TORONTO — Sarah Nurse was driving house from a current PWHL Toronto follow when she obtained a little bit of sage recommendation.
It wasn’t from a podcast or a good friend on the telephone. The recommendation got here courtesy of a billboard on the facet of the highway in Canada’s most populous metropolis, that includes her personal face with the Adidas slogan “You bought this.”
“I used to be like, yeah, I do,” Nurse stated with amusing.
The billboard she drove previous is one in all many throughout the nation, together with an enormous commercial at Yonge-Dundas Sq. — Toronto’s closest approximation to Occasions Sq. in New York Metropolis — that pairs Nurse with Tremendous Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes and World Cup champion Lionel Messi.
Nurse, 29, has had main partnerships previously. In 2020, Tim Hortons and Mattel collaborated to make a Barbie doll in her likeness. In 2022, she was featured on a Cheerios field. However within the two years since her breakout efficiency on the Beijing Olympics — wherein she broke a file for factors in a single event (18) — Nurse has turn into one of many greatest faces in ladies’s hockey.
She grew to become the primary lady to seem on the quilt of an EA Sports activities hockey online game with NHL 23. She was a key determine within the launch of the Skilled Ladies’s Hockey League as a member of the player-led bargaining committee that struck a first-of-its-kind CBA in ladies’s skilled hockey. This month, she starred in a Canadian Tremendous Bowl business and was one of many busiest athletes throughout NHL All-Star Weekend, showing at a number of league and accomplice occasions.
“All over the place you flip, it’s like, there’s Sarah,” stated Canadian nationwide crew defender Erin Ambrose.
Nurse’s eight main endorsement offers put her forward of nearly each different skilled hockey participant, exterior of a handful of NHL stars. Amongst ladies and gamers of colour, she is in uncharted territory.
Her ascension has been years within the making — all a part of a fastidiously crafted marketing strategy developed by Nurse and her crew at Dulcedo Administration, a expertise company, to make Nurse not simply one of many faces of the sport, however somebody with the sort of movie star that transcends her sport.
“You don’t have to comply with basketball to know who LeBron James is,” stated her agent, Thomas Houlton. “That’s what we wish to do for Sarah.”
Sarah Nurse holds the Barbie dolls impressed by herself and Marie-Philip Poulin in 2020. (Courtesy of Tim Hortons)
When Nurse signed with Dulcedo in 2019, her fame as a participant was already robust.
At 24 years outdated, Nurse had already been a star on the College of Wisconsin, gained an Olympic silver medal and been drafted with the No. 2 choose within the now-defunct Canadian Ladies’s Hockey League. In these early days, Nurse was typically mentioned as one of many latest branches of a formidable athletic household tree.
Her father, Roger, was an elite lacrosse participant. Her aunt, Raquel, was a celebrated level guard at Syracuse College who married Philadelphia Eagles legend Donovan McNabb. Her cousins embody Kia Nurse, a two-time Olympian and WNBA all-star, and Darnell Nurse, a defenseman for the Edmonton Oilers.
With Nurse’s multifaceted attraction, a number of brokers got here calling.
However after the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, Nurse, who graduated with a enterprise diploma, was trying to discover her pursuits in style and wonder — fields which might be sometimes exterior the areas of experience for conventional sports activities businesses. Nurse, nevertheless, wasn’t taking part in in a typical sports activities panorama.
Within the CWHL, gamers had been paid solely small stipends — Nurse stated she made $2,000 as a rookie within the league — which meant taking part in ladies’s skilled hockey was not a principal supply of revenue.
Dulcedo, which launched as a modeling company however has since expanded into different industries, together with sports activities, may give Nurse extra alternatives to department out.
“She didn’t simply wish to be referred to as Sarah Nurse, the hockey participant,” defined Houlton. “And never simply as a chunk of the (household tree). … It’s been clear from the start that she actually needed to have her personal legacy.”
“After I first signed with them,” Nurse stated, “I did this glamor photoshoot, and I’d by no means carried out something like that earlier than as a result of I’m a hockey participant — no one offers me pretend eyelashes or places lipstick on me. I used to be like, this might be the beginning of one thing nice, as a result of I felt like they obtained me.”
Houlton signed Nurse to blue-chip sports activities companions like CCM and Adidas but additionally labored on increase her social-media profile to place her in areas exterior of hockey. “No skincare model goes to wish to work with you if we don’t see skincare anyplace,” he defined.
