Hair and beauty brand Hally inked name, image and likeness (NIL) deals with more than 100 players from Baylor

The GIST: Baylor student-athletes are ready to do their hair toss. On Tuesday, hair and beauty brand Hally inked name, image and likeness (NIL) deals with more than 100 players from the Texas-based university to help launch a new batch of Shade Stix, a temporary hair dye in Baylor’s signature green and yellow.

The details: Women’s basketball standouts Aijha Blackwell, Caitlin Bickle and Jana Van Gytenbeek will front Hally’s campaign, while the rest of the NIL class will be compensated for promoting the brand. Student-athletes will link to Hally’s Amazon store on social media, and the company also plans to sell Baylor-branded Shade Stix locally and on campus.

The strategy: Hally chose Baylor because of the brand’s early success in the region, but Waco, Texas is just the first stop on its college tour. It plans to launch university-themed products with more than 26 schools in the next 18 months to earn exposure through student-athletes’ social followings.

• College sports’ appeal is obvious for Hally. Temporary hair dye is a staple for athletes and fans to show school spirit, something the brand noticed while on a college tour with hair accessories company Scunci last year. Go Bears.

Zooming out: Social posts can go a long way for a Gen Z–focused brand like Hally — it has 34K followers on Instagram and 13K on TikTok, while some Baylor athletes on its roster boast audiences around 200K. College sports are also top of their class for reach, per a 2021 study — 42% of the 182M-strong fanbase is female. Feeling good as hell.