URBANA, Ill. - Campus Ink and Gameday Spirit have announced a partnership for the 2022-23 academic year which will directly benefit University of Illinois athletes in the name, image and likeness (NIL) sector.

Gameday Spirit stores in Champaign will feature co-licensed NIL apparel of Illinois athletes both in-store and in-venue, including jerseys and officially licensed player specific apparel provided by Campus Ink. 

During the 2021-2022 Basketball season, Gameday was able to offer NIL player jerseys in State Farm Center which were provided by Campus Ink. This partnership was the first of its kind in the NIL space across the country and credit is due to the strong relationship between Campus Ink and Gameday Spirit. 

“We are excited to partner with Gameday Spirit and optimize NIL merchandising opportunities for Fighting Illini student-athletes,” said Steven Farag, co-founder and CEO of Campus Ink. “We look forward to continuing to provide a first-class NIL merchandise solution to best support the athletes that work so hard for the Illini community. The team at Gameday has been incredible to work with.”

“Gameday Spirit is proud to have partnered with Campus Ink on a trailblazing NIL apparel program immediately upon the passing of NIL legislation in the fall of 2021,” said Ryan Majeres, President & Owner of Gameday Spirit Fanstores. “Illini fans nationwide responded resoundingly by purchasing this merchandise through our retail stores, website and Illinois varsity athletic events.  We look forward to continuing our partnership with Campus Ink to connect Illini fans to their favorite student athlete’s merchandise.  We are also excited to continue to support Fighting Illini student athletes financially through the sale of NIL merchandise.”

“This has been awesome for our student-athletes,” said Kamron Cox, director of the INFLUENCE program for University of Illinois athletics. “Perhaps the most impressive part has been the synchronization of Gameday Spirit and Campus Ink, two of our most visible vendors. It’s a terrific meshing of specialities to create awesome results for our most important stakeholders, the student-athletes.”

ABOUT CAMPUS INK AND THE NIL STORE

Backed by Mark Cuban, Campus Ink expanded into the Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) space in 2021 and launched the NIL Store, which serves as a merchandising solution for student-athletes and schools. The NIL Store operates with the firm belief that every student-athlete has an opportunity to capitalize on their NIL. Campus Ink was founded in 1947 on the campus of the University of Illinois and was reimagined in 2015 with an office in downtown Chicago and a production facility in Urbana, Il where the company handles all of its own production and fulfillment.

ABOUT GAMEDAY SPIRIT

Gameday Spirit Fanstore traces its history back to Gary & Al’s Sporting Goods, which originally opened on the University of Illinois campus in 1986. In 1998, the transition from a sporting goods store to a true fan store began with a change in name to Gameday Sports and a move to the heart of the University of Illinois campustown area where we still remain on the corner of 6th & Green in Champaign. This transition reached its current state in 2014 with our official re-branding as Gameday Spirit Fanstore, the opening of our brand new store at the same campustown location and the opening of our second retail store just around the corner from the University of Illinois athletic complex.

###