Marvin Harrison Jr. raises $5.1K for Nationwide Children’s with 7-Eleven custom cleats

A year ago, Marvin Harrison Jr. burst onto the college football scene as the nation’s most talented wide receiver.

The Ohio State star seemed to make NFL-level catches on nearly every play, whether it was jolting himself in the air to make an acrobatic grab or making a sideline catch in tight coverage. He was a big reason why the Buckeyes finished No. 2 in the country in total offense.

A season later, his stardom has only grown. While his former high school teammate Kyle McCord has settled into the starting quarterback role, Harrison has emerged as a name to watch in the Heisman race. At times, he’s almost willed together touchdown drives for Ohio State. He’s posted four consecutive 100-yard receiving games, the first time in his prolific Buckeyes career.

He’s also the latest athlete to use his NIL platform for good.

Harrison receiver inked an NIL deal with 7-Eleven in September, joining the nationwide chain’s first marketing campaign with college athletes. As part of the agreement, he joined eight other college football players in 7-Eleven’s inaugural “Cleat Crew” program.

Harrison teamed up with luxury designer The Shoe Surgeon to create his own individual pair of custom cleats, which were scarlet, black and white Nikes. One of the most unique parts of the shoe was a shadow of Harrison on the bottom of the cleat making one of his most memorable touchdown catches.

The final bid on his cleats was $5,100, the highest-grossing auction yet in 7-Eleven’s Cleat Crew campaign. Proceeds from Harrison’s cleats are going to the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, a Children’s Miracle Network Hospital.

7-Eleven’s Cleat Crew raises over $12K

Some of college football’s top stars have set up nonprofits to give back. But the 7-Eleven campaign is one of the first to operate at such a large scale, signing NIL deals with some of the sport’s top names while working to do good in the community.

While the Ohio State wide receiver has generated the highest donation yet, six cleats were auctioned off with $12,470 being raised through the initiative. Bo Nix, Travis Hunter, Quinn Ewers, Dorian Singer and Trevor Etienne have all participated.

Boston College’s Kameron Arnold, Penn State’s Nick Singleton and Michigan’s Blake Corum will all have cleats auctioned over the next few weeks.

Marvin Harrison Jr.’s growing NIL brand

The son of NFL Hall of Famer Marvin Harrison has publicly announced more than 10 endorsement contracts with brands and collectives since March, while also launching a memorabilia collection.

Harrison’s name has already been tossed around as the potential No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL draft. His top NIL deals include a partnership with Mark Wahlberg Chevrolet of Columbus, joining the Zoa Energy Drink marketing campaign, a one-off agreement with Dr Teal’s and being featured on a bag of Grippo’s Chips.

With the Buckeyes debuting at No. 1 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings, more and more brands will want to work with the most marketable athlete on Ohio State’s roster. His Heisman odds have jumped from +1800 to +1300 this week, only bringing more attention. The receiver has 48 catches for 889 yards and eight touchdowns this season.

Marvin Harrison Jr. has a $1.2 million On3 NIL Valuation, which ranks No. 12 in college football and No. 16 in the On3 NIL 100, the first of its kind and defacto NIL ranking of the top 100 high school and college athletes ranked by their On3 NIL Valuation. He’s amassed more than 500,000 social media followers.

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. The On3 NIL Valuation calculates the optimized NIL opportunity for athletes relative to the overall NIL market and projects out to as long as 12 months into the future.