Mostar, I loved drinking Bosnian coffee, taking in the views of the city, and feasting on local dishes like ćevapi.

Bruges, Belgium, is a romantic city.

Bruges is a well-preserved medieval town. Its historic center is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and visiting feels like stepping back in time.

The best thing I did was take a boat ride on the canal, admiring the architecture while cruising through Minnewaterpark, commonly referred to as the Lake of Love.

Bruges is a laid-back destination that makes a convenient day trip from nearby Paris and Brussels. The city is perfect for couples looking to indulge in Belgian beer and chocolate.

Heidelberg, Germany, embraces modern life without losing its historical charm.

Heidelberg has striking views around every corner. The city is home to a centuries-old castle as well as the oldest university in Germany.

I enjoyed walking along Philosophenweg (also called Philosopher's Way), where professors sought solitude and academic inspiration. The path was especially beautiful during my trip in the fall.

We loved spending time in the city, which had lots of nice restaurants and cool bars. Heidelberg does an amazing job of embracing the new while holding on to its historical charm.

Andorra La Vella is a hidden gem in the Pyrenees mountains.

Andorra La Vella is the capital of Andorra, a country in the Pyrenees between France and Spain.

Every restaurant we dined at featured dishes influenced by the surrounding countries. If you want to try authentic Andorran food, head to a borda — a traditional house once used for agricultural purposes. Now, these buildings are used as charming restaurants.

Andorra la Vella is a great day trip from Barcelona, but the city deserves more than a one-day visit.

• A new study suggests people on Ozempic or Wegovy may be more likely to suddenly go blind.
• The condition, called NAION, is still exceedingly rare. It's also painless and untreatable. 
• Blood sugar issues can impact our vision.

Eye doctors in Boston have started to notice a small but worrisome uptick in cases of a rare type of sudden blindness among patients taking semaglutide.

They're raising questions about whether taking Ozempic or Wegovy might be leading to more cases of nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION), a rare condition where blood stops flowing to the optic nerve, disturbing the connection between the eye and the brain. The issue typically surfaces suddenly, without pain, and results in people waking up in the morning unable to see out of one eye.

The new investigation, published Wednesday in JAMA Ophthalmology, found that people taking semaglutide appeared slightly more likely to develop NAION than other patients with obesity or diabetes. (Semaglutide is the active ingredient in two Novo Nordisk drugs: Ozempic for type 2 diabetes, and Wegovy for obesity.)

Rare, and notable

The number of patients on semaglutide who developed NAION was still tiny: out of more than 16,000 eye patients in Massachusetts included in this six-year retrospective investigation, only 37 people on semaglutide developed NAION. But that was still more than four times more eye problems than other, similar patients who were not on the drugs experienced over the same time period. Only nine individuals with diabetes or obesity who were not on semaglutide developed NAION, according to the researchers.

"This is information we did not have before and it should be included in discussions between patients and their doctors, especially if patients have other known optic nerve problems like glaucoma, or if there is preexisting significant visual loss from other causes," lead study author Dr. Joseph Rizzo, the director of the neuro-ophthalmology service at Mass Eye and Ear and a professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, said in a news release.

"The use of these drugs has exploded throughout industrialized countries and they have provided very significant benefits in many ways, but future discussions between a patient and their physician should include NAION as a potential risk."

Pushback from Novo Nordisk

In a statement sent to Business Insider, semaglutide maker Novo Nordisk said "patient safety is a top priority for Novo Nordisk , and we take all reports about adverse events from the use of our medicines very seriously."

But the drugmaker also raised concerns about the ways this study was conducted, saying there were too few cases in the trial to draw meaningful conclusions, and that this type of backward-looking study could never answer questions about a causal link between semaglutide and NAION.

"NAION is not an adverse drug reaction for the marketed formulations of semaglutide," the company said.

Patients with diabetes and high blood pressure have always been at an increased risk of developing eyesight issues. For example, having chronically high blood sugar can distort your eye lenses, contributing to blurry vision. (Novo Nordisk is also working on another, separate study, testing whether semaglutide might be useful in treating diabetic retinopathy.) NAION is usually permanent, and there is no treatment for it.

