Altius continues supporting brands as Shake Shack makes first NIL investment

Altius Sports Partners has adapted to the college sports landscape. The firm opened in 2020 with plans to advise athletic departments and educate athletes. Within a year, the name, image and likeness era began in college athletics.

Altius pivoted, launching its NIL general manager programs in June 2022. The group has continued to adapt, bringing athlete services departments to a number of schools. And in recent months, Altius has become a leader in guiding major brands into the NIL space as they realize the potential of working with college athletes.

The latest company is a notable one — Shake Shack. The fast-casual restaurant chain is launching its Stand For Something Good, which will recognize athletes from 10 schools in specific Shake Shack markets throughout the remainder of the academic year. It’s a unique campaign as athletes will not be just picked for their social media following, but their overall student-athlete approach.

Selected athletes will have the chance to make an impact in their communities by appearing at a local Shake Shack restaurant, during which a percentage of sales will be donated to the athlete’s chosen charity. 

“We started chatting with Shake Shack earlier this year,” ASP’s vice president of brands Kim DeCarolis told On3 in a recent phone call. “They approached us, and they wanted to actually tap into NIL. Shake Shack was curious about it and wanted to get involved with college athletes. They saw the power of working with these younger athletes to promote a brand and weren’t really quite sure exactly how to take that next step, which connected them to Altius. So our conversations with them were helping them identify what marketplaces made the most sense to tap into.

“Shake Shack wanted to target certain markets where maybe they wanted to drive more traffic to a certain location, or they felt like they had a really good presence. Really a little bit of both.”

Shake Shack will work with the same 10 years through the rest of the 2023-24 academic year: Wisconsin, LSU, Marquette, North Carolina, Texas, Colorado, Penn, Washington, Stanford and Ohio State.

The restaurant worked with Altius to pick the 10 markets and will continue to consult the firm to ensure it follows state NIL laws, school policies and NCAA guidelines.

Altius continues to see rising interest in NIL from brands

Altius continues to have brands reaching out asking questions about NIL and trying to learn more on a nearly daily basis. Shake Shack is not the only brand to tap ASP’s services.

Before Powerade launched its March Madness campaign, Altius walked the sports drink through NCAA policy, school rules and state laws surrounding NIL. Powerade made its return to college sports this fall, launching a national campaign with five college football players.

DeCarolis said brands are realizing that in some regions, having a college athlete promote a brand can be more valuable than a professional athlete.

“If you take a geographical approach to that, and you look at certain areas, right look at the pull that the college football has, and the SEC has across the Southeast, compared to the NFL,” she said. “You’re going to get much more engagement in this part of the country working with college athletes, in my opinion, than you are working with pro athletes at a certain level. If you take a look at maybe like Boston and the Northeast, I think that’s the reverse, you’re going to probably have much more engaged with your pro athletes because that’s the fact of the culture and the geography that we’re in.

“So I do think brands are starting to see the value here in certain places and certain markets you’re going to have much more engagement and activation and success really working with college athletes compared to pro.”

While most agencies are soliciting one-off deals for their athletes and NIL marketplaces broker campaigns, Altius has been able to separate itself through relationships with institutions. Brands have learned to trust the firm as a go-to place to make a smart investment in NIL.