Caitlin Clark has been helping to sell out arenas, merchandise in stores and setting new TV ratings in the process — not even two months into her rookie career.
Earlier this year, she signed an endorsem*nt deal with Panini America, a sports collectibles company. She was the first female athlete that they signed fully exclusive for autograph trading cards and memorabilia, which became effective on April 1.
And as part of that multi-year agreement, the company already had plans in the works for the Caitlin Clark Collection.
“As we were going through the process of forming a relationship, one of the things that we talked about was creating a special collection that would be spoke to Caitlin that would celebrate her time at Iowa,” Jason Howarth, the SVP of marketing and athlete relations for Panini America, explained to Fieldhouse Files.
As she was going through the NCAA Tournament in March and April, Panini was beginning to build out their team for this collection.
“To get that into the mix and available at retail, you needed to be developing that starting with that February, March window to kind of tell the story and bring this to life,” he said.
And this week, this special collection launched. First in Target for $29.99, with plans to be in Walmart, Hy-Vee, Rally House, Scheels and Panini Direct Hobby Stores soon.
“I told them the moments that probably meant the most to me throughout my basketball career and then they molded the cards around that,” said Clark, who’s only 22 years old. “There's a couple of me playing basketball when I was really young, there's one of me playing basketball in high school. Some for my college days. And then a few other just little moments in between that are really unique and special to myself.”
Mine arrived this week and the packaging is great. It’s 24 cards, four in each pack.
It’s a 15-card set celebrating key moments in her basketball career—such as one celebrating her 3-point shot and one to commemorate when she became the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer. Then, there are a variety of other cards that may be included, some Target exclusive.
Autograph cards will also randomly be included in packs.
“We worked with Caitlin to identify some key defining moments of her time while she was at Iowa and picking up a ball for the first time,” Howarth said. “So it was a mix of those moments up until when she was drafted (in April).
“In some cases, there were images that her and her family provided to us to incorporate into the set. In other cases, we provided the images based off of those moments that she had shared with us and then going back to find those images to correlate with those moments.”
Share
Everything Clark has been involved with has been a big hit. There may be no better example than 2024 WNBA All-Star voting.
As a rookie, she was the leader in the clubhouse and received more than 700,000 votes —seven times what the top vote-getter received just one year ago. And Clark’s teammate, Aliyah Boston, finished in second.
“When we started working on the relationship way back last fall, we viewed Caitlin as a very special athlete that was going to transcend the game,” Howarth said. “So none of this is really kind of surprising. We’ve only produced one other trading card collection that was designated specifically to one other player. And it was Kobe Bryant.
“So it's been really fun just kind of seeing this collection come to life, working with our team and working directly with her team to really showcase the things that were important to her, in terms of telling her story at Iowa.”
Panini America is one of many major companies working with Clark. Others include Nike, Gatorade, State Farm, Wilson, Xfinity and Gainbridge.
“I think it's a cool, unique thing not only for me,” Clark said of the collection, “but also fans to get their hands on and chase those cards. Obviously, some will have my signature on them and some won't.
“Getting to design that, I got to be hands-on and tell them what has meant the most to me throughout my basketball journey and even through life. And design those cards around that.”
And for those interested in her rookie card, stay tuned. She will be featured in their Origin product that is scheduled to be released in August.
The Fever have five games left before All-Star break. And then Clark will be featured at All-Star Weekend in Phoenix on July 20.
