CHICAGO – Campus Ink has announced a partnership activation with Meta to support top college athletes in the country in debuting their latest custom merch drop on Instagram.
On Instagram across content like Reels, athletes will have the opportunity to make their posts shoppable right within the app in just a few taps.
Among the athletes included in the activation are Flau’jae Johnson (LSU women’s basketball), Emily Cole (Duke cross country/track & field), Sydney Stephens (Illinois soccer), Mac Crone (Alabama soccer), Corey Friedenbach (San Diego State track & field), Skyy Clark (Illinois men’s basketball), Kamani Johnson (Arkansas men’s basketball), Cam Thompson (Purdue baseball), Jake Grandison (Duke men’s basketball) and Caleb Murphy (DePaul men’s basketball).
“We are thrilled to partner with Meta and provide this outstanding opportunity to our athletes,” said Steven Farag, Co-Owner and CEO of Campus Ink. “We believe retail is about more than just selling a shirt. It’s about telling a story and creating an emotional connection with an audience. Meta provides immeasurable resources for our athletes to be their own entrepreneurs, while enhancing the shopping experience of their purchasers from discovery to sale.”
The athletes’ custom merchandise varies across the entire spectrum from retro to modern looks, and further expands for some into messages centered away from their specific sport.
Duke’s Emily Cole, simply features the message “Salty,” as a nod to her personal battle with nutrition, when she fell into a two-day coma from not having enough salt in her diet.
Cole has recently published her first book, The Players’ Plate, to help other athletes with their nutritional journey.
Also included in the activation is Illinois soccer’s Sydney Stephens, who first launched her personal brand, MVND BVND, in the spring of 2022 and has continued to build it through merchandise drops and social activations.
Stephens committed to play soccer at the University of Georgia early in her high school career, but was met with recurring traumatic experiences throughout her freshman year. Stephens took control of her personal journey and transferred to Illinois, where she has been able to rehabilitate her mental and physical well-being.
According to Stephens, “MVND BVND simply exists to empower young people. I want people to look at this brand and change their perspective – or ‘bend their mind’ – on the way we look at societal standards.”
The activation is expected to launch on Cyber Monday, Nov. 28, and continue through the first week of December.
ABOUT CAMPUS INK
Backed by Mark Cuban, Campus Ink expanded into the Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) space in 2021 and launched the NIL Store, which serves as a merchandising solution for student-athletes and schools. On Nov. 3, 2021, Campus Ink announced a $2 million fundraising round to expand its NIL program. The NIL Store operates with the firm belief that every student-athlete of every sport has an opportunity to capitalize on their NIL. Campus Ink was founded in 1947 on the campus of the University of Illinois and was reimagined in 2015 with an office in downtown Chicago and a production facility in Urbana, Ill., where the company handles all of its own production and fulfillment.
