NFL Running Backs Dalvin Cook And J.K. Dobbins Take Control Of Their Memorabilia Game

Minnesota Vikings running back Dalvin Cook cashed in two weeks ago with a five-year, $63 million contract extension, including a $15.5 million signing bonus. It was a reward for a dominant fourth season in the NFL last year when his 118 all-purpose yards per game ranked second behind Carolina Panthers back Christian McCaffrey.

The deal is part of the 25-year-old’s efforts to take charge of his game off the field, which features an online memorabilia shopping mall managed by sports agency Loyalty Above All, which represents Cook.  The offering includes game-worn gloves (more than $1,200) and jerseys (up for auction), as well as his popular chef-branded hoodies ($50), a play on his last name and touchdown celebration where he stirs an imaginary pot.

The move is a shift from the traditional memorabilia marketplace, which is largely dictated by dozens of firms that pay athletes a fixed fee in return for a certain number of signed items and keep as much as 80% of the gross revenue for the work. A few big players, including Fanatics and SportsMemorabilia.com, have emerged for authenticated signed products.

“If you have the right players that understand they can control their own market, it is way more profitable to keep everything in-house,” says Loyalty Above All founder and Cook’s agent, Zac Hiller. 

The timing is sharp. The sports memorabilia market has been on a tear in recent years, including a Babe Ruth jersey that sold in 2019 for $5.6 million, a record price for a piece of sports memorabilia (the original 1892 Olympics manifesto topped it six months later at $8.8 million). 

The coronavirus has goosed the collectibles market even more, as fans re-directed part of the money spent on events tickets towards memorabilia and a wave of nostalgia washed over sports fans stuck at home. Sports trading card sales were reportedly up 92% on eBay in the three months thru May, compared to the 2019 fourth quarter. A rookie trading card of Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout sold for a record $3.9 million in August, while shares of publicly traded Collectors Universe, which authenticates cards, autographs and sports memorabilia, are up nearly four-fold since their April lows. 

A new online marketplace, Collectable, launched this month to allow collectors to obtain “shares” of valuable memorabilia, with the first item a $2.5 million Mickey Mantle card. It is following the path of Rally Rd., which launched in December 2017.

Loyalty Above All has 10 NFL players on its client roster, including rookie running back J.K. Dobbins, who will also sell his own memorabilia and game-used items through the agency’s platform. The Super Bowl-favorite Baltimore Ravens selected Dobbins in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft, but with Covid restrictions keeping fans away from training camps and interacting with NFL players, he has not signed any autographs since he left Ohio State. 

Dobbins, 21, will control the inventory for any of his signed products through his personal online store. The only costs are administrative fees to execute the order and in the case of a game jersey, $250 to his team. Dobbins kept his jerseys for the Ravens’ first two games of the season, but his game jersey for the Ravens’ marquee matchup tomorrow against the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night Football will go up for auction on the platform.

Authentication is a critical component of the sports memorabilia market, and Hiller says Cook and Dobbins will have individual holograms to authenticate their signed products. Marketing won’t be a problem either. Both running backs have growing social media followings on Instagram and Twitter to engage with fans, who can now be tapped as potential customers.

Controlling the inventory offers the chance for a more personalized experience for fans. Cook can customize a message to the fan that pays say $2,000 for a game-worn jersey. Cook and Dobbins are also both bypassing celebrity shoutout platform Cameo, which takes a 25% cut of each transaction, and offering their own 30-second custom videos for die-hard fans. “Once you have the platform, you can include any product or service that a fan might want from an athlete,” says Hiller.

The NFL has its own auction site for game-used gear and all profits go to charity. Cook and Dobbins will both donate at least 10% of their merchandise sales as well, according to Hiller. Cook has been a financial and promotional backer of the Vikings food truck, which launched last year to combat youth food insecurity.

The memorabilia market is driven largely by performance, with a big primetime game immediately triggering spending on an athlete’s gear, and Hiller wants his clients to keep that upside. 

“Athletes should take control of their brand,” he says. “They should take control of everything that happens to them and understand all the different revenue generators of being a pro athlete.”