• Ukraine is operating US-made Hawk air-defense systems from the 1960s.
• Though the US retired these tools decades ago, Kyiv is now using them to kill Russian missiles.
• One Ukrainian operator recently praised the effectiveness of the antiquated system.

The Ukrainians are using an American-made air-defense system that the US retired from service more than two decades ago to successfully shoot down Russian cruise missiles.

The MIM-23 Hawk is a medium-range, surface-to-air system that was first fielded in the 1960s and has long considered obsolete, with militaries favoring more portable systems. But the hand-me-down weapons have found new life in Ukraine, proving they are still useful tools after all these years.

A Ukrainian soldier who operates the Hawk system, which stands for "Homing All the Way Killer," said that although it's not a new weapon, it is "effective in skilled hands." He has more than two dozen kills to his name, including Russia's Kh-59 cruise missiles and Iranian-made Shahed one-way attack drones.

The soldier, Oleksandr, was featured by the Ukrainian Air Force on Wednesday. In an interview, which was published to the AFU's Telegram messaging app, he said Shahed drones are the most annoying to engage because they fly very slow, so its tiring to battle them over long periods of time.

"'Working with missiles is much easier, even when they are aimed at you," Oleksandr said. "It was a little uncomfortable when three Kh-59 missiles, constantly changing altitude, flew right at us. But all the targets were captured and destroyed one by one."

"The main secret is not even in the weapon we work on, but in the synchronous and coordinated work of the unit," he said, according to a translation of his remarks. "We perfectly understand the risks and consequences if we do not hear or ignore each other."

The Hawk system was deployed all around the world during its four decades in service with the US military, and it saw combat in the Middle East. By the 1990s, though, with the Cold War over, the aerial threat to American forces had changed, and the Hawk was retired and replaced with lower-altitude systems like the FIM-92 Stinger and Avenger. The MIM-104 Patriot was also available to meet other US air-defense needs.

Though the US no longer use them, several countries still operate the Hawk and its multiple variants, including Spain, which first sent Ukraine a handful of launchers in October 2022. The Biden administration has since donated an unspecified number Hawk systems and munitions to Kyiv and has committed to procuring more for the country over the long term.

Ukrainian officials have routinely pressed the US and its NATO allies for more air-defense capabilities to battle the Russian threat. While the Hawk is an antiquated capability, it still helps plug crucial gaps in the sky.

The Hawk is not the only 1960s-era — and seemingly outdated — weapon to find successes in Ukraine. German-made Gepard cannons have also proven to be very effective at shooting down low-altitude Russian drones and cruise missiles.

• E-receipts from apps like Instacart give a highly personal view into the impact of inflation.
• Shoppers using "reorder items" on years-old orders can see exactly how much prices have increased.
• In some cases, baskets have seen price hikes exceed the overall official rate of inflation.

Paper receipts are fast becoming a relic of a bygone era at the grocery store, especially as app-based ordering and tracking have gotten more popular.

And while few shoppers would save their old grocery receipts, using apps like Instacart keep your order history for years.

Now, some customers are using those past orders to discover inflation's highly personal impact on them.

For Crisman White, a 33-year-old escape room designer from Virginia, the price of a basket of groceries from his local Publix nearly doubled since October 2019.

In a video on TikTok, White shared his experience using Instacart's "reorder items" function, explaining how a $35 order skyrocketed to more than $62 in the past five years.

"I went back to my first Instacart because that was the only thing that I could really track exactly what I purchased," he told Business Insider.

White said he was motivated to try the feature after another TikTok user posted an outlandish story about their Walmart+ order tripling in price in just the past two years. (Several commenters suggested this was due to the app replacing some out-of-stock items with more expensive offerings from third-party sellers.)

Even though price increases have slowed significantly in recent months, the cumulative inflation in the past five years is about 23%, meaning that what once cost $1 now costs $1.23.

But that figure is calculated across a lot of different spending categories, and groceries, in particular, have seen some uneven increases during that time.

Add a dose of shrinkflation to the mix, and it can take a bit of work to replicate a past cart's contents on a unit-per-dollar basis.

"A lot of the items either have changed names, or the quantity or the weight has changed, so it doesn't exactly translate," White explained. "So I actually had to go through each individual item and place it into my cart."

