THE FREE PRESS – We’re in the Cavinder Twins’ apartment eight floors above the sun-dappled sprawl of South Florida.
A blender whirrs, mixing kiwi-yogurt-almond butter smoothies.
A photographer takes pictures. A representative from the Twins’ sports-marketing agency, always scouting for content, takes pictures of the picture-taker.
And the Twins, a tornado of blonde ponytails and crop tops and selfies, talk to or past each other—a high-pitched swirl of voices woven together in a strangely cohesive harmony.
Their apartment is sleek, generic, devoid of personal detail. There are no photographs of parents or siblings, no refrigerator magnets, no books (except for quarterback Tim Tebow’s latest meditation on God and the quest for personal meaning).
As of early 2023, the former college basketball-players-turned-full-time-influencers had earned north of $2 million. Since then, they’ve signed endorsements and agreements with companies whose values, they say, align with theirs—including YouTuber Jake Paul’s sports-gambling outfit Betr.
This afternoon, the Twins are debating how they should announce their new agreement with Bucked Up, which sells energy boosters like Woke AF dietary supplement and Rocket Pop (which “tastes like America,” according to the company website).
“We could just do a TikTok,” Haley says to Hanna, “like, ‘Just finished a workout with our Bucked Up.’ ” She pauses. “Or we could make it organic?”
Hanna chimes in: “Brainstorm!”
The Twins’ attorney, Darren Heitner, calls their stratospheric rise a “blueprint” for other college athletes trying to cash in on the new, multibillion-dollar market.
That market is the result of a 2021 Supreme Court ruling that led the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the 117-year-old organization that governs college sports, with roughly 1,100 member schools nationwide, to change its name, image, and likeness (or NIL) policy—enabling student athletes to cash in on their athletic prowess …
