Thomas van Schaik
@thomasvanschaik
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Helping professional athletes build better brands | Athlete Brand Strategist | Author of THE ATHLETE BRAND BOOK
Nederland
Joined April 2009
This is already happening across sport, at every level. If you’re building inside systems designed for a more centralized era, this tension will feel familiar. Full piece here:
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Value no longer forms at the moment of performance. It forms in what athletes extend before and after it. Reach has become infrastructure.
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Caitlin Clark’s Nike deal wasn’t historic because of size. It was historic because it bypassed league control. That’s a structural shift.
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Fans no longer enter sport through leagues or broadcasters. They enter through athletes. Faces before logos. Stories before schedules.
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THE WAR FOR TALENT IS OVER. THE TALENT WON. Not on the field. In attention, reach, and value.
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Same book. Different sides of the world. Different paths into the same questions. "Building the Athlete Brand" written across time zones, academia, and professional sport, with Hans Westerbeek & @RoutledgeBooks. Link below 👇
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Proud to have a piece in the new edition of The Long Game from @SportBusiness. My article looks at how athlete value is moving from something negotiated to something calculated through data, culture, and real-time influence. Read it here:
longgame.sportbusiness.com
Brand power, cultural relevance and real-time influence will now drive value – and the smartest athletes are measuring that themselves.
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More on digital twins & ‘authenticity’ @"EVERYWHERE ISN'T EVERYTHING" https://t.co/cKCAdv7CTI on @LinkedIn
linkedin.com
Dear insider, I was in Poland yesterday, speaking at the Sports Business Congress, and I loved it. Great energy, thoughtful people, and big questions about where athlete brands go next.
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Digital athlete activations: work in progress. Most elite athletes will soon have a digital twin that never sleeps.
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.@VictoriasSecret Secret dropped the “Angels” to modernize the brand. Now its first athlete on the runway is Angel Reese (5M on Instagram, 700K on X). For years, brands chose the faces of influence. Now, athletes walk in owning the story and the audience. From 🪽to 🚀
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#Athletes aren’t just performers anymore. They’re entrepreneurs reshaping the future of sport. Proud to co-author my first peer-reviewed article with Hans Westerbeek in @Frontiers in Sports and Active Living. Read here 👉 https://t.co/JWn0YHGOl4
#SportsBusiness #AthleteBranding
frontiersin.org
This systematic review examines how elite athletes are leveraging digital platforms, generative artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain to build autonom...
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A strong brand has strong character. Decide your principles and stick to them.
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Still can’t believe this Babe Ruth/Shohei Ohtani comp is real.
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These 8 free AI guides are better than most $1,000 courses (links are 👇)
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I’d bet every dollar to my name, Jake Paul will be a billionaire by 2030. Not because of YouTube boxing (a $1 BILLION-a-year beast he helped build). But because he cracked the Gen Z attention code, and it’s so simple, you’ll wish you saw it first.
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And the final four: 📸 Logos don’t sell; your face does 🎭 Endorsements are scripted; engagement is real 🤝 Networking is abstract; you connect ❤️ Likes are fleeting; loyalty is lasting 2/2
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Here's the list: 🌍 Exclusion divides; sport unites 📺 Gen Z ignores TV; they watch you 🎯 Ads distract; you engage 📲 Sponsors get overlooked; you get supported 🏆 Brands have customers; you have fans 1/2
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