Cailin Clark is having her moment. The Iowa guard found a way to capture the attention of a nation. During a month that is typically focused on men’s basketball, her stats, shooting, and ability to win dominated the sports headlines. Some tuned in to watch her win and some tuned in to watch her lose. But at the end of the day, 18.9M viewers watched Iowa play South Carolina for the National Championship. 24.1M views watched the contest’s final 15 minutes. 14.2M watched her beat UConn and 12.3M watched her beat LSU. Those viewers were there for Clark.
She sold out arenas wherever she played. Fans stood outside of college arenas for a chance to buy tickets. Resale ticket prices for her games broke records. Celebrities were spotted courtside and waited after the game to meet her. Clark’s jersey is the top selling collegiate piece of apparel that Fanatics has ever sold. Her “Topps Now” sports card is the company’s top 10 selling sports cards across all sports of all time. She has already signed deals with Nike, Gatorade and State Farm. She is one of the highest earning NIL athletes in college and she was certain to be the No.1 overall pick in the WNBA draft. The likelihood of her going to the Indiana Fever was so certain, that the Mercury had already pre-sold tickets for the home contest against them prior to the draft. It is the only game of the season that the 200 level of Footprint Arena will be open for. The Fever have already announced that 90% of their games will be televised. Clark is her.
Clark is one of MANY incredible athletes in the NCAA. My daughter rooted against Clark during the UConn game because she is a Paige Buekers fan. My daughter is not a women’s college basketball fan. This month, everyone seems to be. Today’s NCAA women are becoming household names. The nation was following top players like JuJu Watkins, Cameron Brink, Angel Reese and Buekers. I don’t know a lot of people who can name 5 WNBA athletes. I might not know many people that can name 5 WNBA teams. But this class of NCAA hoopers may change that in the very near future. Caitlin Clark is at the forefront.
No one should overlook the incredible athletes that came before the current class of NCAA athletes. Maya Moore, Cheryl Miller and countless others had tremendous accomplishments. We know that social media plays a huge role in the notoriety of today’s athletes. Yesterday’s greats didn’t have today’s platforms to showcase what they were doing.
When I worked at Nike in the 90s, Sheryl Swoops was HUGE. She was the first woman to get a Nike signature shoe in 1995. Swoops agent Nancy Lieberman-Cline called her client the “female Jordan”. During that time, I remember everyone in the building calling her the female Jordan. SS wore the Nike Air Swoops 1 during the Olympics.
When the WNBA had its inaugural season, Swoops wore the Air Swoops 2 which is one of the most recognizable and iconic women’s basketball shoe of all time. When the Swoops 2 was released, the largest size Nike offered was an 11. In an interview with PJ Tucker, Swoops said that her brothers couldn’t wear her shoe because it wasn’t available in large enough size. Swoops and the (now disbanded) Houston Comets would win the first 4 championships in the newly formed WNBA. Swoops would get 7 signature shoes in total including the memorable Swoops Zoom and the Tuned Swoops.
Since Swoops, WNBA athletes have had signature shoes including Lisa Leslie, Rebecca Lobo, Dawn Staley, Diana Taurasi, and Breanna Stewart. But one women’s signature shoe stands above the rest. Sabrina Ionescu’s Sabrina 1. The New York Liberty sharpshooter made headlines with her score of 26 points in the All-Star weekend 3-Point contest. It was the first time that a WNBA player competed against an NBA player. Steph Curry scored 29.
Regardless, Sabrina’s efforts made a statement. Her shoe is so popular that 77 NBA athletes chose to compete in the Sabrina 1 so far this season. Jrue Holiday, Jordan Clarkson, Cade Cunningham, Jalen Brunson, Tyler Hero, Cam Johnson, Ish Wainright, Mikal Bridges are just a few of the 77 that have laced up the Sabrina 1 this year. It’s simply a great shoe. She is a great player. It looks amazing and it’s functional.
Caitlin Clark’s shoe rotation is unstoppable. Iowa is a Nike school. In 2022, Clark signed an NIL deal with Nike. Through the deal, she could now profit from Nikes use of her name image and likeness. She began wearing Kyries in the summer of 2022. On January 28th of 2023, Caitlin Clark laced up a pair of Kobe 6 Grinches during a home game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Protro quickly became her shoe of choice.She played in the Kobe 5 Chaos as well as the Bruce Lee. Her rotation also included the Mambacita, Del Sols (the shoe she broke the NCAA scoring record in) and the reverse grinches. She frequently signs pair off her feet and gives them to fans before walking through the tunnel in her socks.
So now Clark is a pro. Prior to April 15th , there had never been a more certain bet than Clark going #1 in the draft. And on that night, Clark walked across the stage in $17,000 worth of Prada and WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert handed her an Indiana Fever jersey with the number 1 on the front and back representing her place in the draft.
Caitlin Clark’s salary will be just north of $76,000 a year. In the course of 4 years, her WNBA contract will be $338,000. In the same 4 years, the NBA’s No 1 pick Victor Wembanyama will make $55.1 million. But that discrepancy isn’t why you’re here. Your here for kicks. And Nike will provide them. Nike signed Caitlin Clark to a $28M deal that includes her own signature shoe the CC22. The concept art for the shoe looks great. The colors pay homage to her time at Iowa but embrace the Fever colors. The shoe gives a little “Livestrong / Lance Armstrong” from Nike’s 2013 collection for the cyclist, but I’m still 100% here for the CC22. I’m excited about the details and storytelling that this shoe is certain to have once we finally get to see them in hand.
We live in an era where greatness is measured by championships. Clark lost to LSU in 2023. This year she lost to 38-0 South Carolina. The Gamecocks had eight McDonald’s all Americans on the roster. Clark played with zero. She doesn’t have a championship…yet. The Fever haven’t won a championship since 2015. They haven’t won a conference title since 2015. Can Caitlin Clark get them back to the WNBA championship? Will her career put her name in the GOAT conversation with Tamika Catchings, Breanna Stewart and of course Taurasi? Or will she be a bust? No one knows. Bull Ill be there to find out. I might even have a pair of CC22 on my feet for the journey. Support the WNBA. Wear your shoes.