White noted that his penchant for lox (which more than doubled in price for him) accounted for much of his cart's increase, but he told BI that national brand items like the 12-pack of Pepsi and the Pedigree dog food packed a punch too.

By way of comparison, BI analyzed two other past Instacart orders from editorial staff in Los Angeles and New York City.

The first — preparing for a pandemic Passover meal in 2020 from Gelson's in LA — had a subtotal of $76.24 before taxes, tip, and fees. That order now costs $93, an increase of 22% that is almost exactly in line with overall inflation during that time.

The second — a frugal-but-balanced basket from Wegman's in Manhattan — came out to a subtotal of $89 in May of 2022, jumping to nearly $105 today: a 17% increase that far exceeds the official 7% inflation effect during that time.

White told BI the response to his video, which has nearly a million views, has been very polarized.

"People are super divided on the issue," he said. "Some people are saying that it's inflation. Some people are saying that it's corporate greed. I think that it might be a little combination of both."

Graphics contributed by Andy Kiersz.

• President Joe Biden already had a narrow path to reelection before his disastrous debate.
• But if the bottom drops out, Democrats could be fighting to defend states like New Mexico or Virginia.
• At that point, Trump's victory would be a near foregone conclusion.

President Joe Biden's already narrow path to reelection is getting even harder to navigate.

Biden's best-case scenario before last week's disastrous debate likely required him to run the table in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennslyvania while holding onto to the Omaha-based Nebraska 2nd congressional district. Trump, as Nate Silver pointed out, had much more flexibility in reaching 270 electoral votes and potentially reaching even higher.

Four years ago, Biden had the luxury of deciding whether to base his campaign on the Upper Midwest or bet on Sun Belt states like Arizona and Georgia that hadn't gone for Democrats in decades. Trump has held a steady lead in both states, according to RealClearPolitics' polling averages.

Biden's underdog status can get much worse. In its latest update on Wednesday, Sabato's Crystal Ball moved Michigan and Minnesota closer to Trump. As Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Crystal Ball, warned, this isn't rock bottom.

"It does seem like from the polling that Biden has taken a small hit, but he needed to be catching up as opposed to falling back," Kondik told Business Insider.

The Crystal Ball moved Michigan from "Lean Democratic" to "Toss Up" and Minnesota from "Likely Democratic" to "Lean Democratic." Under the University of Virginia Center for Politics' current projections, there are five true toss-up states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Nevada.

If Biden continues to decline, Virginia, New Mexico, and Maine (statewide) could all come into play.

A Republican hasn't carried Virginia or New Mexico in 20 years. Maine, which like Nebraska only awards two of its Electoral College votes to the statewide popular vote winner, hasn't crowned a Republican as a winner since then-Vice President George H.W. Bush in 1988.

"There's the possibility that maybe Trump is able to win the popular vote that is a roughly five-point improvement from 2020 and if that sort of thing happens you would expect Trump to win the states where Biden won in 2020 but did worse than the national popular vote," Kondik said. "That is also the situation where you would start to see a Minnesota or a New Hampshire or maybe even a Virginia or Maine be closer certainly like there were in 2016 and certainly even closer than that."

A post-debate poll in New Hampshire showed the race there is too close to call. According to A Saint Anselm College poll, Trump leads Biden 44% to 42%. Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is at 4% in the state. Biden won the Granite State just over 7 points four years ago.

In a memo after the debate, Biden campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon said that data showed the faceoff did not change the minds of voters in battleground states. She also claimed that if polling does show a drop it would be a temporary dip due to media coverage.

"If we do see changes in polling in the coming weeks, it will not be the first time that overblown media narratives have driven temporary dips in the polls," O'Malley Dillon wrote in the June 29th memo.

Kondik stressed that there's still time for Biden to turn it around and that one possibility for a post-debate slump is that Democrats remain depressed about the president's performance. He pointed out that both the Democratic National Convention and the second debate remain. There's also the chance that Biden is pushed out of the race before either of those things happen. The president could also remain in the race and struggle to mount the comeback campaign he needs to.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. In April, the president's campaign boasted that they could win in Florida, Trump's adopted home and a state that has moved away from Democrats. Now, even a top Biden official has said Florida isn't a battleground.

