NIL NETWORK INSIGHT
Recap: Chloe Mitchell, a freshman at an NAIA school, is one of the first collegiate athletes to monetize their NIL. Mitchell has a massive TikTok following (2.6 million) and is known as the “She Shed” maven. She is also a co-founder of a new NIL platform called Playbooked.
Observations: While Mitchell may have been approved via the waiver process to continue her non-athletic related endeavors, the new NIL rules allowed her to bypass this step. It will be interesting to see if any of Mitchell’s future partnerships are related to her volleyball career or if they remain separate.
Athlete Tips & Takeaways:
- Mitchell utilization of her NIL is completely separate from her sport. For smaller programs or niche sport athletes, this may be commonplace with the new rules.
The future is here. Chloe Mitchell, a freshman volleyball player at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, this week became one of the first collegiate athletes to create, post, and monetize her brand on social media.
In October 2020, the NAIA began allowing athletes to capitalize in the emerging market for college athletes on names, images and likenesses. Mitchell is already a seasoned veteran of social media with 2.6 million followers on Tik Tok, 26,000 followers on Instagram, and 5,400 fans on YouTube. Known as the “She Shed” maven, she has also co-founded the NIL platform Playbooked, in which she launched her first promotion, called D.I.Y.-A Gift for Dad. In the video, she promotes two different kinds of golf putters that her company has partnered with. Bundling her skills through creating new environments, she “activates” the golf partnership by designing an in-home miniature golf course.
PlayBooked’s board of advisors include NBA veteran Anthony Tolliver (Creighton University), Super Bowl Champion Walter Thurmond III (Oregon), Avery Johnson Jr. (Alabama) from AJ Management, Quenton Brown (Central Florida University) of Brown Agency Group, retired Pro Volleyball Player Albert Hannemann (UCLA) and Greg Oden, former NBA #1 overall pick of 2007 (Ohio St.).
Mitchell represents a first step in demonstrating the potential for thousands of college athletes to reach a loyal audience cultivated through high school. With unique products and companies who seek out a specific demographic to grow their sales, Mitchell buoys her success via dedicated followings on three different social media platforms.
