I remember a time before my teenage years when the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition was the hottest thing you could grab every year. My experience is the perspective as a millennial growing up and defined by the dot com era and the social media influx. Truly, we are the last hybrid analog/digital generation that will remember a time before modems conversing with one another in chirps and hisses. I recall, with zero nostalgia, lots of coverage of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition and behind-the-scenes videos on evening news coverage. In the 90s, it brought in views for the show. The images would then be leaked online — which has been the case since the early web. It would negate any reason why people would even bother to purchase the magazine. Some of the images were put online for promotional reasons and at other times, it was because of the models using it to promote themselves. In 2024, we’re beyond the stage of images being leaked on forums — instead, they’re all over social media. Therefore, the images aren’t even stolen because the copyrights are surrendered. But perhaps more than anything, I don’t understand why the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition still exists.
