As March Madness Looms, Women are Running the NIL Game |
As March Madness kicks off this week, a season-long trend is now proving to be truer than ever — women run NIL shoe deals. After beginning the season with nine women signed to an official NIL shoe deal, that number has now ballooned to 14 across a batch of nine brands.
Just last week, MiLaysia Fulwiley signed on with Curry Brand. She’s expected to headline several of the brand’s upcoming sneakers at Under Armour-sponsored South Carolina, where the freelancing flashy freshman guard has been a highlight mainstay for the undefeated #1 seeded squad.
“I think her style of play is changing the women’s game on the fly. It’s super unique and creative,” said Curry. “We are thrilled to welcome her into the family.” |
MiLaysia Fulwiley attended Curry Camp in 2022; now she’s signed on with Curry Brand. |
Adidas also landed UConn star Aaliyah Edwards and Texas A&M’s Janiah Baker, bringing their total female NIL signings to three, along with LSU’s Hailey Van Lith. (And there’s yet another signing at the 1-yard line, expected to be announced in the near future. Follow me on social media and tune into Boardroom for the latest.)
Since the newly approved NIL rules went into effect during the summer of 2021, the early trend started to emerge over this past season, as women have become the leading faces of brands. Many of them are featured throughout marketing campaigns before even entering the WNBA.
Currently, just three male collegiate players are signed to a NIL shoe deal. Adidas signed Louisville guard Skyy Clark to a deal this past December, while Nike went into the season with two NIL shoe deals already in place, both with family hoop ties. Kentucky guard DJ Wagner’s pro pops, Dajuan, also played for Coach Cal some 20 years ago, while USC guard Bronny James is, of course, the son of Nike lifer LeBron James.
In many cases, the women signed to deals marked a brand’s very first NIL signing of this new era. That was the case when UCLA guard Kiki Rice signed with Jordan and when Azzi Fudd signed an all-inclusive NIL partnership with Stephen Curry’s umbrella company Thirty Ink and by extension, his Curry Brand athletic apparel imprint.
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Nike launched two Caitlin Clark banners in Iowa City after she set the NCAA scoring record. |
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Caitlin Clark has led the way in what it means to put your state on the map while also regularly appearing in seasonal Swoosh campaigns for products like its Tech Fleece apparel.
Just after she broke the women’s all-time scoring record, Nike dropped a seven-story tall banner in Iowa City of her 35-foot 3-point record-setting heave. The following week, when she broke “Pistol” Pete Maravich’s scoring tally to become the all-time scoring leader in men’s or women’s Division 1 basketball, there was a new banner billboard just across the street. When New Balance signed Stanford star center Cameron Brink to a NIL deal, she became the first woman signed to the brand’s basketball category in company history.
"I think that really shows that in college women’s basketball, we have personalities, and people are invested in us,” Brink told Boardroom. “We can tell a story with our play, but we are also team players, the face of our universities, and we give back to our communities. That’s what these shoe brands have seen in us.”
Reebok signed LSU star Angel Reese, with the framing that it was the first move made by its newly appointed President of Reebok Basketball, Shaquille O’Neal.
“There is no one making a bigger impact on the game right now than Angel Reese,” Shaq said during the announcement.
Even upstart basketball brands like Moolah Kicks and Crossover Culture have landed their own headlining NIL ambassador in the college ranks, with UConn’s Caroline Ducharme signing with Moolah to push their latest ProVolt model and Ohio State standout point guard Jacy Sheldon being the lone woman signed to Crossover Culture ahead of their latest collection launching at Dick’s Sporting Goods in April. When each company has unveiled its new featured faces over the past year, they highlighted messaging and talking points like “growing the game” and “inspiring the next generation of young girls.”
The impact has been immediate, as the halo of deals has raised the awareness level and star power of the top college players to a broader and growing basketball fanbase.
“I keep seeing videos of people saying, ‘I can name five women’s basketball players in college, but not men,’” said Brink. “I just think that’s so funny and such a crazy shift.”
While more than half of the players hold school-conflicting deals – like all three of Reese, Flau’jae Johnson, and Van Lith at Nike-sponsored LSU – there is a case to be made that the players are actually more noticeable as endorsers, given their ability to be more active across social media and the brand holding the incentive to highlight them more often in campaigns and social posts to establish the partnership.
The brand-aligning NIL players at UConn, USC, and UCLA have largely worn school player-exclusive sneakers or older Kobe models that fans simply don’t have access to either – perhaps a miss to more fully activate the on-court potential of the partnership with sneakers fans can readily purchase. |
New Balance launched a billboard in Portland featuring Cameron Brink’s announcement photo. |
While she wears white Nike shoes in her Stanford games, one of the more active brand partners so far has been Cameron Brink. After being featured in last summer’s national “We Got Now” commercial, she was featured in New Balance’s “Unity for Sport” women’s campaign.