The issue for Biden is that he needed the debate to begin his upswing. Instead, his faceoff with Trump could lead to the president dropping out of the race entirely. Biden himself has acknowledged he did not debate well.

As CNN's Harry Enten has detailed, every incumbent president that went into the first debate trailing and was viewed as having lost that debate went on to lose their reelection. Biden's only saving grace is the debate's early time on the calendar.

For now, prominent Democrats are sticking behind Biden. Most critically, this includes the list of potential replacements, including Vice President Kamala Harris, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. On Tuesday, Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas became the first member of Congress to call on the president to drop out.

The reality is that if Biden is stuck playing defense in states Democrats usually win, Trump's return to the White House will be a foregone conclusion. The only question then will be how many Electoral College votes would the former president win.

"If Biden's position gets worse, that's when you see maybe a Virginia or New Mexico get in play," Kondik said. "But again, if that's what we're actually going to be talking about in October then the election itself shouldn't be that dramatic. Virginia, New Hampshire, New Mexico, or Minnesota are not going to be the states that put Trump over 270. They are the states that would get him well north of 300 electoral votes."

• On Air New Zealand's Boeing 777-300ER, flight attendants rest in a room hidden above economy class.
• I explored the secret bedroom with an in-service flight manager. 
• As I scaled the steps up to the room, I entered a cramped space with eight beds and storage. 

For travelers, long-haul flights typically involve cramped quarters and attempts at sleeping.

It's not just the passengers who get a rest. When flight attendants and pilots work long shifts, they also take a break — in tiny rooms hidden on planes.

On the way back to the US from New Zealand in 2022, I went behind the scenes for a firsthand look at flight attendants' break room on Air New Zealand's Boeing 777-300ER. 

On Air New Zealand's long-haul flights, a flight attendant's job doesn't pause until the plane's completed takeoff, dinner service is finished, and passengers are resting. Even then, their breaks last only a couple of hours.

As someone who has survived several long-haul flights, I was curious about where those breaks occur. So, on a 12-hour flight from New Zealand to Los Angeles, I boarded early to tour the crew area, which is off-limits to passengers.

Read more: I took a 13-hour flight to New Zealand from LA. Here are 8 mistakes I made and what I'll do differently on my flight home.

Sarita, the in-service manager for my flight, met me at the entrance of the plane. Together, we navigated to the crew rest area.

We walked past business class, premium economy, and the last row of economy seats into the rear galley.

Read more: I went inside Air New Zealand's future plane cabin that has bunk beds in economy and wireless chargers in business class. Take a look.

At the very back of the plane, Sarita approached a door camouflaged by a wall. After pressing a sequence of buttons, a latch popped open, revealing a steep stairwell.

Each step was covered in a non-slip tread that led up to a bedroom for flight attendants. I grabbed onto the handrail and scaled the steps.

As I entered the rest area, I was surprised by its small size. While the room was large enough to fit eight beds, low ceilings and narrow hallways made it feel cramped.

At 5'8'', I was too tall to stand comfortably. Instead, I crouched and crawled around the dimly lit room

While there are eight beds, Sarita said six are occupied at a time. That's because most long-haul routes have 12 flight attendants who take breaks in shifts once meal service is finished, she said.

When it's their turn to rest, a flight attendant will unlock the door, climb up the stairs, and pick one of the eight nooks for their two-and-a-half-hour break.

Sarita also told me the room can't be used during takeoff and landing. While the rest of the aircraft cabin is pressurized during these times, she said there's no ventilation in the bedroom space until the aircraft reaches 25,000 feet.

As the flight manager, Sarita said her bed had a telephone so she could communicate with the pilots and crew.

Each sleeping nook had a heavy curtain designed to dampen the sound, block out light, and create a sense of privacy.

Each bed had a seat belt for potential turbulence, with blankets and pillows strapped underneath.

I also spotted a mirror and two storage compartments inside each nook …

… as well as a panel to control the lighting in the sleeping space.

Sarita allowed me to crawl into her nook, and it felt surprisingly cozy. It wasn't nearly as supportive as my bed back home, but the thick mattress topper was comfy enough for a nap.

Once out of her bed, I moved to the front of the room, where there was another mirror and storage for flight attendants to stash their personal belongings.

