Exploring Creativity

For Maryland track and field’s Jayla Bynum, NIL has allowed her to find a balance between athletics and her personal life while empowering her to explore different creative outlets. 

Bynum is a graduate sociology major who stars in the shot put for the Terps. Athletics is a big part of her life, but she emphasizes finding other interests outside of sports. One of those interests is fashion, and her partnership with Hot Topic has provided her an avenue to capture what she calls an authentic experience. 

“Something that has been important to me is knowing and allowing the world to see that I am more than an athlete,” Bynum explained. “So I think that bridging that gap with this opportunity that NIL has afforded has allowed me to kind of bridge the idea with my personal life, my personal interests and as well as like sports and being an athlete.”

Hot Topic is a retail store specializing in counterculture-related clothing and accessories. Their audience is geared toward those interested in rock music and video gaming, with most of their audience ranging from teens to young adults. 

Bynum acknowledged the company as outside of her comfort zone. However, Hot Topic allowed her to create her own experience both in terms of the fashion they provided and the interactions Bynum created with the company.

“I was able to kind of go out of my comfort zone and go somewhere I usually [wouldn’t],” Bynum said. “But having the opportunity to work with them firsthand and get some cool new clothing styles from them and to kind of tap into my creative kind of realm.”

Hot Topic allowed Bynum to go in store and pick out certain fashions that matched her personality and style. Overall, the company started small and has left avenues to continue the partnership based on how each other’s experience goes, according to Bynum. 

The tailored experience even extends to the social media posts Bynum is required to make. Hot Topic wanted her to post on the platforms she most frequently uses to help further capture an authentic experience. With that comes creative freedom with the content, she says. 

Bynum received help from one of her friends, who’s a photographer. Hot Topic allowed her to follow Bynum around the store and take photos. This allowed Bynum to bring a level of professionalism and polish to the company. 

“Bringing the professionalism type of look to it [has] caught me a couple of more pending contracts with other brands,” Bynum said. “I think it's just helped elevate kind of like from Oh, I'll just make a simple Instagram post. To like okay, where's the creative being?”

Bynum transferred to Maryland in 2022 as she was previously an athlete at Indiana State before NIL was created. It was a transition for her, but she believes it was long overdue. Hot Topic is the biggest company she has had the chance to work with thus far. 

“I do think it was overdue and especially coming to Maryland, I feel like it's a little bit more monetized and a little bit more tailored to that place than it was at my previous institution,” Bynum said.

The opportunities with NIL for athletes have obviously put money in their pockets, but it has also allowed athletes like Bynum to be more creative and appreciate things outside of their comfort zone. Bynum says her experience with Hot Topic has opened up opportunities in content creation post-graduation.

“Bringing it to the table and allowing for me to think outside the box and to be creative and have the opportunity to use my talent, use my image as an athlete and just kind of give it a chance to display who I am as a person as well,” Bynum said. “So I think that has brought a lot of self joy to me.”