Even Tom Brady's Side Hustle is Worth a Billion Dollars
...and I can't even get people to buy my book!
You know something? Every industry has jargon that’s specific to it.
For example. At my day job, the clients I work with are about the word aligned all of a sudden. As in, “if we are aligned, we can move forward.” Or, “Are you aligned with this?” Nobody agrees anymore. We are done “seeing if this works for you.” I haven’t heard a “sounds good” in months. We are doing nothing but aligning these days. I didn’t even get notice of the change. One day we are in lockstep, the next day we’re in Alignville.
Tom Brady seems to align (hehe, get it?) himself with people who are very good at using TB12’s face to print money. And this week, news broke that the sports apparel/lifestyle brand/talent house (?) NoBull [pronounced ‘Noble’] has just hit a $1 BILLION valuation after raising $50 million in funding. Just typing that blows my mind:
Mike Repole, the beverage entrepreneur best known for selling Vitaminwater to Coca-Cola for $4 billion and BodyArmor to Coca-Cola for $5.6 billion, has his next billion-dollar brand.
Repole bought a majority stake in struggling apparel brand NoBull in July 2023, and six months later, merged it with Tom Brady’s TB12 and Brady Brand, adding Brady as a co-owner in NoBull. Now NoBull has raised $50 million in funding at a $1 billion valuation, Front Office Sports has learned. It’s the first funding round since Repole bought the company. - Front Office Sports
Okay, so the rich get richer: A story that’s as old as time. But there’s a twist here: So Mr. Brady, a NFL sports analyst and a part-owner of a NFL football team, (conflict of interest? Nah, couldn’t be him), has a athletic brand where he can use his media platform(s) to recruit spokesathletes…and just got paid doing so.
This is Matthew Schaefer:
18-year-old hockey phenom who’s giving me a glimmer of hope that the Islanders aren’t going to suck forever and ever (highlights here). Schaeffer has had a couple of hot months, and guess who comes around:
It’s ol’ former NFL Champion and Unc From The Future Tom Brady who ain’t got time to slide in DMs, coming through! Schaefer signed with NoBull a few days later.
I guess I should be proud of Tom here. He’s just one lowly average Joe like you and me owning his own version of an innocent lemonade stand. I can’t for the life of me see how this itty-bitty side hustle from San Mateo, California’s favorite son is worth more than 26 American soccer teams, however. And I can’t even tell you where the valuation basis is coming from. I tried watching some of the YouTube content and it seems like it’s provocative circa 2010:
And yes, that title isn’t “Just Do It,” it’s way more XTREME!
The plan is to make NoBull a whole wellness (ugh, sigh) lifestyle brand, but we’ve seen that to varying degrees of success before. But even with the windfall the brand got because of Brady, it’s going to have to prove that it’s something beyond a vanity project for the seven-time Super Bowl winner.
If you’re aligned with that, please subscribe!