Also in the front was a control panel for the room's temperature and an outlet.

At the very back of the cabin, I noticed a closet. Sarita told me it's for uniform storage.

Besides the lights and mirrors, the cabin rest area appeared bare. There were no windows, and I didn't spot any TVs for entertainment. Sarita said that's because the flight attendant's main focus in the room is relaxing and resting.

Sarita said she usually falls asleep during her break. Other flight attendants on board told me they struggle to sleep on planes, so they just use their breaks to rest.

Sure enough, as I walked around the airplane before I went to sleep, I noticed fewer flight attendants in the cabin.

After watching them prepare the cabin, serve dinner, and complete countless behind-the-scenes tasks, I was glad to know these hardworking flight attendants had a comfortable place to take a well-earned break.

• Law enforcement is investigating the death of a retired US Marine Corps major general in California.
• Maj. Gen. William Mullen's body was found Saturday at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center.
• Mullen served for 34 years before retiring in 2020 as head of the Training and Education Command.

Law enforcement is investigating the death of a retired major general whose body was found Saturday at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, California, officials confirmed to Military.com.

Retired Maj. Gen. William Mullen, 59, a former Marine Corps officer with multiple deployments to Iraq, was found on the installation at Building 1651 over the weekend, according to San Bernardino County Coroner records.

A spokesperson for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service told Military.com on Tuesday that the military law enforcement entity is investigating the death.

"I can confirm that NCIS is conducting a thorough investigation into the death of retired Maj. Gen. William Mullen, as we do in response to any non-combat, medically unattended fatalities involving Navy and USMC equities, service members, and affiliated civilian personnel," said Darwin Lam, a spokesperson for the agency.

When asked, NCIS did not disclose the manner of Mullen's death.

"Out of respect for the investigative process, NCIS will not comment further while the investigation remains ongoing," Lam said.

Gloria Huerta, a spokesperson for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, told Military.com on Tuesday that the local coroner's office responded to Mullen's death at around 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

She said that the autopsy is ongoing and that the sheriff's department is not directly involved in the investigation with NCIS, only that its coroner's office is "handling the cause and manner of death."

Mullen assumed command of Twentynine Palms in 2016 as a brigadier general. Commissioned as an artillery officer, he served with the Marine Corps in a bevy of roles for 34 years, to include Marine Aide to the President of the United States, according to his official biography. Before retiring in 2020, he served as the commanding general of Training and Education Command.

"Maj. Gen. Mullen's dedicated service to our nation and the Marine Corps will always be remembered," Maj. Gen. Thomas Savage, head of the Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command, said in a statement shared Tuesday with Military.com. "Our thoughts and prayers are with his loved ones."

The Los Angeles Times first reported that NCIS is investigating the former general's death. Twentynine Palms is the largest Marine Corps base in the world, according to the installation's website.

In May, Gunnery Sgt. Robert McDonald, a Marine at the installation, was killed when an 18-year-old fired a weapon into McDonald's vehicle while he was sitting with his dog at a park just 10 miles south of Twentynine Palms.

• The women's sports merch industry is worth an estimated $4 billion annually, per a new report.
• But fans have complained about a lack of retailers, minimal options, and low inventory.
• Small companies are stepping up, but questions remain over how bigger brands will meet fans' demand.

As a two-time All-American, two-time World Cup winner, and National Women's Soccer League champion, Ali Krieger has had many unforgettable experiences throughout her career.

One was the first time she saw a fan wearing her jersey.

It was 2007, and Krieger, then 23, was playing for FFC Frankfurt, now known as Eintracht Frankfurt, in the German women's league, Frauen-Bundesliga, when she saw her name emblazoned across a fan's black-and-white jersey.

"It was a moment I'll never forget," Krieger told Business Insider. "Where you just see at a game and someone says, 'Hey, can you sign my jersey?' And they turn around and it's your name on the back."

For her, the experience was a reminder of the passion fans have for the sport and its athletes.

"When you invest in a jersey, that means you really appreciate that person, their character, and what they bring to the game," Krieger said. "And I think if you're worth spending money on that, then, you know, you must be doing something right."

But not all professional female athletes and their fans get to experience a moment like Krieger's.

