The San Francisco 49ers star is now a co-founder and investor of While on Earth after having been with the Swoosh since 2017.
Superstar NFL running back Christian McCaffrey recently let his lucrative longtime endorsement deal with Nike expire to join upstart performance wellness brand While On Earth as a co-founder and investor, the company announced Monday. Entering his ninth pro season and his first as a new dad, McCaffrey told Boardroom last month that he felt it was time to join something bigger than himself that he could help make a lasting impact with.
“This was a perfect time for me to be a part of something that can transcend my playing days,” the San Francisco 49ers standout said. “That was what I was feeling in my gut. I believe in the product and the ethos of the entire company.”
Todd Meleney, While On Earth’s co-founder and CEO, was the first employee of fellow performance brand Nobull, eventually becoming its CMO until he left in 2023. In the middle of that year, he said he walked into a Rhode Island CVS and noticed a sign above an adjacent urgent care facility that simply read “wellness.”
“To me, that isn’t wellness,” he told Boardroom. “That is illness. And our definition of wellness is by reaching your full potential and being highly intentional around what it is that you’re hoping to achieve. And that can be in athletics at the highest level with Christian or for everyday people like you or me.”
The company got off the ground in late 2023 and launched its first product last September. Earlier this year Meleney began to talk with McCaffrey’s longtime agent, Ira Stahlberger of Win Sports Group, about what a potential marketing partnership could look like. They discussed their backgrounds, both being about a decade into their respective professional careers, their experiences with footwear and apparel, and the lasting impact they both wanted to make.
But CMC realized he wanted something larger than just a one-off, transactional relationship. The ethos of While On Earth is that time is our most valuable currency, and maximizing the time you have on this planet is everything. Shoes and apparel, the company believes, should improve and enhance your quality of life while you’re running, lifting, playing sports, or going out to dinner.
“It spoke to not just who I am, but who I want to be in the future,” McCaffrey said. “The whole group has the same mindset and a lot of the similar characteristics that I’ve seen work in football. So I was excited to jump on board.”
Subscribe for the biggest stories in the business of sports and entertainment, daily.
The 29-year-old plans on being extremely hands-on in his role as co-founder, talking with Meleney about the business on a daily basis. He said he’s sat in on multiple design meetings and provides input when he feels it’s necessary. In speaking with him, it quickly became apparent that McCaffrey is a total nerd about shoes and footwear.
As he’s dealt with lower leg injuries over the last few years, McCaffrey has become an expert in shoe integrity and how it impacts your entire body. He’s worn everything from cleats and basketball shoes to runners and track spikes, so he has this experiential expertise as an elite athlete that will serve While On Earth well.
“A lot of shoes nowadays skip steps,” McCaffrey said. “There’s the heel counter, the forefoot, the sturdiness of the flat. And then there’s how much support you want on the upper portion of it. And then there’s the way it looks. A marathon shoe is going to be much different than a lifting shoe. Obviously, we still want to make a versatile shoe, but a walk-around shoe might be different than your running shoe. And so we’re trying to figure out how we can make each of these shoes perfect in accordance with what the person’s everyday life requires. Those are a lot of the conversations that we have.”
Equipment matters so much at the NFL level, McCaffrey added. One of the first things his father, longtime NFL wide receiver Ed McCaffrey, taught him was the importance of proper equipment. In studying footwear, Christian has noticed there’s the potential for massive improvement, and he believes While On Earth has the ability to lead the charge in that regard.
“Christian so engaged and passionate,” Meleney said. “It’s exciting to be building this with him. He’s extremely bright and extremely thoughtful with who he aligns himself with, and what he spends his time on. He’s bringing a really clear point of view as a professional athlete to how the product needs to perform to meet his needs on the highest level. And if it meets his needs, it will almost certainly be more than enough for your everyday consumer.”
While McCaffrey has no hard feelings or animosity toward Nike, it was clear that the way he was valued for a long period of time was fading away, he said. And since most athletes don’t get Nike deals when their playing days are over, he started thinking beyond his NFL career and how he could help build a lasting legacy and develop a company from the ground floor.
CMC looked outside of football for entrepreneurial inspiration, citing Andre Agassi and Roger Federer as players who left longstanding existing brands to start something fresh, and helped cultivate successful companies. But more athletes than ever before are getting involved in alternative investments and deals that aren’t just endorsement or ambassador partnerships, with real equity, input, and a seat at the table. And McCaffrey is more prepared than most to take advantage of this trend.
Having spent three years at Stanford in the heart of Silicon Valley, McCaffrey was able to build a network of alumni and entrepreneurs in venture capital and private equity that he reconnected with when he was traded from the Carolina Panthers to the 49ers in 2022. That includes former Niners Super Bowl champion Harris Barton, who went on to become a big VC investor and who McCaffrey considers his godfather, Altamont Capital Management Managing Director Jesse Rogers, longtime Goldman Sachs Managing Director John Underwood, and longtime Silicon Valley lawyer and professor Larry Sonsini.
“With A lot of the VC community and the private equity community, I try to stay in those guys’ ears all the time and just learn,” CMC said. “That’s been the best thing for me as I’ve been involved in outside investments.”
As a new dad, McCaffrey now has a new person in his life relying on him to be successful on and off the field. He said he’s started feeling emotions at a higher level, ready to lead the 49ers after a difficult season where he only played in four games and San Francisco stumbled from a Super Bowl appearance to a 6-11 record. But right now, CMC loves the veteran team and its energy going into the 2025 campaign.
“You could tell everyone was a little bit pissed off from last year,” he said, “and that’s a good place to be. I don’t want to call it an extra level of juice, but when you had a year like last year, you’re more ready and capable to fight. You understand the task at hand, and it’s humbling in the best way. And whenever you can get humbled a little bit, it’s usually good. It keeps that chip on your shoulder.”
Just as McCaffrey and the 49ers strive to reach their full potential on the gridiron, he and Meleney aim to help consumers reach their full potential in their pursuits through While On Earth. Meleney said he wants to build an iconic brand rooted in quality and connection, with small concrete steps toward that goal, which will take decades. But he said they’ve received great positive feedback so far, with more apparel and footwear launches coming over the next six months. So far, the roadmap and projected trajectory of the company, Meleney said, was light-years beyond anything they’d built in the past, including at Nobull, “in every measurable data point.”
McCaffrey is fully bought in to the vision, to build a lasting legacy from the ground up that will last well beyond his storied career. So, even though CMC is still focused on what’s right in front of him, he’s already well-positioned to be ready for what’s next.
Read More:
Boardroom and Under Armour Spotlight Top-tier MLB Talent in ‘King of Diamonds’ Content Series
Kroenke, Harris Blitzer, & Jerry Jones: Sports’ Most Valuable Ownership Empires
In DC, the Washington Spirit Create Space for Everyone
What Drake’s New Single ‘DOG HOUSE’ Signals About His Next Chapter
Kansas City Royals Star Bobby Witt Jr. Is One of One
