2025 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Pinned

Starting a new thread for the 2025 year... kicking off with a couple new additions to this year's roster:

Cameron Brink: 2024 WNBA rookie

Toni Breidinger: NASCAR driver

I appreciate you starting this year's thread.

A couple years ago, someone said that the Instagram account for a certain swimwear company -- I think it was bikinilovers -- had taken the place of the swimsuit issue for him. It's easy to go down a rabbit hole -- browsing a bikini company's account will introduce you to models who have their own accounts, and from there you find swimsuit photographers who have their own accounts, etc, etc.

Now my Insta feed is an influx of hundreds of magnificent swimsuit photos that would make for some excellent SI issues, if SI was still into that kind of thing.

The irony is that, theoretically, the swimsuit designers on Instagram are trying to reach a female audience to purchase the suits, but they use some of the sexiest, male-gaze-pleasing babes-on-the-beach photos you'll see anywhere.

It just goes to show that sexy bikini pics are still out there. But the swimsuit issue isn't as interested in providing pure cheesecake anymore.

Which is fine. They chose a direction and a message, and I respect that. But I do miss the years when we would all gather here and count down the days/hours/minutes until the new photos dropped.

@Swimsuitologist Yeah, SI Swimsuit used to be comprised of predominantly sexy women with a little bit of DEI representation.  In recent years, it has become the opposite. 

It was good to see VS swing the pendulum back toward the other direction with their latest fashion show in Oct.  Hopefully, SI Swim follows suit.  So far, they have picked two good athletes with Cameron and Toni above.

My two cents: Within the next 5 years max, SI (and most brands) will swing back into the old standards. Why? Ozempic. Body positivity is very quickly going out of fashion, every other influencer, actress, singer and model that made a career out of the "I'm big and I love myself" crap has now magically gotten thin, and we all know it ain't diet and exercise and diet, as much as they are all lying through their teeth on social media. Just look at Lizzo and Barbie Ferreira these days.

South Park said best: Rich people get ozempic, poor people get body positivity. And this will cascade very fast into fashion and every other industry. I'm sure we'll continue to see diversity in terms of race, ethnicity, age, etc., but body diversity? That's gonna go away as quickly as it came.

40 minutes ago, Clauds said:

…Just look at Lizzo and Barbie Ferreira these days.

South Park said best: Rich people get ozempic, poor people get body positivity.

The irony is on that South Park episode, they mentioned for those who don’t want to take Ozempic but still want body positivity they could take “Lizzo”

Well, no more. The Lizzo of today is half the Lizzo she was when that episode dropped  

On 12/15/2024 at 10:43 AM, Clauds said:

My two cents: Within the next 5 years max, SI (and most brands) will swing back into the old standards. Why? Ozempic. Body positivity is very quickly going of fashion, every other influencer, actress, singer and model that made a career out of the "I'm big and I love myself" crap has now magically gotten thin, and we all know it ain't diet and exercise and diet, as much as they are all lying through their teeth on social media. Just look at Lizzo and Barbie Ferreira these days.

South Park said best: Rich people get ozempic, poor people get body positivity. And this will cascade very fast into fashion and every other industry. I'm sure we'll continue to see diversity in terms of race, ethnicity, age, etc., but body diversity? That's gonna go away as quickly as it came.

Everything that's old becomes new again at some point.  Movies, music, TV show, etc.  So perhaps there's hope. 

I can perhaps see baby steps being taken each year back to that. 

Question is, would MJ be on board with this? Ehh, we'll see.  Though I will say the selection of athletes for 2025 has been somewhat promising 

Looking forward to Cameron's shoot. 

 • Sports Illustrated Swimsuit

An epic end to an epic year. ✨ Happy Birthday @cameronbrink22 🫶