Patrick Mahomes' growing business empire (2024)

TAMPA, Fla. — Patrick Mahomes is already the new face of the NFL. But at just 25 years old, he’s building an empire as an entrepreneur, as an investor and as an influencer.

Think: Mahomes, Inc.

Mahomes has already joined an elite group of the NFL’s most marketable stars. He hawks State Farm insurance alongside Aaron Rodgers and has replaced Hall of Famer Troy Polamalu as the pitchman for Head & Shoulders. He has his own Adidas shoe and subtly displays his Bose headphones during remote media appearances.

But these traditional marketing avenues are just one part of his portfolio.

What could launch Mahomes past his peers and into a different business stratosphere are his diverse investments in health and fitness technology companies and pro sports franchises in Kansas City (he owns shares of the Kansas City Royals, and his fiancee, Brittany Matthews, is part of the ownership group of Kansas City’s new National Women’s Soccer League franchise), and the social media gravitas he carries.

“The thing with me and Brittany is, we want to invest in this community as much as they’ve invested in us,” Mahomes said.

He’s a young star with a social conscience, a powerful voice who is building a potent brand.

It has all been carefully crafted, and after signing a 10-year, $500 million contract with the Chiefs last summer, Mahomes has the potential to eventually launch himself into a different marketing stratosphere than is possible for most NFL players.

“Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Tiger Woods — these are the types of athletes that have been able to create real corporations around their name, and have equity interests in a bunch of different places,” said Will Ahmed, the CEO of health technology company Whoop, which counts Mahomes as an investor. “Patrick, with the amazing success that he’s had at such a young age, and some of the contracts he’s signed, has been able to follow in their footsteps.”

At 25, Mahomes is a mogul, and yet, this has been a slow build.

He didn’t race to sign marketing deals before the 2017 draft, or even after the Chiefs traded up to take him at No. 10.

He signed an apparel deal with Adidas, but he turned down other business opportunities, nationally and locally in Kansas City. Mahomes and his team preached patience, in both football and business, as his agent, Leigh Steinberg, told ESPN in 2018. Mahomes believed it would be uncouth to start popping up on billboards or appearing in television commercials while he was Alex Smith’s backup. “He grew up in that (professional sports) environment and understood sort of intrinsically a whole of what passes for etiquette in team sports,” Steinberg told ESPN.

It was a different decision than many other young quarterbacks make. Mitchell Trubisky, drafted ahead of Mahomes at No. 2 in 2017, had several major pre- and post-draft deals, with massive national brands such as Bose and Marriott. Trubisky was able to cash in quickly, but there is no question who from the 2017 quarterback class is more marketable now.

“If you can, it’s probably smarter to do what Mahomes did, and kind of sit on the sidelines a little bit, which he did, both literally, and figuratively,” said Jonathan Jensen, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina who specializes in sports marketing and brand strategy. “If your team is OK with that, and then, you know, once you get on the field, once you prove yourself you can pursue opportunities after that. Then, once you start playing well, you’ve got a portfolio that is kind of clean, and you can actually command a higher dollar.”

The Chiefs traded Smith shortly after the 2017 season ended, opening the door for Mahomes on the field and off it.

His first major endorsem*nt deal came in 2018, a partnership with Hunt’s Ketchup. It would have been an odd pairing, the soon-to-be MVP and a condiment, if it weren’t so true to Mahomes’ life. Mahomes revealed in an ESPN The Magazine article in 2018 that he loved ketchup. He received some ridicule for putting the condiment on his steak — how gauche — but it was just a taste of what Mahomes’ business strategy would be. He would lean in to the what he liked and invest his money in areas he was passionate about, mostly sports and health brands.

Locally in Kansas City, his deals include a partnership with grocery store Hy-Vee since 2019; earlier this year, his influence may have helped — through his social media pleading — land the metro area its first Whataburger. The Texas burger chain has two locations planned for Overland Park and Shawnee Mission, Kan., according to the Shawnee Mission Post.

“The (brands) I become partners with, the companies I represent, they all have great leadership, great people throughout their companies,” Mahomes said. “I like to enhance my brand by being part of that, (with companies) that feel like they can build it the right way for a long time. These weren’t quick decisions, and in some cases, the relationships took years.

In his first full NFL offseason, in the spring of 2018, Mahomes met Jim Huether, the CEO of health technology company Hyperice, while attending a quarterback retreat hosted by passing coach Steve Clarkson. Mahomes told Huether he had been using several of the company’s recovery tools, like percussion massager and Normatec boots, since he was in college at Texas Tech.

Huether recalled Mahomes’ genuine curiosity about health and fitness, and particularly about what he could do for his body at age 23 that would set him up for a long career.

“He was such a young athlete, but he was already thinking about investment, and investing in something he truly believed in, and not just something for his own performance, but something that he thought could have an impact on young players, and set an example they could follow,” Huether said.

Fast forward two years to the summer of 2020, and Mahomes’ career and Hyperice had both taken off. In August, Mahomes was one of several high-profile athletes (along with NBA star Russell Westbrook, US Open champion Naomi Osaka, pro surfer Kelly Slater, MLB star Fernando Tatis Jr., among others) to invest in Hyperice’s $48 million Series A funding round.

In October, Mahomes signed an endorsem*nt deal to become the face of the company. A social media ad campaign launched this week, and Mahomes will be heavily featured in the brand’s Super Bowl activations.

“He’s kind of cemented his position this year as an icon,” Huether said. “The response we’ve gotten around him and his brand has been absolutely remarkable. I think his growth trajectory is incredible as well. He has the perfect kind of forward-thinking approach to align with a brand like ours. And I’m confident he’s going to make a lot of money off his investment as well.”