Female athletes are fighting to get their names on jerseys

At the beginning of the 2023 Women's World Cup, England Lionesses goalkeeper and eventual Golden Glove winner Mary Earps questioned Nike's decision not to sell goalkeeper kits, The New York Times reported. (Other companies, including Adidas and Puma, also did not sell goalkeepers' jerseys throughout the competition.)

What followed was social media backlash from fans and Earps, a statement from Nike, thousands of signatures on a Change.org petition, and a motion from a then-member of Parliament before the company publicly reversed its decision in August.

When Earps' kit was finally released in October, she said it sold out the same day.

The frustration endured at the club level in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) until April 2024. In a Washington Spirit press release celebrating the league's decision to sell goalkeeper kits, the team's goalkeeper, Aubrey Kingsbury, said, "To have goalkeeper kits available for fans in the women's game as they have been for so long in the men's game is not only a long-awaited move in the right direction, it's just good business."

After the league's announcement, Chicago Red Stars and USWNT starting goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher's jersey sold out in less than three hours, Just Women's Sports reported.

While these examples are a good indicator of demand, they also reveal one of the many problems — low inventory — plaguing women's sports merchandising.

Klarna, an AI-powered shopping and payments company, and Sports Innovation Lab, a sports data company, are spotlighting these issues in a new report, "Rep Her: Unveiling the Unmet Demand for Women's Sports Merchandise."

The report used data, including Klarna payment trends, survey responses, Google Trends, transactional data, and an inventory audit, to identify the status of the women's sports merchandise industry, the inequities present in fans' shopping experiences, and the potential size of the market. It also considered a variety of merchandise across professional women's sports leagues, including the WNBA, NWSL, WTA, LPGA, PWHL, and women's volleyball.

Ultimately, Sports Innovation Lab estimates the women's sports merchandise industry is worth $4 billion — conservatively.

Sales are hindered by 'a broken buying experience'

Klarna and Sports Innovation Lab's report identifies what it calls "a broken buying experience," which needs to be addressed before this market can be fully realized.

For starters, people simply don't know where to find merchandise — 32% of fans reported having an issue finding a seller for women's sports merch compared to just 18% of fans looking for men's, according to Sports Innovation Lab's 2024 Women's Sports Merchandise Survey.

And when they do find a seller, some fans are disappointed with the available options. Over a quarter of respondents reported having difficulty finding women's sports merchandise styles they liked, and nearly four-fifths said they think men's merchandise is better quality and has a wider variety.

But even when there is an item fans are interested in, there's a good chance it will be out of stock — more than half of those who intended to buy an item but didn't blamed a lack of inventory.

Ultimately, 79% of fans surveyed said they would purchase more women's sports merchandise if more options were available.

Major brands have made strides but are falling short

While major brands, such as Nike and Adidas, partner with women's professional teams to create merchandise, the report found there are notable shortcomings.

Nike, for example, partners with both the NBA and WNBA, and has provided signature shoe deals to star WNBA players like A'ja Wilson and Caitlin Clark.

However, Sports Innovation Lab's inventory audit found that when comparing products available for men's and women's teams in five of the same cities, 311 pieces of women's apparel were available on the NBA team shops compared to just 38 pieces of women's apparel available on the WNBA team shops.

In February, for the first time, Nike also provided all 14 NWSL teams with "new, reimagined primary and secondary kits," which fans can purchase, and has made NWSL goalkeeper jerseys from all teams available on its website.

Other brands like Adidas and Puma are more prominent in the international women's sports market, thanks to their investments in major international soccer teams, like Manchester United and Germany and AC Milan and Morocco, respectively. On the company websites, these jerseys are also for sale.

In response to low inventory complaints, major brands have previously said it's hard to predict demand. In 2023, Bloomberg reported that retailers like Nike, Adidas, and Puma decided "how many replica and authentic jerseys to manufacture for each of the women's teams" months before the Women's World Cup began in July.

Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden told Bloomberg "there is no formula" for forecasting demand, while Puma CEO Arne Freundt told the outlet "demand was significantly higher" than they had anticipated.

Still, the numbers suggest it's worth the investment.

Merchandise boosts community and exposure

Looking at ticket sales, the NWSL saw a 101% increase, while the WNBA saw a 92% increase from the 2022 season to the 2023 season, per StubHub's 2023 Year in Live Experiences report.

