E-lete Sports
139 athlete brands designed and launched on one system, selling 3,355 items and $135K in merch.
- ForOwn brand
- E-lete Sports, founded
- Role
- Founder & Designer
- Year
- 2021 to present
- Result
- 139 athlete brands, 3,355 items, and $135K in sales
- Scope
The brief
When NIL opened up in 2021, college athletes could finally earn money from their own name, but almost none had a brand. I started E-lete Sports to build them one. Every athlete who signed became a client, and each one got their own identity, merch line, and launch.
The approach
Doing that for more than a hundred clients meant designing a brand system that could take someone from first message to a live store fast, without any two looking alike. I handled every step myself, from finding and signing clients to the design, production, and launch.
Every role, one person
Built and run by me
I named E-lete Sports, built the brand, and ran every part of it myself: messaging over a thousand athletes to find clients, contracts, branding each athlete, launching their stores, fulfillment, and payouts. Once the first clients had success, their teammates and friends came to me, and the applications on the site started feeding themselves.
A mark for every athlete
While running everything else, from outreach and contracts to fulfillment and payouts, I still designed a mark for every athlete. A fixed system made that possible: the kit stayed the same so each client could launch fast, and the mark was where each one got personal, built from their initials, number, or story, in their own colors.
Start to finish
The first drop: Shelton Sampson Jr.
One story shows the whole process. Shelton Sampson Jr. was a highly touted high school recruit about to announce his college commitment, and we got connected in time to design the Why Not? merch set that launched with it.
From a pitched logo to his own mark
The launch earned his trust and brought him onto E-lete Sports. His team had pitched a logo of their own. I replaced it with a fully custom mark: a custom letter S, doubled for his first and last name and brought together to form his #6. It reads on a jersey, a hat, or a phone screen.
A full brand at LSU
When he got to LSU, I carried the brand into purple and gold and built it out from there: launch graphics, merch drops, logo animations for his feed and stories, and custom assets for his season. He liked the mark enough to have it made into a custom chain and pendant.
Out in the world
Worn by the athletes
The athletes wear their own lines and share them with their fans, which is the best marketing a brand can get.
The website
eletesports.com is where fans find their athlete and shop their line, and where new athletes apply to join. I designed it and run it on the same system as the brand: the block type, the dark palette, and the big E.
Bayou Traditions
That work earned E-lete Sports a role as the official merchandise provider for Bayou Traditions, the official collective of LSU Athletics. I worked directly with their team on a merch line and its own team store, with every sale raising money for the collective. The biggest moment: a HEI5MAN campaign for Jayden Daniels, ready to launch the second he was announced as the 2023 Heisman Trophy winner.
The outcome
139 brands designed and launched for individual clients, each one their own and all built on one system. Together they sold 3,355 items and $135K in merch. It is the same start-to-finish process I bring to client work: find the idea, build the identity, and get it out into the world.