Mahomes’ endorsem*nt and investment portfolio also includes Whoop, a wearable health tracker that has a deal with the NFL Players Association, and BioSteel.

He is heavily featured in ad campaigns, but for these brands, he’s also highly involved in product testing and design.

Ahmed, the CEO of Whoop, said one crucial piece of feedback he received directly from Mahomes was how athletes like Mahomes could wear the device — which tracks biodata including heart rate, pulse oxygen levels, sleep data and other fitness and recovery markers — during high-intensity activity. Mahomes preferred to wear his Whoop device on his upper arm, so Whoop designed an armband specifically for Mahomes and now sells it to the public. Ahmed said the band initially designed for Mahomes has been popular with Crossfit athletes and MMA fighters.

“He’s been a face of the brand,” Ahmed said. “He’s, you know, given us some feedback, we’ve talked about the future of sports, around data sharing, and what information he would be willing to share with fans or not share with fans. And because he’s an investor in Whoop, that makes him really a lifetime partner.”

It’s not surprising Mahomes is now one of the NFL’s most marketable stars: He’s won at unprecedented levels, with a league MVP award and a Super Bowl championship before he turned 25, and now, the chance to win back-to-back Super Bowl titles; he has a pristine off-field reputation and is beloved even outside the Kansas City market.

He also brings a massive social media presence, with 4.2 million followers on Instagram, third-most among NFL quarterbacks (behind Tom Brady’s whopping 8.2 million, and Russell Wilson’s current count of 4.9 million, but at least double the other quarterbacks in his age range; Dak Prescott has 2.1 million, Baker Mayfield has 1.7 million, and Deshaun Watson is at 1.5 million). Mahomes has another 1.74 million followers on Twitter, where he is active in sharing memes and emojis and responding to fans, media and teammates.

Matthews, Mahomes’ fiancee, has her own considerable Instagram presence, with 843,000 followers. She frequently posts workout videos and behind-the-scenes glimpses of the couple’s home life as they prepare to welcome their first child, a daughter, in late February.

Mahomes and Matthews can’t quite match the star wattage of Brady and Giselle, or even Wilson and his wife, pop star Ciara, but they could be the next NFL power couple.

Matthews, a former college soccer player at the University of Texas-Tyler, is part of the investment group bringing a new NWSL team to Kansas City.

That announcement in late December came several months after Mahomes purchased a minority ownership stake in the Kansas City Royals. The son of a Major League baseball player, it was a natural fit and further cemented his sports ties to Kansas City.

“Kansas City is a place where women’s soccer is really emphasized and supported, so it’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Mahomes said. “We want to continue to invest in this community and make it the best it can possibly be.”

These diverse investments are one way Mahomes differs from some of his NFL predecessors, but he’s able to do so because of the massive contract he signed last summer.

Veteran sports marketing agent Steve Rosner, who represented Troy Aikman and Steve Young in their business endeavors when they were active players and currently does the marketing deals for a number of retired players such as Howie Long, said the NFL money is only now starting to reach the point where it’s a sound financial decision for active players to invest.

And Mahomes has the biggest, and longest, NFL deal in history. If given the choice between equity or a larger endorsem*nt fee, Mahomes could afford to take a longer-term approach.

“Back then, they couldn’t do it; it was a bigger risk on their portfolio,” Rosner said. “With these $100 million-plus deals, you can be a bit more aggressive. These guys now can take a chance of hitting a home run, by taking stock, taking equity.”

But Mahomes also has the potential to differ from his elite NFL quarterback peers in another way: He isn’t afraid to use his considerable platform to speak out on social justice issues.

Last summer, Mahomes was one of more than a dozen NFL players to create a Black Lives Matter video aimed at NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and the league’s inaction in the days after George Floyd, a Black man, was killed by a Minneapolis police officer.

It was certainly not an accident that Mahomes was the first player in that video, which was organized by Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas, with significant help from Mahomes’ Chiefs teammate Tyrann Mathieu, to say the words “Black Lives Matter.”

In multiple virtual media sessions this week leading up to Sunday’s Super Bowl, Mahomes was asked and deftly answered questions about Black Lives Matter, his involvement in voting education and registration drives (he helped fund the voting site at Arrowhead Stadium) and his thoughts on Black History Month. It was a marked contrast to Bucs quarterback Tom Brady, who has for years declined to publicly make any political statement other than the time he placed a Make America Great Again hat in his locker in New England in 2015, a year before Donald Trump was elected president.

Brady in the past year has signed on to resolutions issued by the Players Coalition, a sign of his support for social justice causes, but has largely refrained from making public comments. Asked this week by USA Today columnist Nancy Armour about his ability to remain silent, Brady paused and said he didn’t know how to respond to a hypothetical. “We’re in this position, like I am, to try to be the best I can be every day as an athlete, as a player, as a person in my community for my team and so forth,” Brady said. “So, yeah, not much else to say.”

Mahomes has plenty to say, and so far, speaking up hasn’t hurt his off-field earning potential, because he’s authentically himself. He said this week he has spoken to NBA star LeBron James, among others, for guidance about combining sports and business and social responsibility.

“I try to take from them, and then kind of use my own voice in my own way to make an impact in my community,” Mahomes said.

Now, with Mahomes set to play in his second Super Bowl, there will be many discussions about his legacy and his chance to perhaps one day enter Brady’s realm in the race to be considered the greatest of all time.

In business, maybe one day he could rival Peyton Manning.

“When advertisers are looking at Mahomes, he checks all the boxes,” Rosner said. “People like winners, and he has proven in a very short amount of time he can do that, individually and as a team, and I think he can do it for as long as he wants.”

(Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic; Photos: David Eulitt / Getty Images)