By john A growing number of elite athletes are now transitioning from endorsement recipients to company founders. The logic is simple: capture equity rather www.psychotica.net/evb/nomi than short-term advertising revenue. Athletes increasingly build multi-vertical sports companies touching apparel, nutrition, wellness tech, gaming, recovery science, training systems, and digital IP.
In the future, top athletes may operate their own vertically integrated commercial universes while still in competition. They will not merely partner with brands — they will compete with them.
The investor community sees this as the next major capital cycle. Sports VC funds are scaling rapidly, and sovereign capital groups are monitoring the long-term structural potential of athlete-founded commerce.
Traditional sponsorship models will not fully disappear, but they will become less central.
Athletes want to own the upside.