Small-school NIL entrepreneurship: Moolah Kicks, shoes ‘built by and for female ballers’

By Canadian Press on April 2, 2025.

Kitty Henderson says her name, image and likeness deal with Moolah Kicks has been a perfect fit.

For most of this season, the Columbia women’s basketball star wore shoes that helped her often-injured feet stop hurting, and she supported other women while doing it. The company calls itself “the first and only performance basketball brand built by and for female ballers.”

It is an example of how NIL entrepreneurship is working under the radar at small schools. Henderson said Moolah also is a reflection of what’s happening in the sport.

“We’ve seen such a growth of women’s basketball in general,” said the Australian, who wore the shoes during the regular season. “So I think it’s been such a nice place for Moolah to come in as a woman-dominated company and serve women in that area.”

Natalie White, the CEO and founder of Moolah Kicks, started the company in 2020. The Phantom 1 launched at more than 140 Dick’s Sporting Goods stores in 2021. Dick’s expanded distribution into more than 500 stores in 2022, when Moolah released its second model, the Neovolt Pro.

In the fall of 2023, White expanded into the youth market with the Press Break, debuting Moolah’s first low-top shoe, the Neovolt Pro Low, and introduced another model, the Triple Double.

As of 2024, Moolah shoes were in 631 stores. Retail sales jumped 47% from 2023 to 2024.

Moolah has had NIL deals of varying degrees with more than 80 basketball players. They include UConn’s Caroline Ducharme and Akron’s Maddie Vejsicky. Shelomi Sanders — Colorado football coach Deion Sanders’ daughter — had in-store appearances and signings while she was on the Colorado women’s basketball team before she transferred to Alabama A&M.

White, who was named last year to the Sports Business Journal’s New Voices Under 30, said the timing of her shoes taking off was ideal with NIL emerging and women’s basketball’s visibility increasing.

“With NIL, that was something macro that you didn’t know was going to happen, right?” she said. “Who was to know that legislation was going to pass allowing athletes to now really market themselves and make money off of it?”

Henderson said the shoes helped improve her performance. She averaged 13.3 points, 6.2 rebounds and 4.8 assists this season — all career highs and keys to a 24-7 season by Columbia that included a First Four win over Washington.

“I don’t have to worry about my feet being in pain,” Henderson said during the regular season. “I can just play freely, which is really, really nice. And I honestly just came to the point where I was like I’m just constantly in pain and I tried Moolahs and, honestly, now I’m not really feeling any pain at all.”

Most of the athletes, like Vejsicky and Ducharme, can’t wear the shoes during games because of deals their schools have with other companies.

Vejsicky has used them during workouts.

“It’s honestly helped my shin splints a lot,” she said. “There’s nothing really I can say that’s bad about it. I mean, it truly is what they say, that it fits a woman’s foot how it should and literally needs no time to break in at all.”

Ducharme, whose UConn squad beat Southern California to reach the Final Four, said businesses like Moolah Kicks will grow as the women’s game grows.

“I think with everything that’s going on right now in women’s sports and women’s basketball in particular, it’s so important to really be able to use our platform and be able to support other women getting involved in the sport,” Ducharme said. “For so long, it was just (considered) women playing a man’s sport. And now I think it’s developing more into women playing basketball in general.”

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Cliff Brunt, The Associated Press