Colorado's Shedeur Sanders headlines Urban Outfitters' NIL campaign

Before Shedeur Sanders took the college football world by storm the last couple of weeks, the Colorado quarterback used NIL to give back to his teammates.

Through a nationwide campaign with Urban Outfitters, he took 10 teammates shopping at the brand’s Boulder location. Since then, he’s thrown for more than 900 yards and seven total touchdowns with no interceptions.

Sanders wasn’t the only college football star to treat his friends to an afternoon at the lifestyle retail chain. Three other quarterbacks participated in the campaign: LSU’s Jayden Daniels, Penn State’s Drew Allar and UCLA’s Chase Griffin. Facilitated by the sports marketing agency Postgame, more than 100 athletes promoted the brand ranging from college football to basketball and track and field. Athletes earned different levels of compensation based on factors such as the size of their social media followings and their engagement rates.

This is the third time Urban Outfitters invested in the NIL space. It’s the company’s biggest investment yet, with a commitment to identifying highly marketable athletes in markets that have an Urban Outfitters location.

“We did a big back-to-school activation last year, featuring Cameron Brink and DeMarvion Overshown,” Postgame’s Director of Athlete Relations Aaron Hackett told On3. “Obviously, we did the March Madness campaign that featured some of the top basketball players in the country. And then this last go around, back to school, definitely expanded the list of more athletes and some higher-profile guys as well.

“I think the way Urban’s gone about it in being strategic about what stores are close to college campuses and specifically targeting those to get highly-recognized athletes not only to post about Urban Outfitters and promote it but also to get them in the store and do live activations, has been really powerful.”

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Shedeur Sanders, Texas athletes activate in-store

For Sanders’ work with Urban Outfitters, Postgame traveled to Boulder to capture the day. The quarterback included teammates Xavier Weaver, Alton McCaskill, Jimmy Horn Jr., Jordan Domineck, Jeremiah Brown, Isaiah Hardge, Assad Waseem, Omarion Miller, Javon Antonio and Adam Hopkins in the NIL activation.

A video released on Instagram showed all the athletes in-store, trying on outfits and hanging out. For brands like Urban Outfitters, having multiple members of the Colorado football team at a store can help foot traffic. It’s also a valuable deal for Sanders, who is able to give back to his teammates.

The in-store activation wasn’t limited to Colorado. A similar promotion was launched at Texas, with a group of football players. But because of that, roughly 35 athletes made an appearance at Urban Outfitters in Austin during the day.

“I think it’s a top of the funnel, just overall branding with Gen Z and using guys like Shedeur Sanders to do that,” Postgame founder Bill Jula said when asked about Urban Outfitters’ investment. “But as far as the ROI, the measurable stuff, I mean, there is some of that, too. We’ve done a couple of in-store activations with them. We did one at the University of Texas featuring Jordan Whittington and about three or four other football guys. I think about 35 other University of Texas athletes showed up that day, and Urban saw a significant uptick in sales that day at that location.

“Now that they’ve seen that, they want to kind of rinse and repeat on that a few times and promote. I think there’s another one we have coming up. As far as like in-store activation stuff, they clearly saw the results from that Texas one.”

It’s a full-scale approach, as other athletes tapped for the campaign were responsible for posting on social media. Those players included:

• Victoria Nguyen – Florida Gymnastics
• Ashley McElmurry – Nebraska Track & Field
• Jayda Noble – Washington Women’s Basketball
• Kowacie Reeves – Georgia Tech Men’s basketball
• Emily Bessoir – UCLA Women’s basketball
• Jaidyn Raby – Rutgers Gymnastics
• Lamonica Plater – Grambling State Basketball 

Shedeur Sanders’ On3 NIL Valuation

After starring at Jackson State the last two seasons, the biggest question was how would Sanders handle the jump to the Power Five. After two weeks, it’s clear Deion Sanders’ son was ready to compete.

The on-field performances have in major NIL returns. Sanders has seen his On3 NIL Valuation jump $2.8 million in the last 10 weeks bringing it to $4.1 million. In this past week alone, his valuation spiked by $292,000. He holds the highest-ranked valuation in college football, too, with more than 1.5 million followers on social media.

Sanders has been cashing in on NIL since 2021. Working closely with SMAC Entertainment and Constance Schwartz-Morini, he’s signed with Gatorade, launched his own barbecue sauce, been tabbed as the BRADY brand’s long-term ambassador and promoted Mercedes Benz. 

Most recently, he was named to the “Beats Elite” class along with 14 other college football players. The athletes will be featured across various marketing campaigns and wear custom Beats products.