Brink has also held youth basketball camps with New Balance for young girls in her hometown of Portland, representing how brands look to activate their partnerships on both a local, national, and ultimately global level. The company also dropped a towering billboard in downtown Portland, which her parents drove by and posted on social media the very day it went up.
"I was emotional, seeing my parents drive up and standing in front of [the billboard] with my grandma,” reflects Brink. “I have that photo on my lock screen. It’s super important to me.” |
USC’s freshman phenom Juju Watkins, already signed to Nike, could be the breakout star of March Madness.
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As the tournament kicks off this week, brand headliners across three of the top-seeded squads in Iowa’s Clark, South Carolina’s Fulwiley, and USC’s Juju Watkins will all be looking to make their mark in March Madness.
Through the 14 NIL shoe deals landed across the college landscape, the leading women of the NCAA are already leaving their imprint on the athletic industry, establishing a new generation of female dominance in the endorsement space that I don’t see shifting any time soon. |
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NIKE: Caitlin Clark - Iowa Paige Bueckers - UConn Juju Watkins - USC JORDAN: Kiki Rice - UCLA REEBOK: Angel Reese - LSU |
| PUMA: Flau’jae Johnson - LSU ADIDAS: Hailey Van Lith - LSU Aliyah Edwards - UConn Janiah Baker - Texas A&M NEW BALANCE:
Cameron Brink - Stanford |
| CURRY BRAND: Azzi Fudd - UConn MiLaysia Fulwiley - South Carolina MOOLAH KICKS: Caroline Ducharme - UConn CROSSOVER CULTURE: Jacy Sheldon - Ohio State |
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NIKE: Caitlin Clark - Iowa Paige Bueckers - UConn Juju Watkins - USC JORDAN: Kiki Rice - UCLA REEBOK: Angel Reese - LSU PUMA: Flau’jae Johnson - LSU ADIDAS: Hailey Van Lith - LSU Aliyah Edwards - UConn Janiah Baker - Texas A&M |
| NEW BALANCE: Cameron Brink - Stanford CURRY BRAND: Azzi Fudd - UConn MiLaysia Fulwiley - South Carolina MOOLAH KICKS: Caroline Ducharme - UConn CROSSOVER CULTURE: Jacy Sheldon - Ohio State |
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Including the tourney’s First Four opening games, the field of 68 schools for the men’s March Madness tournament is shaping up to be dominated by Nike and its subsidiary Jordan Brand. The company will boast 42 teams donning either its Swoosh or Jumpman logos across uniforms, including all four No. 1 seeds – both UConn and Purdue wear Nike, while North Carolina and Houston are sponsored by Jordan.
The other two companies to feature schools in the tournament are Under Armour and Adidas. UA is now elevating to 17 teams this season, a nice upswing from its 11 programs in last year’s tournament. Adidas is experiencing a bit of a dip year, dropping to just nine teams in this year’s bracket. On the women’s side of March Madness, Nike is also the leading sponsor, with 35 colleges set to don the Swoosh, including three of the four No. 1-seeded teams in USC, Iowa, and Texas. Its Jordan Brand will be worn by six schools, including No. 2 seed UCLA.
Adidas tallies 17 total schools, while Under Armour will feature nine programs in the tournament. After winning the America East Conference championship, the University of Maine will be the lone representative for New Balance. While the “NB” logo appears on jerseys and the company has donated millions toward the New Balance Student Rec Center on campus, Bears players have been wearing footwear from multiple brands.
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While National Cheese Pizza Day and National Coffee Day are awesome fake holidays, my longtime favorite faux fixture has been Air Max Day, launched by Nike as a good old-fashioned marketing campaign spectacle a decade ago in 2014. With the annual celebration taking place on the date of the iconic running shoe’s original release date in 1987, Nike is now launching a new royal blue and neon colorway that honors the original red and neon pair that was released 10 years ago on the first Air Max Day.
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Nike Air Max 1 “Air Max Day”
3/26 on nike.com |
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To celebrate Kyrie Irving’s birthday, Anta is launching the first colorway of his first signature shoe at additional online retailers, in the purple-based “Artist on Court” design that has already been released in select US cities like Dallas, New York, and San Francisco.
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A clean white shoe would be too simple for LaMelo Ball, who turns up this springtime launch of his latest Puma signature shoe with an iridescent sheen upper and ice blue accents throughout.
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Puma MB.03 “Iridescent”
3/28 on puma.com |
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