Meanwhile, the WNBA reported that the 2023 season was "its most-watched regular season in 21 years." And of course, there's the Caitlin Clark effect.

Merchandise is also a key factor in how fans of women's sports build community, perhaps even more so than actually attending games. Some 67% of respondents in Sports Innovation Lab's survey reported purchasing women's sports merchandise without ever going to live games.

What brands are missing out on, then, isn't just a revenue opportunity, it's exposure.

"You're a walking billboard when you have a team's logo on your chest or a league's logo on your chest," Angela Ruggiero, cofounder of Sports Innovation Lab and a four-time Olympic hockey player, told Business Insider.

Ruggiero cited the WNBA's signature orange hoodie, which created buzz when NBA stars wore it during the 2020 season. It generated feelings of "That represents me, that's more than sport. I want to wear it, I want to go to a game now because I see all these people in orange hoodies and famous people in orange hoodies and like, wow, this is cool," she said.

As more leagues emerge, like the Professional Women's Hockey League, Athletes Unlimited, and League One Volleyball, the fact that the conversation has shifted to merchandise is a reminder of how far the women's game has come in the last 20 years.

"At the very beginning," Krieger said, "it wasn't really a concern for all of us because we were just so focused on getting our own gear for training and trying to have the accessibility and the resources, and all the things that we needed in order to perform our best just from a player's perspective and then just getting paid what we deserve."

Now that some women's sports, like soccer and basketball, are reaching mainstream conversation, merchandise is another step toward building profitable, sustainable leagues and fanbases.

"It is just such an untapped opportunity," said Megan Gokey, head of business-to-consumer marketing and brand partnerships at Klarna. "The opportunity is there, but brands, retailers, etc. are actually just not keeping up with the demand, which is insane."

Smaller businesses are stepping up

To respond to the increasing excitement around women's sports, smaller brands are paving the way with merchandise.

Media and commerce company Togethxr, which was founded by athletes Alex Morgan, Chloe Kim, Simone Manuel, and Sue Bird, is partnering with Klarna and Krieger to release a limited-edition merchandise collection with a percentage of proceeds going to Billie Jean King's Women's Sports Foundation.

Esther Kim's Playa Society is also making waves with its self-proclaimed "best women's sports merch in the game," with items geared toward fans of NCAA women's basketball, the WNBA, and the USWNT. And Athletes Unlimited sells softball, volleyball, basketball, and lacrosse merchandise.

Business Insider reached out to Nike, Adidas, and Puma about what each company further plans to do in women's sports merchandise. Adidas said it was "unable to identify a spokesperson" for this subject, while a Puma spokesperson was also unavailable. Nike did not respond.

Beyond retailers, team sponsors and partners have a responsibility, too. CarMax, for example, is the marquee partner of the New Jersey and New York NWSL team Gotham FC, as well as a partner of WNBA team New York Liberty. In 2023, the company helped support a "first-of-its-kind" joint merchandise collaboration between the teams featuring the tagline "Pass Her The Torch."

Building the women's game takes an ecosystem of collaboration involving fans, athletes, leagues, team sponsors, and retailers. Whoever steps up to the plate could reap major rewards.

"We've been in this movement as female athletes, but everyone thinks it's now just the moment," Krieger said. "This has been the moment for a long time and we've been moving it along for decades. And so now people are just finally getting interested in it and knowing and seeing that we are valuable and that the investment is real and that it's worthwhile."

• Jeff Bezos filed a plan to sell 25 million Amazon shares worth nearly $5 billion on Tuesday.
• Bezos' move follows Amazon stock hitting a record of $200.43 and a $2 trillion market cap last week.
• Bezos, the world's second-richest person, still holds over 900 million Amazon shares.

Jeff Bezos is cashing out some of his Amazon shares as the stock hit an all-time high this week.

The Amazon cofounder filed a notice with the SEC to sell 25 million Amazon shares worth close to $5 billion on Tuesday.

Bezos filed the notice after Amazon stock prices hit $200.43. Last week, Amazon's market cap also reached $2 trillion for the first time. The company stock was up 32% year-to-date through Tuesday.

