By John Brice
Special Contributor
Kiki Van Zanten had heard from her friends on both coasts of the United States, and even from international acquaintances in Mexico.
Notre Dame’s senior women’s soccer star never forgot the first person to reach out to her after Van Zanten teamed with both her school and its official apparel ambassador, Under Armour, for a marketing and Name, Image and Likeness opportunity that yielded a global reach.
“It was my mom who saw me first in a Dick’s Sporting Goods and she made the employees take down the sign so that she could take a picture with it and send it to me,” said Van Zanten, a Chicagoland native from Buffalo Grove, Illinois. “I felt kind of bad for the employees, but it is exciting to see myself recognized.
“Later it was by more and more people in a larger circle. It was really exciting to see the power of NIL reach so many different aspects of my life that didn’t involve sports. I reconnected with people I hadn’t spoken with in a while just because they saw the image.”
Eventually, Van Zanten – a former prep All-America selection and member of the prestigious U17 Women’s National Team – had friends reach out from Boston, New York and Malibu because they saw her images that adorned walls in brick-and-mortar stores or Under Armour commercials.
“I saw a commercial of myself running around the lakes at Notre Dame for the release of the shoe,” Van Zanten, with 75 career games for the Irish and 47 points, said. “I saw it in Spanish in Mexico. It was really amazing to see myself in all these different cool places and have so many friends and family reaching out to me and sending me pictures of myself on a wall saying, ‘Is this you?’ and being like, ‘Yeah, that actually is me.’ It has my name in the corner, they took some quotes from me as well. I felt super-important and inspired by it.”
Because the NIL opportunity matched the synergistic relationship of Notre Dame and Under Armour, Van Zanten – who was joined for the session by other Fighting Irish athletes, including member of Marcus Freeman’s football program – knew from the outset that the event could harness her own personal brand with her school’s iconic imagery and Under Armour’s global reach.
“I was so grateful for the opportunity and it meant a lot more to me; it wasn’t just Under Armour and Kiki, but it was Under…