Paige Bueckers is winning the partnerships game. Her new Fanatics deal shows how

Growing up, WNBA star Paige Bueckers says she was “huge” on sports memorabilia. She collected items across a range of sports from her favorite players, including their posters, autographs, and jerseys. Today, she’s having a full circle moment: Bueckers just announced an exclusive, multi-year deal with Fanatics, which will make the sports apparel juggernaut the sole provider of her memorabilia and collectibles.

The Paige Bueckers Fanatics collection pulls from both her collegiate career with the UConn Huskies (which she led to four Big East Tournament wins, four Final Four appearances, and a National Championship title) and her current professional career as a guard on the Dallas Wings, and includes autographed and inscribed basketballs, jerseys, photos, shoes, and select game-used equipment. The collection is currently live across Fanatics’ network of sites, including Fanatics.com and WNBAStore.com. 

Bueckers, who graduated from the University of Connecticut in 2024, was one of the first college athletes to benefit from the Supreme Court’s 2021 ruling allowing amateurs to profit off of their own name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights. She became a trailblazer in using strategic NIL deals to expertly market her own brand, racking up an estimated $1.5 million net worth by her final 2024–2025 NCAA season. 

Now, with this Fanatics partnership, she’s bringing that honed business savvy into her pro career—and using her own visibility to uplift her fellow athletes. 

Inside the new Paige Bueckers Fanatics collection

Prior to this deal, Bueckers’s likeness was already a sales hit for Fanatics. After being selected first overall in the 2025 WNBA draft by the Wings, Bueckers became this year’s Rookie of the Year and an All-Star player. According to a Fanatics press release, “Her jersey and other merchandise was an immediate hit and flew off the shelves all season long, with sales on draft night becoming the second best by a WNBA player in league history.”

For Fanatics, this partnership is part of a larger plan to become “the Amazon of sports,” as Fast Company put it in a 2023 feature. The brand is currently the single biggest manufacturer and distributor of sports fan apparel in the U.S., sitting at a valuation of an estimated $31 billion as of 2022. Still, it’s set its sights on growing even further by expanding into—and eventually dominating—the collectibles market.

Bueckers says Fanatics’s “incredible reach” will also help her connect with as many young fans as possible, echoing her own early memories of collecting memorabilia of her favorite athletes. Beyond that, the Fanatics deal is a recent example of how Bueckers leverages brand partnerships to give back to young athletes. 

Dominating on the court and in the brand world

Bueckers is no stranger to brand deals. In fact, she’s something of a leader in a new era of financial empowerment for emerging athletes.

In 2021, Bueckers became the first college athlete to sign with Gatorade mere months after the implementation of NIL. During the remainder of her college career, she penned deals with major names including Bose, Intuit, Verizon, Madison Reed, Google Chrome, and Epic Games. Just before her pro debut, she joined DoorDash as its first-ever athlete creative director. And, this June, she partnered with Nike and Levi’s on a sporty, denim-centric apparel collection.

In short, Bueckers has expertly curated a portfolio of some of the most recognizable brand partners in the sports world, despite entering college with what she’s described as very limited experience managing her own finances. Still, she says, the most important lesson that she learned after being cast into the deep end of sports sponsorships during college was to only work with brands that align with her values. 

“Having a team that understands that and negotiates that in every single one of my deals was really important,” Bueckers says. “Continuing to give back was the most important thing of all, because you can easily make NIL about yourself only.”

Dealmaking for a more inclusive sport

Bueckers has historically been outspoken on a number of issues impacting women’s sports, and basketball in particular—especially as the WNBA has recently hit record viewership and attendance benchmarks, drawing new attention to the league. 

In a June interview with Time magazine, she highlighted racial discrepancies in player brand deals, citing the need to uplift her Black teammates: “I do think there’s more opportunities for me,” she said. “I feel like even just marketability, people tend to favor white people, white males, white women.” Recently, she demonstrated her support for the WNBA’s players union, which is currently negotiating with WNBA leadership to secure better compensation for players. 

At a July All-Star game, Bueckers joined her fellow players in donning a black T-shirt that read “Pay Us What You Owe Us” during warm-ups. She’s also invested in and recently joined Unrivaled, a three-on-three women’s basketball league that plays in the winter and features WNBA stars. The league was cofounded by Napheesa Collier, vice president of the players union, and offers competitive salaries to players.

Off the court, Bueckers runs an eponymous foundation dedicated to promoting social justice in youth sports and providing support to low-income children and families. When selecting brand partners, she says her college career taught her to prioritize companies that will contribute to her foundation and others, as well as include her teammates. If those goals aren’t shared, it probably won’t be a good fit.

“I want my deals to be very inclusive and not just a one-off,” Bueckers says.

The Fanatics deal is a demonstration of those values in action. According to the press release, Fanatics will make a “significant annual donation to the Paige Bueckers foundation” as part of the partnership. Fanatics declined to share specifics on the terms of the deal or its annual donation with Fast Company.

“I think there are great, creative ways that I can connect with the people that support me and provide people with a special collection of memorabilia,” Bueckers says. “Along with that, the values are aligned with them supporting my foundation and donating so I can continue to use basketball and my platform for good.”

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