Tennis Star Nick Kyrgios leaves Nike to join Stack Athletics, a new racquet sports apparel brand as a co-owner and creative director.

From incumbent endorser, to owner. We seen this done a few times with NBA stars but it’s great to see this playbook matriculate to other sports.

Allow me to break down roughly 6 phases apparel ownership:

1. Win on the court.
2. Build your brand up.
3. Join the large incumbent apparel brand.
4. Learn the tricks of the trade, learn what you like and don’t like about the partnership.
5. Partner/Build something of your own.
6. Reap the rewards of ownership.

While there is a certain level an athlete needs to reach to successfully execute the playbook, I think more athletes can do this than they think. Not every apparel brand is a $1 billion opportunity, but owning your IP in the long run is a better move for most than lending it out to an incumbent for a decade.

It’s crazy how fast things can evolve. We started off just with the podcast at the beginning of 2025. By the end of the year, we built the central endorsement-for-equity platform in sports and entertainment.

Look, you gotta listen to your community. In this case it was our guests and our founder friends. Change is uncomfortable, but it always yields incredible progress at the tail end of it.

My current thoughts on the state of athlete-driven media:

There’s a ton of athlete driven podcasts out there now. The whole space is saturated. However, the shows that are monetizing at the top are doing so off of nostalgia.

- Club 520
- Out the Mud
- Glory Daze

There’s not a big enough market that cares about athlete investments for it to be a incredible lucrative media platform. Keyword media. What it can be though is the distribution for other avenues. We’ve seen many of you guys try to copy our newsletter and podcast premise :), and what you will realize is it just the way to attract people to your doorstep for the next thing you are building.

Ironically enough, this is how we’ve ended the year views wise even without the show

As for what’s next for the show… I promise we have some incredible things in store. In the meantime, we hope you guys like reading this newsletter and our animated content online. And if you’re a founder looking to work with athletes, please feel free to reach out. Let’s have a great new year.

When people talk about the value add of a professional athlete, the first topics that usually come up are reach and image. That makes sense. Those are visible and often easy to quantify through follower counts or similar metrics.

What I want to briefly highlight today is how I’ve grown to appreciate the locker room itself. It’s one of the few places where products get judged quickly and honestly by the exact people they’re built for.

There’s no incentive to be polite. If something actually helps with recovery or makes daily routines easier, it gets used. If it’s uncomfortable, confusing, or simply doesn’t get adopted, it disappears.

I’ve seen time and time again how companies try to solve feedback and distribution by sending samples to dozens of teams or running broad outreach. But getting a product into a building isn’t the same as getting it into someone’s routine.

That’s where athletes can be more valuable than they realize. Not through a post, but through access. Actual usage, honest conversations, and real insight from potential customers.

Over time, I’ve started to think that this kind of niche validation matters more than early scale. If something can earn trust inside a locker room, everything else feels a bit easier.

If you’re a founder building in sports, health, or performance, it’s worth asking where your product actually gets tested and whether your partnership dollars are buying visibility or learning.

If you’re an athlete, it’s worth reflecting on where your real value shows up. Is it limited to Instagram, or can you help drive real adoption and growth?

Alltroo is a professional fundraising platform that helps charities supercharge their fundraising efforts and gain access to a new community of donors through custom giveaways.

We have seen a bunch of athletes trying to make their philanthropic efforts fun. Philanthropy should be a fun time. So it’s every cool to see a central place to facilitate philanthropic efforts in sports and entertainment.

If you’re building in this space, please check out https://athletesandassets.com/company/register