Missouri's Luther Burden releases T-shirt with Charlie Hustle

Luther Burden has positioned himself as a strong candidate for the Biletnikoff Award.

The Mizzou wide receiver enters Saturday ranked first in the nation in receptions and receiving yards. He’s averaging nearly 15 years per catch, with five touchdowns. Through seven games this year, he’s clearly one of the nation’s top receivers.

While the sophomore has done everything on the field, he’s been able to capitalize off the field thanks to NIL. Now the St. Louis native has his own T-shirt with Charlie Hustle. A Kansas City-based clothing company, the black tee features an illustration of Burden in his uniform with “Flex Luther” written across the shirt. It’s an ode to the receiver’s touchdown celebration.

Facilitated through The BrandR Group, the T-shirt is now available online and priced at $36. Charlie Hustle has become a notable player in the NIL space, executing a number of deals with top athletes around the Midwest, including former Kansas State running back Deuce Vaughn. Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels also released a T-shirt with Charlie Hustle last season.

Burden will receive a portion of the sales from his T-shirt on top of his NIL agreement with Charlie Hustle. It’s a win-win for the brand and athlete.

Charlie Hustle does partnerships smartly

NIL deals are an important part of Charlie Hustle’s business, providing a way to boost companies that don’t have the same massive operations as Fanatics and others in the college sports apparel industry.

“We can’t afford to just go through and fund all the big stars,” Charlie Hustle CEO Greg Moore previously told On3. “So, let’s be smart about it.”

The company initially struck NIL deals in 2021 with KU basketball stars Mitch Lightfootand Ochai Agbaji. The deals made sense because of KU basketball’s massive fan base in the Kansas City area. Sales went well, but more importantly, Moore said Charlie Hustle as a company saw a way that NIL could help insert their business in college communities across the region.

“It’s the influence,” Moore said. “When you look at a company like ours, we’re great because of the KC Heart T-shirts, so now we’re embedded in the community.

“We asked ourselves, ‘How do you embed yourself in Ames, Iowa? In Columbia, Missouri? In Manhattan, Kansas? The stars are the student-athletes walking around. Ochai and Mitch gave us that first real case study. It showed that something is here, and we need to go into this.”

Luther Burden’s budding NIL brand

The Charlie Hustle partnership marks the latest NIL deal for the former Five-Star Plus+ recruit. Burden agreed to a partnership with Commerce Bank back in July. He also has inked endorsement deals with a Missouri potato chip company and Imo’s Pizza, the iconic St. Louis pizza destination. He also signed with Every True Tiger Foundation.

Entering Saturday’s game with Kentucky, Luther Burden has more than 75,000 social media followers. That number is just continuing to climb, too. He also has an On3 NIL Valuation of $679,000. The valuation ranks No. 59 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. The valuation also ranks No. 44 in college football.

With at least another year before he can enter the NFL draft, plenty of opportunities will be headed in the direction of the Mizzou receiver.

The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets the standard market NIL value for high school and college athletes. A proprietary algorithm, the On3 NIL Valuation calculates an athlete’s NIL value using dynamic data points targeting three primary categories: performance, influence and exposure.

About On3 NIL Valuation, Brand Value, Roster Value

While the algorithm includes deal data, it does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals athletes have completed to date, nor does it set an athlete’s NIL valuation for their entire career. Furthermore, the On3 NIL Valuation accounts for an athlete’s roster value and brand value. Roster value is the value an athlete has by being a member of his or her team at his or her school, which factors into the role of NIL collectives. Brand value factors in an athlete’s personal brand and the value it could bring to regional and national brands outside of the scope of NIL collectives.