- St. John's transfer Tounde Yessoufou has signed an NIL deal with Reebok Basketball, making him the first native-born athlete from Benin to sign with a major shoe company.
- The 20-year-old five-star wing averaged 17.8 points and 5.9 rebounds per game as a freshman at Baylor before turning down the 2026 NBA Draft to transfer to St. John's for a reported ~$6 million NIL deal.
- Yessoufou joins Reebok's rising basketball roster alongside Angel Reese, Darius Acuff, Aneesah Morrow, and Lauren Betts.
- The signing marks Reebok's first major NIL deal with a current male college basketball athlete ahead of the season, a key move in the brand's aggressive basketball comeback led by Shaquille O'Neal and Allen Iverson.
Tounde Yessoufou is officially a Reebok athlete. The St. John’s transfer announced the NIL deal on June 16, 2026, joining one of the sport’s fastest-growing brand rosters.
Yessoufou is now the first native-born athlete from Benin to sign a shoe deal with a major shoe company. a historic milestone that adds cultural weight to an already headline-grabbing partnership.
The 20-year-old averaged 17.8 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 2.0 steals per game while starting all 34 games at Baylor as a five-star freshman. He then entered the transfer portal ranked No. 6 overall and secured a lucrative NIL deal from St. John’s worth close to $6 million, turning down the NBA Draft to play for head coach Rick Pitino.
His $1.4 million On3 NIL Valuation has now been supercharged with the Reebok deal. This move follows other college NIL wave seen in deals like Raven Johnson’s partnership with Aflac and the Wendy’s NIL Dunk Team signings.
Yessoufou joins Angel Reese, Darius Acuff, Aneesah Morrow, Lauren Betts, and more on Reebok’s growing basketball roster. Darius Acuff, a projected lottery pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, became the first NCAA men’s athlete to receive a signature shoe from a major brand while still in college.
Angel Reese signed her NIL deal with Reebok Basketball in 2023, which paved the way for her first signature shoe, the Reebok Angel Reese 1. Shaquille O’Neal serves as Reebok Basketball’s president and Allen Iverson as vice president, two of the brand’s most iconic basketball alumni, are leading the charge.
Takeaways
Reebok is no longer just riding nostalgia. With O’Neal and Iverson at the helm, the brand is systematically planting flags on the next generation’s biggest names, before they hit the NBA.
Signing Yessoufou before his college season even tips off is a calculated move: if he lights up the Big East and declares for the 2027 Draft, Reebok is already in position. This is brand-building through foresight, not reaction.
The Benin angle isn’t just a footnote, it’s a marketing narrative. Yessoufou’s story of leaving home at 15, learning English, and rising to one of college basketball’s most talked-about freshmen is exactly the kind of origin story brands pay millions to attach themselves to. Reebok gets authenticity and global reach in one deal.
Could Yessoufou be next in line for a Reebok signature shoe if he continues his rise at St. John’s? Is Reebok’s NIL-first college strategy the blueprint that finally closes the gap with Nike and Adidas in basketball?
