Former South Carolina star A'ja Wilson lands groundbreaking promotion deal
WNBA star, Olympic gold medalist and former NCAA champion A’Ja Wilson has become the first female athlete to sign a promotional deal with Ruffles. Wilson, a former three-time SEC Player of the Year at South Carolina, signed a deal with Ruffles chips to be featured on one of their products — the first woman to receive such a deal with the company.
A’ja Wilson signs Ruffles deal
The Las Vegas Aces superstar is one of the best players in basketball, and her success has opened a door of opportunity with her newest national promotion. She joins the ranks of fellow basketball stars LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Jayson Tatum as basketball players to recently partner with Ruffles.
Ruffles showed off the look of Wilson’s flavor of chips that she will appear on, a ‘Smoky BBQ’ flavor of their Ridge Twists. According to the announcement, there will also be a second flavor bearing Wilson’s appearance on the front of the bag in the future. Neither flavor had a release date at the time of the announcement.
Wilson’s star has been bright ever since she stormed onto the scene at South Carolina, winning a national title with the Gamecocks in 2017. After being named SEC Player of the Year for three-straight seasons from 2016-18, Wilson became the first-overall pick of the 2018 WNBA Draft.
She has added plenty of hardware to her trophy case at the professional level, including a gold medal at the 2020 Olympic Games and the 2020 WNBA MVP award. Wilson was named WNBA Rookie of the Year in 2018, and has made four-straight All-Star appearances — excluding the shortened 2020 WNBA season.
Wilson’s former coach, South Carolina’s Dawn Staley, reached out to congratulate her major deal and praised the rise of female athletes on the national stage with deals like Wilson’s. Staley also took the chance to ask for Wilson to give her the hookup with her new chip partnership.
“This is a narrative that speaks to me … good looking RUFFLES! Ayyyee yooo MVP [A’Ja Wilson] ruffle me up!!”
Wilson responded with some love of her own, telling Staley that hers was on the way.