Things are finally starting to calm down for Jeff Chu ’07. Over the last few weeks, business has been booming for Chu’s hat company, LACES, thanks to Steph Curry wearing one to Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals between the Golden State Warriors and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The hat was apparently one of a few Chu sent to fellow Bronco and Warrior’s guard Brandin Podziemski ’25. Instead, cameras caught Curry on the sidelines cheering on his Dubs teammates in a hat featuring the phrase “Bay Area,” curved and upside down.
The response was immediate. Various versions of the “Bay Area” hat sold out in minutes and the LACES website opened presales. Impressive for a side company that launched a year and a half ago. “I was excited because Steph’s my favorite player, and I grew up in the Bay. I’m a big Warriors fan,” says Chu, a father of four and director of operations at a CPA and financial advisory firm in San Francisco. “But really the whole time I was thinking, ‘Oh my god, what are the kids thinking?’”
By kids, Chu means college athletes. He built LACES to help more student athletes benefit from the NCAA’s name, image and likeness policy, or NIL. Until 2021, students were prohibited from making deals to profit off their fame the way professional athletes do. But, as Chu points out, only the top 1% of college athletes are really able to take advantage of NIL. LACES gives all college athletes—whether they’re a Pac-12 quarterback or a cross-country runner at a small, Jesuit university in Northern California—a shot at earning commission from products sold under their name. But perhaps more importantly, Chu says it gives them practical, real-world career experience.
“It’s crazy what college athletes go through,” he says. “They’re competing at almost the highest level of sports full-time, balancing 5 a.m. practices and late-night study sessions. But they’re also adjusting to a brand-new environment and social group just like any other college student.”
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They are living extremely complex lives, Chu says, but then 99% of them won’t go pro. “And then they’re entering the workforce with an empty resume. It didn’t make us feel good,” he says about his inspiration to start LACES. “So we’re trying to craft an NIL experience for athletes where they use their experience with us to help uplift their resumes and their brand when they enter the workforce.”
Once accepted, LACES athletes get a personalized roster page—their “marketing megaphone to the world”—that includes their bio, press links, social links, other NIL deals. They also get a free hat and are encouraged to post about their chosen products on social media. If a product is purchased through their individual links, they get a commission.
Professional athletes wearing LACES products boost publicity. Other big names to don LACES apparel: Fred Warner, Kyle Juszczyk, and George Kittle of the 49ers, and Kobie Turner of the Los Angeles Rams. It’s up to the student athletes to harness that, Chu says. “Some of our more savvy athletes took all the press around [Steph] Curry and they’re just like story, story, link, link, link, story, story, link, link, link. And it obviously works.”
Chu sees starting LACES as a natural progression of what he learned as a student at Santa Clara. He saw a problem with student athletes being left behind, and he looked for a solution. “What I was challenged with at Santa Clara was problem solving. My professors would always direct us to figure out how to solve problems and issues and think about things differently,” he says. “I learned to approach problems from different angles and not just my own personal bias. I don’t think there’s a more valuable tool than that.”