- Caitlin Clark and Midwestern grocery chain Hy-Vee have launched a new community initiative focused on supporting local students and athletes across the Midwest.
- The initiative was unveiled via an Instagram video featuring Clark engaging with local community members, with the Turner High Lady Bears highlighted as a beneficiary school.
- Clark and Hy-Vee go back to 2021, making this one of her longest-running brand partnerships alongside newer deals with Nike, State Farm, Gatorade, and Wilson Sporting Goods.
- On the court, Clark is in her third Indiana Fever season, averaging 24.3 points and leading the WNBA in assists at 9.0 per game.
Caitlin Clark and Hy-Vee are taking their five-year partnership to the next level. The two announced a new community impact initiative on May 18, 2026, aimed at helping students and athletes thrive on and off the court in Midwest communities.
A minute-long Instagram video revealed Clark engaging with local community members, shining a spotlight on the Turner High Lady Bears. The full video is available on Hy-Vee’s YouTube page.
This move deepens one of Clark’s earliest endorsement relationships. Beyond Hy-Vee, Clark has been busy on the brand front, her youth-focused work with Eli Lilly was recently spotlighted for its community health angle, while her ongoing State Farm campaign which put her front and center in a high-profile basketball push continues to make waves.
Hy-Vee, for its part, has a strong track record of athlete-led community campaigns, previously partnering with Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes on charity-tied cereal lines. Clark herself was featured on Hy-Vee’s “Caitlin’s Crunch Time” cereal in an earlier collaboration.
On the court, Clark is having a strong start to her third WNBA season, posting a double-double (21 points, 10 assists) in Indiana’s recent 89-78 win over the Seattle Storm. She currently leads the league in assists per game.
Takeaways
Clark and Hy-Vee aren’t just renewing a contract, they’re evolving it. Moving from a product-focused campaign (cereal branding) to a community-impact initiative signals that Clark’s brand partnerships are maturing alongside her on-court stature. It also reflects a broader industry shift: sponsors aren’t just buying an athlete’s face, they’re buying into her values.
For Hy-Vee, whose celebrity roster has ranged from Kelce and Mahomes to IndyCar drivers, Clark remains arguably its most culturally relevant partner.
And for Clark, already the most endorsed female athlete in the world, this kind of roots-level community work reinforces her off-court identity as authentically as any TV spot ever could.
Does tying brand partnerships to community impact make athletes like Clark more or less marketable in the long run? Is Hy-Vee positioning itself as the go-to Midwest grocery brand for athlete-driven social good, and can that strategy compete nationally?
