Oklahoma's General Booty uses NIL for The General's Crimson Cream
Oklahoma quarterback General Booty and the Sooners-focused NIL collective Crimson and Cream have released The General’s Crimson Cream, a high-end body cream produced by the Oklahoma City-based company Prohibition Soap. Booty announced the product with a humorous video on Instagram.
The activation is a rare one in the NIL landscape as it involves an original, non-apparel product that uses an athlete’s NIL rights.
The General’s Crimson Cream, which features a blood orange margarita scent, retails for $39.99. Booty will contribute a portion of the proceeds to the Wounded Warrior Project.
A limited number of units is available for the initial release but the parties involved could make more if demand warrants it. Crimson and Cream is one of roughly 20 collectives nationally supported by the agency Student Athlete NIL (SANIL).
Booty said The General’s Crimson Cream originates from a general misunderstanding when he announced he had signed with Crimson and Cream.
“I joined Crimson and Cream and when I went public with it on my social media, I guess people had some other ideas and thought that was a product,” Booty said in a phone interview. “So we had some people reach out asking for it.”
Booty, SANIL co-founder and CEO Jason Belzer and SANIL account manager Alyssa Slayton then talked about turning the byproduct of an online misunderstanding into an actual product.
“We’re like, ‘We might as well come out with the Crimson Cream,'” Booty recalled.
A portion of the proceeds will go to the Wounded Warrior Project
Similar to The General’s Crimson Cream, Booty’s decision to donate some of the product’s proceeds to the Wounded Warrior Project ties back to his name, too.
“The Wounded Warriors [Project] I chose kind of with my name, you know, being General — military,” Booty said. “That’s always been something that I’ve kind of been fascinated with growing up, the military and had ties to just with my name, so the Wounded Warriors I felt would be good.”
Through “More Than Just a Name,” Booty has also committed to donating 20 percent of the profits from his custom merchandise to the Oklahoma Children’s Hospital.
“Previously I did some stuff with a children’s hospital,” Booty said. “Love children. Always had a special spot in my heart and so that’s why I reached out and did something with them. Now I was wanting to do something for the military and the Wounded Warriors kind of stuck out.”
General Booty: ‘We’ve started to get a lot more creative’
In the NCAA’s NIL era, Booty can benefit financially, charitably and otherwise in ways that his football-playing relatives couldn’t, even though he hasn’t taken as many snaps as the other quarterbacks in his extended family. His father Abram is a former LSU wide receiver. His uncles Josh and John David played quarterback at LSU and USC, respectively.
“It’s been pretty cool. You know, when it first all started, it was kind of all uncharted water. No one really knew exactly what it could bring or what they could do with it,” Booty said. “With Oklahoma being such a big fan base, I’ve had a lot of opportunities, which has been really cool, even though I haven’t been able to be on the field and play a whole lot. Just with the Oklahoma community recognizing me, my name, obviously, and playing football, and I think a lot of the guys, including myself, on the team, we’ve started to get a lot more creative with it.
“The first year was, you know, just, ‘Hey, lets sign some footballs, maybe do some meet and greets,’ but now guys are starting to get pretty creative and giving money towards charities and certain percents here and doing stuff where they go in and give back. I know Dillon [Gabriel]‘s doing something right now where he’s sponsoring seven-on-seven teams and giving them uniforms back in Hawaii.
“Just cool stuff like that. There’s no end. Just let your imagination go and get creative. Guys are starting to pick up and do more and more stuff that’s outside the box that I don’t even think people probably thought was going to be available when NIL started.”