In its largest single endorsement investment in college football players to date, Apple’s Beats by Dre will now pay a range of athletes to wear its products.
Beats is no stranger to sports endorsement, for instance with a slew of NBA players promoting Powerbeats Pro in Apple’s “NBA Unleased” ad. It’s also benefited from sports stars “accidentally” seen wearing unannounced devices, such as LeBron James with Beats Studio Buds before they were released.
According to Bloomberg, however, these individual deals have now been followed by a mass signing of 15 college players.
The players include USC’s quarterback Caleb Williams, University of Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers and Alabama cornerback Ga’Quincy ‘Kool-Aid’ McKinstry.
“As we’ve worked with our initial college athletes, we’ve realized how important it is for them to have brand support at that level,” said Aminah Charles, Beats’ head of sports marketing. “The industry is moving toward truly empowering college athletes, so we wanted to take a bigger swing in this area.”
CBS has now released the full list of players signed by Beats:
- Caleb Williams, QB, USC
- Quinn Ewers, QB, Texas
- JJ McCarthy, QB, Michigan
- Cade Klubnik, QB, Clemson
- DJ Uiagalelei, QB, Oregon State
- Jalen Milroe, QB, Alabama
- Jayden Daniels, QB, LSU
- Joe Milton lll, QB, Tennessee
- Jordan Travis, QB, Florida State
- Kool-Aid McKinstry, DB, Alabama
- Malaki Starks, DB, Georgia
- Michael Penix Jr., QB, Washington
- Nick Singleton, RB, Penn State
- Sam Hartman, QB, Notre Dame
- Shedeur Sanders, QB, Colorado
Beats’s Charles says that this series of deals is just the start. “[This] will be an annual list and we look forward to keeping an eye out for the next generation”
Details of the deals and what Beats devices may be promoted have not been disclosed. However, most recently the company released its Beats Studio Pro, which is a lower-cost rival to Apple’s own AirPods Max.
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