The entire Ole Miss national football team receives a NIL marketing offer for Blue Delta jeans

Tupelo-based Blue Delta jeans, a bespoke denim company, has offered every Ole Miss football player a name, image and likeness agreement. Players who accept the offer will each receive custom jeans with a retail price of $ 450 in exchange for at least one social media post per month from September 2021 to January 2022.

Its only retail store is just minutes from Oxford’s Ole Miss campus. Blue Delta believes it works with the team through how its jeans fit any body size from the smallest player to the largest.

Blue Delta creates a custom pattern for each customer using 16 measurements from the waist down that can be taken in person or online with the company’s modern virtual tailor. The customer can then create their own pattern by choosing 50 fabric and 18 yarn colors, as well as choosing their cut and creating a unique jeans.

They can do anything. A 300-pound guard who has never been able to buy jeans from a rack and wants skinny jeans can choose to buy skinny jeans, explained Tyler Sutliff, Blue Delta’s investor and partner.

We take care of our customers and treat them as families during the design process. We make sure every customer is happy with their finished jeans, and we guarantee a fit, said Blue Delta founder Nick Weaver. Our brand is on the rise, just like Ole Miss Football, and we are excited about the opportunities to work with college student athletes.

Founded in 2011 by West and Nick Weaver, Blue Delta Jeans counts among its clients former Ole Miss specialties Eli Manning, AJ Brown and DK Metcalf, as well as current football coach Lane Kiffin and men’s basketball coach Kermit Davis. The brand has also worked with SEC Network hosts Tim Tebow, Booger McFarland and Laura Rutledge.

It makes sense to do this in our backyard, Sutliff said. Lane Kiffin wore Blue Delta jeans in four or five games last year during the Walk of Champions. We agreed with all the coaches, so it was only natural progress to offer us players something.

Blue Delta founder and CEO Josh West agrees with the move to players after this summer’s change to NIL rules was the obvious next step for the brand.

Sharing and faithfully following social media among athletes and celebrities has been a huge driver for the growth of our brands, West said. The world of NIL is obviously new, but we see a huge opportunity to collaborate with Ole Miss here in our backyard. Everyone from a fourth-string kicker to a quarterback has the opportunity to participate.

On Monday, the Blue Delta was on campus measuring 33 student athletes who participated in the trade and 11 others reviewing the paperwork with each player to create their own custom design. The brand plans to deliver jeans to players next week before Alabama, but the terms of the deal require each player to publish the first social media promoting their brand before receiving the product to comply with compliance requirements.

Despite the stories around NIL depicting sports as opponents of NIL, Sutliff says Ole Miss has been great to work on since the brand approached them with the idea of ​​making an offer to the entire team.

We worked [executive associate athletics director] Jennifer Saxon, whom I call our NIL Serpas. He helped us get to the right places in terms of compliance, but also in terms of schedules. We try to balance football practice and school schedules, games and holiday weeks, and he has really helped us thread the needle.

In addition to the product, student athletes also have the opportunity to earn additional compensation by advertising their own personal code to the public. Players receive $ 100 each time their unique code is used, and they receive extra jeans every 20 times their code is redeemed. However, in order to receive each monthly payment, they must provide evidence of at least one social media message to meet eligibility requirements.

Fans can purchase a model chosen by a favorite player or any other combination. As long as they use the player code, the student athlete is eligible for an additional $ 100 sales credit.

Today, 44 student athletes were measured in Blue Delta Jeans, 33 of whom signed their contracts and another 11 awaited consultation with family and counselors. The Blue Delta expects more football players to fulfill their contracts and be measured over the next week.