January 17, 2022
Ohio State Men’s Basketball Players Launch Their Own Merch Line
Each player will benefit equally from the profits. The collection highlights the growing number of opportunities in the name, image and likeness (NIL) market for promotional products distributors.
The Ohio State University men’s basketball team is on an entrepreneurial adventure centered on branded merchandise.
Taking advantage of a ruling that came down last year that enables collegiate athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL), the Buckeyes b-ball players have collaborated to launch a line of branded apparel called “Players Edition.”
The Players Edition 123 Red Hoodie is available here as part of the Players Edition collection.
Each member of the team will receive an equal share of the profits from sales of the sweatshirts and T-shirts. Ohio State University will not benefit financially from the collection as the products do not bear university trademarks, player Jimmy Sotos, who helped spearhead the merch initiative, told The Columbus Dispatch.
It’s possible the collection is a first in the new world of merchandise-driven NIL initiatives.
“We felt like it could be super fun for all of us to be part of something together, and it was also an opportunity to make a historic moment,” Sotos told the Dispatch. “No team in college basketball is doing a team merchandise deal like this where everybody’s sharing money and everything coming our way right now. We wanted to pioneer this.”
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The collection again highlights the growing number of opportunities in the NIL market for promotional products distributors. Promo products firms can potentially partner directly with collegiate athletes on merch collections or work with talent agencies whose focus includes NIL, providing design and/or fulfillment work on custom-branded apparel, hard goods and more.
The Players Edition line has apparel in three traditional Ohio State colors – red, black and gray. There are two hoodies and three tees. Each piece features the words “Players Edition” and the graphic of a basketball with the number “123” – a reference to the fact that this year’s team is the 123rd men’s basketball team in Ohio State’s history.
The players collaborated with NILManagement, a Columbus, OH-based talent agency specializing in NIL initiatives, to create the line. The collection reportedly took months to come to fruition as issues related to legal/trademark, design and logistics were addressed.
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