Swarm Golden Ale, a similar product at the University of Iowa, has an agreement where 20% of revenue from sales is donated to the Iowa Swarm collective. Created through a partnership between the Iowa Swarm collective and Exile Brewing, Swarm Golden Ale has been wildly successful and incredibly transparent.
In its first two months of sales, Swarm Golden Ale raised $60,000 for Hawkeye athletes. Many collectives have already inked partnerships with alcohol companies, predominately in the craft beer space. In March, Boise State’s Horseshoe Collective was the first to implement the idea in its partnership to create the Horseshoe Golden Ale. Schools with collectives that have since jumped on the beer bandwagon include Iowa, Northern Iowa, Iowa State, Indiana, Cincinnati, West Virginia, and South Carolina. In this beer-driven market, Happy Valley Vodka, is still not the first NIL collective liquor partnership. Collectives at both the University of Tennessee and the University of Alabama have partnered with distilleries to create similar vodka products.