By Kimberly Wilson ·Updated May 6, 2026 < /> Getting your Trinity Audio player ready… We’re going to go ahead and say it: Angel Reese might be the most business-savvy 20-something-year-old in women’s sports right now. The Bayou Barbie turns 24 today, and the moves she’s been making off the court deserve their own celebration.
Unless you’ve lived under a rock, you know that Reese has spent the last two years being one of the most talked about athletes in the country. In the words of our good sis, Beyoncé, “you know you that b–ch when you cause all this conversation.” And as we’ve seen, a lot of that conversation had nothing to do with basketball, and even less of it had anything to do with her business. But she kept building anyway, quietly and deliberately, in the way that Black women do, and it’s all been paying off honey.
She has also always been candid about knowing what the WNBA pays its players, and equally candid about the fact that she was not going to sit around waiting for that to change before she started securing her own bag. And secured it has been!
The $1.8 Million NIL Portfolio
Before she played a single professional minute, Reese had already built a NIL portfolio valued at $1.8 million during her time at LSU, with deals spanning Goldman Sachs, Beats by Dre, Airbnb, and Amazon, among others. When the Chicago Sky drafted her seventh overall in 2024, do you think that business slowed down at all? Not in one bit. In fact, it only got bigger. She has since been traded to the Atlanta Dream, where she heads into the 2026 season with a portfolio that most veterans twice her age have not come close to building.
She has been open about how much she loves the game itself, telling ESPN, “I play because I love basketball.” But she has been just as open about understanding that love for the sport and building long term financial security are two entirely different conversations, and she has been intentional about having both at the same time.
Buying Into DC Power FC
In May 2024, Reese was named as a founding investor in DC Power FC, a women’s soccer club in Washington, D.C. that competes in the USL Super League, making her the first person outside the organization’s leadership to publicly take an ownership stake in the club. For a Maryland native who grew up just outside of Baltimore, the decision was personal just as much as it was strategic. “I want to help grow women’s sports and elevate female athletes across the board,” she said at the time, adding that being able to invest in women’s soccer in the DMV specifically meant something to her. DC United’s CEO and co-chair called her decision to join the ownership group groundbreaking. At the time, she had been a professional basketball player for all of a few months.
Joining the TOGETHXR Ownership Group
In 2025, Reese joined the ownership group of TOGETHXR, a media and commerce company co-founded by Alex Morgan, Sue Bird, Simone Manuel and Chloe Kim. Reese’s addition to that group puts her in a room with some of the most decorated and business-minded women in sports history, and it signals something important about how she is thinking about her legacy. “She brings a confidence and leadership that adds to the legacy we’re building,” Bird said of Reese joining the group, and given everything Reese has put together before her 24th birthday, Bird is clearly not wrong.
The Reebok AR1
What started as an NIL deal at LSU in 2023 became one of the most talked about sneaker launches in recent memory. When the Angel Reese 1 dropped in September 2025, all three colorways, “Diamond Dust,” “Mebounds,” and “Receipts Ready,” sold out within hours across every size. Reebok’s CEO reportedly moved the launch up a full year because the momentum around her was too strong to sit on. She became the fastest player in 20 years to get a signature shoe, and the first WNBA player with a Reebok since Rebecca Lobo in 1997. The demand was strong enough that Reebok extended the line to kids sizes shortly after.
The Reese’s x Hershey’s Deal
The Hershey’s partnership started because Reese called her fanbase “Reese’s Pieces” on social media. The candy brand responded publicly, and her team turned a Twitter moment into a licensed apparel collection with one of the most recognizable candy brands in the country. If you need a case study in knowing your own cultural power and monetizing it without selling yourself short, that’s it right there.
The Team Behind the Brand
Reese has been selective in a way that most young athletes are not, and a lot of that credit goes to her agent Jeanine Ogbonnaya. Ogbonnaya has said publicly that they “turned down more deals than they accepted” early on, specifically to protect how brands perceived Reese and to make sure every partnership actually reflected who she is. The result is a portfolio that spans Goldman Sachs and Mielle Organics, Hershey’s and Bose, and it all feels like her.
At 24, most people are still figuring out their career. Angel Reese is already two ownership stakes, a sold-out signature shoe, and 20 plus brand deals deep into hers.
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