A couple of days before the Cleveland Browns’ season-ending playoff loss to the Houston Texans in January, Amari Cooper walked into the team locker room to greet his teammates. And he didn’t come empty-handed—Cooper brought dozens of pairs of his shoes from his apparel business Route Runners, a fitting name for one of the NFL’s top receivers, and gifted each of his teammates with a pair of his signature sneakers, the 001s, modeled after the Air Jordan 18s.
“They enjoyed them because they never had anything like it before,” he said in an interview. “It felt more personalized for them, which was the true intention. As an athlete growing up, everyone one day wants to have their own shoe like Jordan did. But that’s more probable for basketball players than football players.”
Cooper looks to flip that narrative on its head by refusing to wait for one of the sneaker powerhouses to offer him a signature shoe. Instead, he wants to challenge them.
The former Nike athlete runs routes for a living, but he daydreams about the day he’s running a successful apparel business. The five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver isn’t wasting time turning those daydreams into a reality either. While his upstart venture is still in its startup mode, launching just three years ago, he’s hellbent on building not just a profitable company but one he hopes can rival some of the biggest giants in sportswear such as Puma, Nike and Under Armour.
“That’s definitely my main goal after football,” he said. “We want to be the sports apparel brand, making shoes and gloves, and things of that nature. That’s what I look forward to doing.”
Cooper’s fashion business ambitions aren’t just driven by his eagerness to exercise his creative sense and business acumen on a deeper level. He wants to create generational wealth that even some of highest earning athletes never achieve. He’s not relying on his pass-catching abilities to make that happen.
“It’s a cap on how much a receiver can make; for example, the highest paid receiver makes $35 million (per year), and there’s not a receiver who can make more than that right now,” he said. “But when you own something, the sky is the limit. You determine how much your company makes. It’s something I want to be in control of.”
It’s become trendy for NBA players to launch their own sneaker brands or partner with lesser-known apparel companies to create their own line of shoes. It’s a strategic move that often allows them to garner more influence over creative direction than what’s typically available at places such as Nike and Adidas.
In the NFL, it’s far less common to find star players doing the same. Shoe companies have found it easier to lean on basketball players—who play a far more international sport, aren’t hidden behind helmets and whose playing shoes can be worn on the street—to move product and drive sales. That may be starting to change. New Balance launched its inaugural American football cleat collection and signed Arizona Cardinals rookie wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. to promote them.
Cooper looks to ride this wave of shoe brands getting into the football cleat lane, with plans to start designing his own line next year. He first wants to finish out this current series of 10 sneakers, with the 002s and 003s dropping later this year, and then roll out cleats modeled after the 001 sneakers. His vision doesn’t stop there. He wants to sign NFLers, similar to what New Balance has done, while creating dialogue with the NFLPA to potentially support his product.
Backed by his agent Chafie Fields and others at talent agency Wasserman, he has a small team helping him elevate his brand, including a former Dallas Cowboys marketing team staffer who helps promote Route Runners on social media. There’s another hired gun to help process orders from the brand’s fulfillment center in Cleveland. Cooper is currently looking to hire a CEO with sportswear industry experience to help navigate the brand out of its infancy.
The former All-American at Alabama was inspired by billionaire former Nike CEO Phil Knight and Reebok founder Joe Foster after reading their memoirs years ago. He notes their consistency and persistence through many hurdles that led their eventual success. The athlete entrepreneur, who also partnered with a Chinese factory to manufacturer his products, doesn’t see why he can’t capture his own prosperity despite his attempt to make waves in a crowded apparel space. “I was just motivated by [their stories] and understanding that I do believe that Route Runners can be next,” he said.
Cooper’s putting his money where his mouth is, self-funding his venture to be sustainable long-term after his playing days are over. He has even liquidated some of his other investments, including selling 40 of his 50 rental units across Alabama, North Carolina, Texas and Mississippi to inject more capital into distribution, manufacturing and marketing.
Cooper enters his 10th NFL season looking to finally capture the Lombardi Trophy, which has eluded him his whole pro career. He knows more on-field success will only help drive attention, and potential capital, to his budding apparel company.
Just like the patience he displays when he goes through his route tree on the field, Cooper wants to do the same off the field, remaining focused yet calculated in his approach to grow Route Runners.
“Everything is a process,” he said. “Nothing happens overnight.”
