Adidas announces sweeping new NIL opportunity to become brand ambassadors

Adidas has opened the door to a new era of NIL. The gigantic athletic brand has created a sweeping new NIL opportunity, where thousands of athletes across a bevy of sports and schools can become paid Adidas brand ambassadors.

“BREAKING: Adidas is opening its NIL network to every college athlete at an Adidas-partnered NCAA DI university,” tweeted Front Office Sports. “The wide-sweeping NIL network is the first among major sports brands. More than 50,000 athletes across 23 sports and 109 schools can become paid Adidas ambassadors.”

Moreover, Elizabeth Swinton of Sports Illustrated detailed the campaign Adidas is embarking on.

“The initiative is the latest chapter of Adidas’s ‘Impossible Is Nothing’ campaign, which promotes the brand’s goal of creating a more equitable and inclusive future in sports,” wrote Swinton. “To start, athletes will have the chance to profit through commission links, but Adidas plans to also offer elevated opportunities at a brand partnership and entrepreneurial level.”

Continuing, Adidas NCAA program lead Jim Murphy told Sports Illustrated in a statement that the goal is to help student-athletes unlock a brighter future beyond college sports.

“We hope to uplift student-athletes by providing educational opportunities to learn more about the NIL and business landscape, which may include bringing them into brand moments and campaigns, partnerships with existing brand athlete partners and ambassadors,” Murphy told Sports Illustrated. “But really we want to open the doors to a more equitable future outside of just unlocking monetary rewards. We want to help them grow as student-athletes and set them up for a future beyond college sports.”

According to Sports Illustrated, the idea was born out of the will of Adidas to impact as many people as possible through NIL, while also bringing a thoughtful, deliberate approach to the table.

“We started to think about how we could do something on a larger scale outside of just individual endorsement deals,” Murphy told Sports Illustrated. “When we really looked across NIL and we grounded it in our mission statement that through sport, we have the power to change lives, I think that’s where we really started to grasp the idea.”

Adidas revealed the landmark program will begin in phases over the next 12 months. First, the company will start with historically Black colleges and universities and their Power Five conference partners this fall, then expanding to other schools by April 2023.

However, Adidas did not reveal what the compensation would be for student-athletes if they participated in the program. Participating student athletes will being by being paid a percentage of the sales they drive to the company’s website and adidas app, in addition to the ability to be paid per social media post.

As you can see, Adidas is changing the NIL game. Time will tell how long it takes for other gigantic brands to join them.