On the ice, Nurse was in one other Olympic cycle with Crew Canada main as much as the 2022 Video games in Beijing and in the midst of a interval of upheaval in ladies’s skilled hockey. The CWHL folded in March 2019, and many of the gamers banded collectively to take a seat out {of professional} hockey till a greater league was fashioned. Then the 2020 ladies’s world championships had been canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The stakes had been excessive within the 12 months main as much as the Olympics. For athletes with out big-ticket skilled contracts, the once-every-four-year window the Video games present is a crucial second to become profitable — and a reputation for themselves. A knee damage throughout tryouts put into query whether or not Nurse can be wholesome sufficient to play.
“I got here out of the world championships in Calgary and I used to be on the fourth line — that’s not a secure place to be. Then I blew up my knee,” Nurse stated. “So I’m going into Olympic tryouts and I’m like, I don’t know if I could make this crew.”
To the teaching workers, regardless of the actual fact she couldn’t skate within the months main as much as the event, Nurse had greater than confirmed her value to the Canadian nationwide crew.
“We knew that she was going to be a giant a part of our program if she was wholesome sufficient to go,” stated Canada’s head coach, Troy Ryan. “The mixture of her work ethic and the medical workers did an awesome job getting her again.”
“What I like about Sarah, as a teammate and as a hockey participant, is that she does the little issues proper. She’s versatile within the sense that she will play heart and play wing. She will win attracts, she’s exhausting to play towards, you may belief her in robust matchups,” stated Ambrose. “For thus lengthy with the nationwide crew, that was her m.o. No matter you wanted, she was there.”
Nurse made the crew and was wholesome in time for the beginning of the event. She additionally secured Olympic campaigns with Normal Mills, Sportchek, RBC and extra.
Crew Canada rewrote the file books in Beijing, going undefeated within the event to win a gold medal. Nurse, who began the event on the fourth line, labored her method as much as the highest line with Marie-Philip Poulin and Brianne Jenner, and broke Hayley Wickenheiser’s Olympic scoring file with 18 factors in six video games. She set a file for assists in a single event (13) and have become the primary Black lady to win an Olympic gold medal in hockey.
“That was actually the catalyst for her to take that subsequent step,” stated Houlton. “And actually propelled us into what was the following section of her life.”
Sarah Nurse attends a postgame convention after the PWHL three-on-three showcase at Scotiabank Enviornment throughout NHL All-Star Weekend. (Kevin Sousa / NHLI by way of Getty Pictures)
Ninety minutes earlier than the NHL All-Star red-carpet occasion, Nurse was in a resort room in downtown Toronto doing her hair, getting her make-up carried out and capturing content material for her social media channels — nothing she wasn’t used to.
Her All-Star weekend obligations had began days earlier than, with media and promotional appearances. Earlier that morning, she was on the ice for an outside follow with the PWHL gamers chosen to symbolize the brand-new league on the NHL’s tentpole occasion. She then made a shock go to to a ladies hockey crew with teammates Renata Quick, Natalie Spooner and Adidas.
After leaving the resort, she’d stroll the crimson carpet, shock one other ladies hockey crew — this time with Canadian Tire and Poulin — and, 12 hours after her day began, play within the PWHL three-on-three showcase at Scotiabank Enviornment. That a part of her schedule doesn’t embody the NHL abilities competitors, which Nurse was on the ice for on Friday night time, or the regular-season PWHL sport she performed on Saturday.
“That complete week was a blur,” Nurse stated.
“I don’t even know if we had been anticipating what occurred there when it comes to, like, you may’t even stroll a few steps with out somebody stopping and saying, ‘That’s Sarah Nurse, can I get an image?’” Houlton stated. “It was superb to see how far she’s come.”
Every little thing about Nurse’s NHL All-Star weekend suggests the plan has labored. Within the final 12 months, Nurse has gotten so busy that Dulcedo added Phoebe Balshin to the crew as a senior athlete supervisor in January 2023. Her job was to create a extra strategic plan for Nurse’s model and assist her take the following step.
“After I first got here on, a giant dialog was: Sarah works with so many manufacturers, however what’s her model? Who’s she? What’s her mission and imaginative and prescient?” Balshin stated. “So we mainly constructed out a five-year plan together with her to take us by Milan (the 2026 Olympics.)”
To refine the method, Nurse recognized 4 particular intersections of her personal pursuits and progress alternatives: hockey, style and wonder, entrepreneurship and group. A possible partnership should transfer the needle in not less than a type of classes.
“If one thing doesn’t align with me, we’re not going to do it,” Nurse stated.
Nurse now has eight main sponsors: Adidas, CCM, RBC, Canadian Tire, Tim Hortons, EA Sports activities, Chevrolet and, most not too long ago, Dyson. She’s additionally signed different paid partnerships with magnificence manufacturers equivalent to Dove, L’Oréal and Revlon.
