Iowa women's basketball star Caitlin Clark to launch cereal at Hy-Vee through NIL deal

What do Caitlin Clark, Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce have in common outside of being stars in their respective sports?

All three appear on cereal boxes thanks to partnerships with Hy-Vee.

Clark – the superstar women’s basketball player for the Iowa Hawkeyes – launches Caitlin’s Crunch Time, a new sugar-frosted flakes cereal on Jan. 11 with the Midwest grocery giant.

Hy-Vee dominates the grocery market in Iowa, Missouri and Kansas. It previously produced Mahomes Magic Crunch with the Chiefs star signal-caller. It’s also released Kelce’s Krunch in association with the future Hall of Fame tight end (aka Taylor Swift’s boyfriend).

Outside of passing the taste test with fans, what also makes the Hy-Vee cereal deals outstanding is that proceeds go to support the charities the star athletes are involved with. Mahomes’ cereal – which sold more than 300,000 boxes in 2020 – supported the 15 and the Mahomies Foundation. Kelce’s cereal sales helped the 87 & Running Foundation.

All proceeds from Clark’s cereal benefit the Caitlin Clark Foundation.

The cereal is a continuation of Clark’s NIL partnership with Hy-Vee. She has a longstanding relationship with the grocery chain, going back to October 2021. Clark is represented in NIL deals by Excel Sports Management.

“This a stroke of genius,” an NIL agent told On3. “It’s a unique product that will be in front of her audience in Iowa and in the Midwest – at the perfect time, too. It further strengthens Caitlin’s brand. By giving sales to her foundation, it also connects her even more with the community that loves her.”

Crunch Time 🔥🚨  Catch me on select @HyVee shelves on January 11th.
All proceeds will benefit the Caitlin Clark Foundation 🫶🏻 pic.twitter.com/jGJ060d5oP

— Caitlin Clark (@CaitlinClark22) January 8, 2024

About the Caitlin Clark Foundation

As part of the sales at Hy-Vee, Hawkeye fans have a chance to win an autographed Caitlin Clark basketball, as winning cards will be placed in select boxes.

The Caitlin Clark Foundation aims to “uplift and improve the lives of youth and their communities through education, nutrition and sport.”

According to its website, the foundation has already raised $13,000 worth of sports equipment for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Iowa and more than $77,000 for the Coralville Community Food Pantry in 2023.

Caitlin Clark continues to win in NIL

Clark is Iowa’s leading scorer and fifth on the all-time NCAA women’s basketball scoring list. She also became the first player in NCAA tournament history to record back-to-back 40-point games in last year’s tournament. So far this season she’s averaging 31.5 points.

Clark, who also has NIL deals with State Farm, Buick, Nike and others, has seen her social media following take off since last spring’s Final Four. After averaging 27.8 points last year, she now has more than 1.1 million followers.

She signed with Nike in October as an obvious long-term play for the sportswear brand. The brand launched name and number tees and sweatshirts for the Iowa guard ahead of the NCAA tourney, one of the first moves by Nike to monetize her NIL outside of social media posts. She recently appeared in promotional material for the brand’s Nike Tech merchandise. Nike is also a sponsor of the WNBA.

Clark also generated national NIL headlines in December when she inked an NIL deal with Gatorade. She was just the second collegiate basketball player to do so. As part of the deal, Gatorade donated $22,000 to the Caitlin Clark Foundation.

Caitlin Clark’s On3 NIL Valuation is now up to $794,000, a significant jump from last season. The valuation is No. 53 in the On3 NIL 100, which is the first of its kind and defacto NIL ranking of the top 100 high school and college athletes ranked by their On3 NIL Valuation.