For five years with the Indiana Fever, Lexie Hull has no problem proving herself with her lockdown defense. She fought with every breath during the practice season and delivered with the same energy when it was go-time. But no matter what she did, there was something that kept bothering her, and it wasn’t anything related to basketball.
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While she proved herself as a hustle player, her makeup couldn’t keep up with her workout and cardio burnout as a professional athlete. Finally, the Fever star took it upon herself to create a product for athletes and women with an active lifestyle. She launched her cosmetics brand FORTA earlier this year. Months later, she is reaching out to her audience with the latest collaboration with Austin Padel Center.
“We’re teaming up with @fortacosmetics and @studiothree for SET POINT POP-UP: an afternoon bringing together movement, beauty, and community,” Austin Padel Center announced. “Meet the founders behind FORTA, a performance makeup brand created for women with active lifestyles, and get to experience their products firsthand!”
The big announcement comes weeks after Hull and her Indiana Fever crashed out of the first round of the 2026 playoffs.
The event date is set for Nov. 7, 12-3 p.m. The activities at the event include paddling and Pilates sessions with Studio Three. There will be FORTA exclusive goodies giveaways and a photo booth. Tickets for the event start at $10.
Lexie Hull’s athletic lifestyle inspired her cosmetics business
Hull’s continued experiments and repeated failures with different products were perhaps the biggest inspiration for her to bring FORTA to reality. Hull has been an athlete from a very young age. In high school, then college, and now in the WNBA, Hull experimented with a lot of cosmetic products. But the traditional products were no help.
As we also reported last month, after heavy workouts, practices and games, Hull found her makeup sweated away. Hull wanted makeup that could survive her professional life and allow anyone who liked being active to do so without their beauty being compromised. Eventually, the Fever star found her own brand with Stanford roommate Sarah Guller.
“We wanted makeup that could actually keep up with those active lifestyles,” Hull told Sporting News. “Whether that was running errands, whether you’re a professional athlete like me and working very hard in workouts, or you just have long days and you’re running from business meeting to business meeting. You want to still feel beautiful and confident.”
Hull wanted to build the brand from the ground up, and wouldn’t endorse it until she was herself satisfied with the product. She told Sporting News that she tested nearly two dozen of FORTA’s first Setting Spray before approving it. For Hull, any product had to pass three questions.
“Can it survive a WNBA game for me?” Hull said. “Can it survive a busy workday for Sarah? And does it feel good on your skin while you’re wearing it?”
Since launching their performance cosmetics brand in March earlier this year, Hull and Guller have been actively trying to build its market base. On Wed., Oct. 28, the founders will land in New York for the Sport Beach Draft Day, which is a meeting point for business, sport, and culture. Co-founders of FORTA will pitch their venture at the event.
FORTA is more than a business venture for Lexie Hull
For professional athletes, their whole life becomes sports until retirement, and Lexie Hull’s life wasn’t any different. While running a new company hasn’t been an easy choice, FORTA has given Hull a life to invest in outside of basketball and keep her full-time job outside the door.
“Building FORTA has allowed me to come home and turn off the basketball side, but also release the creative juices that are built up that you don’t get to really experience on the basketball court,” Hull said in the same interview with Sporting News.
Running a business is a whole different ballgame for the Fever star. Unlike basketball, there is no final win or loss. It’s an everyday investment that would require her to make her peace with good and bad days. But it will give her something to give her full time when she retires.
In her 5th season with the Fever, Hull averaged 5.2 points and 3.0 rebounds while shooting 42.8% from the field and 33.7% from the 3-point line. Her scoring was the lowest in three years and in the Caitlin Clark era in Indiana.