Manufacturers focused Nurse after her Olympic efficiency, however that’s only one a part of the whole bundle. She’s outgoing with an affable attraction, an infectious giggle and an ease on digital camera.
“It comes all the way down to persona, and Sarah could be very a lot one-of-one,” Houlton stated. “Sarah can present up on set straight off the bed and look superb, sound superb, and provides the model one of the best efficiency they’ve ever seen.”
Nurse is a biracial Black lady and is vocal in her help of elevated illustration in a predominantly White sport. Her crew is cautious concerning the intentions of potential sponsors. “I have to ask all the fitting inquiries to be sure that this model isn’t just utilizing her so that they examine their variety field,” Houlton defined.
They’ve additionally labored with companions that Nurse already had in her portfolio to make sure that her targets are being met — not simply the model’s personal goals.
Throughout All-Star weekend, Nurse did a shoot with RBC that included Poulin and Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews, which oriented Nurse as knowledgeable athlete — not simply as a ladies’s hockey participant. Her Adidas marketing campaign has her aligned with massive names exterior of the game, equivalent to Mahomes and Messi. “Our aim is to get her neck and neck with one of the best,” Balshin defined.
Auston Matthews, Sarah Nurse, and Marie-Philip Poulin answered hard-hitting questions from children at an RBC press convention 😂
(by way of @RBC) pic.twitter.com/7T7k7bT8QV
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) February 5, 2024
Final week, Nurse launched “Nursey Night time,” wherein she’s going to host younger Black ladies at PWHL Toronto video games, meet with them postgame and mentor them all year long. The concept began as a method for Nurse to present away her brother’s season tickets each on occasion but it surely ended up with a $50,000 donation from Rogers and a partnership with Black Lady Hockey Membership, a non-profit group centered on making hockey extra inclusive.
“Individuals wish to be concerned in something she does,” Balshin stated. “That’s sort of how we snowball issues over right here.”
On high of promotional appearances and occasions, Nurse posts paid promotions on social media and has gotten extra lively on TikTok, posting movies whereas doing her make-up or skincare, or offering motivation to younger women and girls who go to her channels. Every little thing will get put right into a content material calendar that Balshin manages, and each morning she sends Nurse a textual content outlining “every part we have now to fret about immediately.”
“She has made our lives so much happier,” Nurse stated. “We obtained to a degree the place there was simply an excessive amount of taking place and we couldn’t facilitate every part.”
With every part occurring off the ice, it’s straightforward to neglect that Nurse is one in all Canada’s finest hockey gamers and a face of the PWHL in Toronto. She’s additionally the vp of the PWHL Gamers Affiliation and is on the Hockey Canada participant committee.
Sarah Nurse skates towards PWHL Montreal’s Mariah Keopple at Scotiabank Enviornment. (Mark Blinch / Getty Pictures)
“I’d love to take a seat down and see her calendar,” Ambrose stated. “I’m in awe of what she does away from the rink. I’m in awe of what she does on the rink. I honestly don’t understand how she does it however I like her for it.”
Nurse is aware of it seems like there’s so much on her plate however insists she’s excellent at compartmentalizing. Ryan, additionally her coach with PWHL Toronto, says Nurse’s different obligations have “by no means negatively impacted who she is as a participant.”
“I feel she’s discovered methods to really use it to ensure she nonetheless has an impression within the sport,” he stated. “She’s underneath a highlight and underneath a microscope a lot. I feel that sense of satisfaction she in all probability will get with that has in all probability pressured her to do the additional work.”
“I’m very aware of the truth that for me to do all of this different stuff, I have to carry out my finest on the ice,” added Nurse, who scored two targets on Tuesday night time, together with the sport winner towards Minnesota.
Gone are the times of gamers equivalent to Nurse making solely $2,000 a season to play hockey. Within the PWHL, the minimal wage $35,000, with some high gamers making as a lot as $100,000. Nonetheless, even the league’s finest gamers aren’t getting wealthy taking part in ladies’s skilled hockey.
“The advertising and marketing does imply so much to them and is a principal supply of revenue,” Balshin stated.
The work that Nurse is placing in can also be laying the monitor for all times after hockey, at any time when that comes. It might take one thing unexpected for Nurse to not be on the 2026 Olympics.
Nurse has considered pursuing a number of paths, from actual property funding to launching a clothes line or a manufacturing firm. “I positively have aspirations to increase and develop into completely different sectors,” she stated.
“We would like her to be a face of hockey, interval, not simply ladies’s hockey. And of inclusion in sport,” Balshin stated. “She desires to indicate younger ladies that they are often so many issues.”
(Illustration: Daniel Goldfarb / The Athletic. Photographs: Mark Blinch / Getty Pictures, Nicole Osborne / NHLI by way of Getty Pictures)