Colorado NIL Store releases limited edition Michael Harrison shirt following rivalry win
Michael Harrison is one of the few holdovers from the pre-Deion Sanders era at Colorado.
The Buffaloes tight end saw special teams action in his first three years on campus. As a redshirt sophomore last year, he tallied his first two career receptions. His work this offseason was enough to stay in Boulder, not joining the droves of former teammates to hit the portal.
Last Saturday, the walk-on got his breakthrough. With Travis Hunter injured, Shedeur Sanders was still dicing the Colorado State defense. But the tight end emerged as one of his favorite targets, as Harrison had seven catches for 76 yards and two touchdowns.
At the end of regulation, he caught the two-point conversion to send the game into overtime. And in the second overtime, he caught the 18-yard touchdown from Sanders to give the Buffs the lead. Colorado would then score and force a stop on defense, bringing No. 19 team in the nation to 3-0 on the year.
Now the tight end has partnered with the Colorado NIL Store and Campus Ink to capitalize on the performance, one of his first NIL activations to date.
When Harrison caught the game-sealing passes in the second overtime, he struck a pose that is now on limited edition T-shirts and produced by Campus Ink. Called “Mikey” by all his teammates, the phrase “Mikey Called Game” was born and also on the shirts.
“I think Colorado is such a fun, interesting brand right now,” Campus Ink vice president Adam Cook told On3. “Obviously, Coach Prime is there. They’re winning, which is really exciting. That’s the thing that we all know. But as the NIL industry gets bigger, I think you’re starting to see the proof in the pudding. Where this really works is when you’re actually good. Those conversations around NIL being a distraction or kids wanting to focus way more on NIL than what they’re focusing on in their sport, just don’t bear out in reality.
“Where they both find the happy ground is when you’re really good at both. Colorado is the perfect example of that. They’re winning right now, so the NIL stuff is working for them. It’s really exciting.”
Priced at $34.99, the shirt features the Colorado logo because Campus Ink has licensed the school’s marks. Fans have the option to either buy the T-shirt or long-sleeve. They both feature a great graphic of Harrison celebrating the touchdown. Sales run until Oct. 2.
For an athlete who may not have the biggest NIL deals being presented to them, it’s a major opportunity to drive some attention and build out their brand. Plus, brand deals have become such popular activations in the NIL era, that creating unique, licensed apparel has been a win for athletes.
Cook said the Campus Ink designers started sketching up some different graphic options on Sunday and soon after got in touch with Colorado. Before a design ever moves forward, the company talks with athletes to make sure they sign off on the project and hear any input.
Harrison was more than happy to sign off on it. Cook emphasized how special this project was, capitalizing on a special moment for an athlete who had a breakout performance.
“Getting in touch with Michael, this is a really cool opportunity, here’s what we want to do for you,” Cook said. “And the special thing about this one is, he’s a pretty soft-spoken, pretty shy guy who, I’m sure had a big awakening being on a team whose entire identity pretty much shifted. Now they’re loud, now they’re flashy, and that’s just not necessarily something that he self-identifies with, but he just wants to be a guy who does his job. And this, I think, is a perfect example of, you don’t have to be the capital T, capital B the brand. You can just be a kid who’s really good at your craft. And when you do that, really neat opportunities are gonna come to you.”
Colorado NIL Store booming with Buffs resurgence
Campus Ink’s website says the company has 35 school licenses. The company recently launched an NIL Store at Ohio State, and Colorado is one of the few schools on the West Coast to partner with the company.
The media attention on the Buffs in the first three weeks of the season is nearly unparalleled, though. Last weekend’s game, which kicked off at 10 p.m. ET, was the most-streamed regular season game of all time on ESPN. Even more impressive, according to SBJ’s John Ourand, at 2:15 a.m. ET, the game still registered 8.230 million viewers – an audience that was more than 1 million viewers bigger than the peak audience of any other college football game this week.
Even if fans are just tuning in to see how Deion Sanders fares, there’s no doubt Colorado is the most-followed team in college football right now. It’s paying off across the board and now Harrison is able to benefit thanks to NIL. The tight end will pocket between $6 to $15 on every sale of the limited edition shirts.
Sales on Campus Ink’s Colorado NIL Store have also seen a significant hike these past three weeks. Those could even take off once the entire football joins the NIL-centric apparel store.
“Totally, 100% things are up,” Cook said. “It’s probably the program that has the most eyes on it in the country right now. We’re just really fortunate to be in a position to help all those student-athletes. If you look at Big Noon Kickoff wanting to cover them three weeks in a row, I think when you look at that rivalry game being the most watched college game in a while, that’s always going to help drive traffic to the site specifically.
“I think the really really exciting ancillary result of that is their women’s volleyball team is doing pretty well, as well. And so it’s just driving more traffic to how their entire program is doing. That just ties back to if you want to do well in NIL, you have to do well at what your first job is right, and that’s competing really well. When the whole program does that, people take notice and people want to support it.”