Suni Lee inks NIL partnership with CLIF Bar & Company

Olympic gold medalist and current Auburn gymnast Suni Lee has added a landmark deal to her growing NIL portfolio.

CLIF Bar has scooped up the sophomore, signing her to a partnership where she will work with the nonprofit Voice In Sport (VIS) Foundation, which advocates for women in sport through research, education and advocacy.

It is hard to understate the clout Lee has built as a gymnast and off the floor in Name, Image and Likeness. Lee has inked deals recently with Amazon, Gatorade, Target and Invisalign. And she may be the most decorated collegiate athlete in the country.

Prior to arriving at Auburn for the 2022 season, she was a seven-time U.S. National Team member. Lee went on to have the most decorated year in Auburn gymnastics history in her first season, capturing eight All-America honors, one national championship, an SEC title and being named the SEC Freshman of the Year. 

Partnership with CLIF Corps, Voice In Sports

Run through the CLIF Corps, the employee-led community service program, Lee is the latest athlete to partner with the energy food company. CLIF Corps’ long-term goal is to achieve equity in the outdoors and sports. Lee joins a roster of CLIF athletes working to accomplish this including Venus Williams and Daniel Romanchuk.

“I’m honored to be part of CLIF CORPS and support the impactful work of the VOICEINSPORT Foundation,” Lee said in a statement. “This collaboration will help open doors to more young women from diverse sports backgrounds. That representation can instill confidence in girls and positively impact generations to come.

“I want every girl to turn on their television and see athletes that look like them. That starts with youth participation and continues with empowerment at all levels. This partnership will continue to build that representation and help girls strengthen their voice.”

As part of the agreement, CLIF is committing funds to the VIS Advocacy Program to assist in establishing 20 advocacy chapters and another 20 Title IX trainings on school campuses across the country. Each VIS chapter will also receive formal Title IX training to evaluate their schools compliance with the federal civil rights law.

The chapters will be set up across the country, including Auburn, as well as another near Lee’s hometown of Saint Paul. Others will include Twin Falls, Idaho, Indianapolis, Chicago and in the Bay Area, where CLIF is headquartered.

Suni Lee’s massive On3 NIL Valuation

Lee, who has a massive social media presence with more than 1.7 million followers on Instagram alone, has a $1.5 million On3 NIL Valuation. On top of her Instagram following, she has another 1.6 million on TikTok and 183,000 on Twitter. She has a per-post value projection of $21,000, too.

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.

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.

Her evaluation ranks No. 10 in the 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 sits at No. 2 in the college gymnastics NIL rankings.