{{Infobox magazine |title = Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue |logo = SportsIllustrated.svg |editor = M. J. Day |image_file = First SI Swimsuit Issue.jpg |image_caption = The first swimsuit issue cover in 1964 |frequency = Yearly |category = Magazine |company = Sports Illustrated (Authentic Brands Group) |firstdate = January 20, 1964 |country = United States |language = English |website = |italic title = no }} The 'Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue' is published annually by American magazine Sports Illustrated and features female fashion models, celebrities and athletes wearing swimwear in various locales around the world. The highly coveted cover photograph has been considered as the arbiter of supermodel succession. The issue carries advertising that, in 2005, amounted to in value. First published in 1964, it is credited with making the bikini, invented in 1946, a legitimate piece of apparel. Since 1964, the issue had been published every February, but starting in 2019, the issue was made available in May. History The swimsuit issue was invented by Sports Illustrated editor Andre Laguerre to fill the winter months, a typically slow point in the sporting calendar. He asked fashion reporter Jule Campbell to go on a shoot to fill space, including the cover, with a beautiful model. The first issue, released in 1964, entailed a cover featuring Babette March and a five-page layout. Campbell soon became a powerful figure in modeling and molded the issue into a media phenomenon by featuring "bigger and healthier" California women and printing the names of the models with their photos, beginning a new supermodel era. In the 1950s, a few women appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, but the 1964 issue is considered to be the beginning of the current format known as the Swimsuit Issue. The issue that got the most letters was the 1978 edition. In 1997, Tyra Banks was the first black woman on the cover. Since 1997, the swimsuit issue has been a stand-alone edition, separate from the regular weekly magazine. Its best selling issue was the 25th Anniversary Issue with Kathy Ireland on the cover in 1989. Through the years, many models, such as Cheryl Tiegs, Christie Brinkley, Paulina Porizkova, Elle Macpherson, Rachel Hunter, Rebecca Romijn, Petra Nemcova, Valeria Mazza, Heidi Klum, Tyra Banks, Marisa Miller and Irina Shayk have been featured on the cover. Other models within its pages, but not on its cover, include Cindy Crawford, Stephanie Seymour, Niki Taylor, Angie