DiDi Richards didn’t think about developing her personal brand. It just sort of happened.
While playing basketball for four years at Baylor, Richards sported two curly pigtails on the top of her head, which she refers to as “puffs.” During Baylor’s run to the NCAA championship in 2019, Richards started seeing her hair everywhere. It got to the point where she joked that Baylor fans liked her hair more than she did.
“I would see shirts with emblems of my hair, or people would have hats with fake puffs on top,” she said. “So I think that like accidentally became my brand. It wasn’t something I tried to do, it just happened.”
Richards graduated right before NIL opportunities opened up for college players, but now that branding is such a priority for those at the NCAA level, it has a domino effect in the WNBA as well.
The formula seems simple: The more popular players become in college, the more fans will translate to the WNBA.
Recently, many professional players have made it a priority to return to their alma maters, participating in TV broadcasts and events and mingling with fans. Not only does this give them the opportunity to relive memories with their…
