Paige Bueckers Continues To Blaze NIL Trails

UConn women’s basketball superstar Paige Bueckers has been making a name for herself since she was a young high school prospect. She started playing junior varsity basketball as a seventh grader and was the No. 1 overall recruit by the time she finished her prep career. She arrived at UConn with a lot of fanfare but it’s only gone up from there.

Bueckers signed as a name, image and likeness client in August 2021, just after the NCAA allowed such business dealings for collegiate athletes. Bueckers was described as the “face of NIL” for women’s basketball by The Athletic in 2022 and experts in the industry have said that she has one of the highest earning potentials from NIL among all college athletes.

In November 2021, Bueckers became the first college athlete to sign with Gatorade, which is obviously a monstrous brand in the world of sports. Since then she has signed with several other major companies including Crocs, Bose, Nerf, CashApp, Chegg and StockX. But her biggest deal came last September when she officially signed with Nike. As part of the deal, she promoted the GT Hustle 2 shoe. Fast forward to last week and Bueckers once again made history.

Just a few days ago, Bueckers announced the drop of her own colorway of the GT Hustle 3. The shoe, which is obviously the newer version of the model she promoted last year, will include several personal details that make it special to the 6-0 phenom:

Bueckers’ favorite colors – baby blue and lavender

Area codes for UConn (860) and her hometown of Edina, Minnesota (612) on the left tongue

Her nickname – Paige Buckets – over the right heel

An embroidered bucket on the right tongue paying homage to her nickname

An inspirational message from her father, “Be you, be great.” over the left heel

Bueckers has been a poster child for what NIL can and should be. For her, it really has been about finding her market value and capitalizing on it. It hasn’t been about pay for play or anything that seems unethical. She’s a star, she’s marketable and she’s been smart, which has allowed her to make a lot of money while being extremely successful on the court.