Bezos will still have over 900 million Amazon shares after this share sale, Bloomberg reported, so he's nowhere near handing off his stake in the company. But it's yet another big sale he's made this year.

He sold off about 1.1 million Amazon shares at the end of May, which he said would be to fund his nonprofit preschools. The billionaire sold 431,426 shares on May 29 and 667,260 shares on May 30, which were valued at about $117 million at the time.

Bezos also made a big sale earlier this year in February, selling about 50 million Amazon shares worth roughly $8.5 billion. The February sales were the first the billionaire made since 2021, when he stepped down as CEO of Amazon.

Since leaving the top job at Amazon, Bezos has focused on philanthropy and his rocket company, Blue Origin. He still holds about 8.8% of Amazon and serves as the company's executive chairmen.

Bezos' net worth is estimated at $222 billion, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index. That places him as the second wealthiest person in the world, behind Elon Musk.

• Google is testing facial recognition security at its Kirkland campus to prevent unauthorized access.
• Some employees have privacy concerns about facial data collection. Others were fine with the tech.
• Google has faced past security issues, including protests and a 2018 shooting at YouTube's HQ.

Google is testing a new security system that uses facial-recognition technology at its campus in Kirkland, Washington — and early reaction from Google employees in the US is mixed.

The interior security cameras collect facial data and are designed to help prevent unauthorized individuals from entering Google's campus, the company said. Google said its security team uses the data to identify people who may pose a security risk.

After news of the system was first reported by CNBC, Business Insider talked to Google employees at various campuses to find out what they thought about the change. The employees requested anonymity to speak freely but their employment has been verified.

One employee who frequently visits the Kirkland office where the technology is being tested told BI that they found out about the new system from reading about it in the news. They said the cameras are discretely placed on ceilings and don't look different from other security cameras.

But the employee said it's a "little dystopian" and people in the office have privacy concerns about the new system.

"A lot are concerned about facial data being stored by Google," the employee said. "Data is extremely valuable."

While people at the testing site can't opt out of facial screening when entering the building, a Google spokesperson said the data is for immediate use and isn't stored. The facial data was initially compared with ID badge images during early testing, but employees could fill out a form to opt out of their badge photo being stored, the spokesperson said. The badge ID images are no longer being used, they added.

Google said the new technology is solely implemented in its Kirkland office at the moment, but employees BI talked to wondered if the system could eventually be rolled out more widely.

An employee who works in the New York office said that they have no privacy concerns with facial recognition technology at the office. They said Google already has security surveillance all over its campuses so this will just make it easier for the security team to do their job.

However, an employee who works in San Francisco said they think the system could be used as a secondary method for monitoring office attendance. That employee said they've been previously flagged for not meeting the minimum number of in-person days.

A Google spokesperson said there were no known plans in place to use the security system for attendance tracking.

The Kirkland employee said some workers suspect the technology is a response to the sit-in protests against Google's $1.2 billion joint contract with Amazon that provides services to Israel's government.

The protest resulted in nine total arrests in Google's New York and Sunnyvale offices, and about 50 employees being fired or placed on leave, according to a complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board. Google said in a memo that protesters violated multiple company policies, including its code of conduct and policy on harassment, discrimination, retaliation, standards of conduct, and workplace concerns.

Google's vice president of global security Chris Rackow, said at a staff meeting in May that video camera footage helped identify some of the employees who participated in the protest, CNBC reported.

Google has faced security threats in the past.

In 2018, a woman opened fire and injured three people at YouTube's headquarters in San Bruno, California. The shooter's relatives said that, prior to the shooting, she was "upset" with YouTube because of how her vegan-themed videos performed.

A Google spokesperson told BI that for years, the company has tested and implemented "new systems and protections to help keep our people and spaces as safe as possible." In 2021, Google implemented fences at its headquarters in Mountain View, California, according to local publication Mountain View Voice.

An employee who works outside the Kirkland location said they think the new system would impact people working at larger offices who have experienced "some crazy" situations. They said the new system will "hopefully prevent those events from happening."

"I personally don't have too much of an issue with it and maybe even welcome it assuming it works well," the employee said.

Do you have a story about Google? We want to hear from you. Contact the reporter at aaltchek@businessinsider.com from a non-work device and email.