The Breanna Stewart of sports mascots
On October 24, 2024, tens of thousands of fans lined the streets of lower Manhattan to celebrate their latest hometown championship team, the New York Liberty. They gathered to cheer current players, including Finals MVP Jonquel Jones, and former legends who’d taken the team to the brink of a title in five previous seasons. But the parade’s biggest draw may have been the team’s mascot, Ellie the Elephant.
As the parade made its way along the Canyon of Heroes, Ellie moved from float to float, pounding her feet in sync with the music, doing her signature dance move, the Ellie Stomp. The parade terminated at City Hall for the official ceremony, and shortly after Mayor Eric Adams delivered a perfunctory speech, Ellie surprised the crowd by taking the stage and cajoling Liberty player Kennedy Burke to join her in an impromptu dance-off. Ellie famously never utters a word but communicates with a lingua franca of expressive body language and gestures. Before the dancing started, Ellie casually handed her couture purse to the mayor.
Kennedy Burke: I was a little nervous, but Ellie calmed my nerves because she is so unapologetically herself. I was like, you know what? She’s going to have a good time. I’m going to have a good time. I just kind of fangirled because I love Ellie.
Liberty fan Ava Brock: It was hilarious having Mayor Adams hold her purse.
It was the kind of crowd-pleasing moment that has made Ellie a viral sensation.
Liberty Chief Brand Officer Shana Stephenson: The performer is from Brooklyn. They sing, they dance, they understand what it means to connect with an audience.
Brock: She is who she is. Walking up to you, kissing you with her trunk and everything. That’s how New York is. Take us or leave us. You can be who you wanna be, and no one’s looking at you crazy.
Stephenson: I’ve seen Ellie’s impact on fans who are 70 years old and fans who are 7 years old. The LGBTQ+ community identifies with Ellie. Black women identify with Ellie. Youth identify with Ellie. The way that she dresses, the way that she dances.
Burke: She can do any dance in this world. Salsa. Hip-hop. I’m pretty sure she can do some ballet. Her versatility is just out of this world.
Liberty CEO Keia Clarke: One of the secret touches of Ellie is that she wears real shoes. Ellie wears sneakers, not big mascot feet. [She wears custom Nike Sabrina 2 “By Big Ellie” shoes.]
While the team closely guards the identity of the performer inside the elephant costume, there’s no hiding the impact Ellie has had since her debut when the team moved to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center in 2021: Her more than 350,000 followers on TikTok and Instagram helped drive the team’s social engagement up 665% last year, and 24 of the Liberty’s 51 sponsors are new, including 19 that have never before partnered with a WNBA franchise. Ellie has played a key role in the partnerships with Fenty, Essie, Away, Shake Shack, and Pinterest.
Stephenson: She’s helped accelerate our growth and our visibility. Ellie is allowing us to be innovative in how we approach our partnership relationships. She’s opening up new doors.
Clarke: We have Ellie activations included in a lot of our partnership deals.
Stephenson: Brooklyn is our home, so [that evening] we had a celebration at Barclays Center that included a performance by Fat Joe and Remy Ma. Lil Mama came out and surprised everyone. Ellie came onstage and did the Ellie Stomp.
Clarke: Elephants are strong and resilient. Elephants are matriarchal. Elephants have remarkable memories, and we didn’t want to forget where we came from.
