Studbudz, Courtney Williams (left) and Natasha Heideman (right). Maverick Guiao The StudBudz generated more than $1 million in self-reported brand deals in just 72 hours around this year’s WNBA All-Star Weekend. For Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman, the whirlwind began a year earlier. The duo, former teammates and close friends who launched their Twitch channel in 2025, took WNBA All-Star Weekend by storm by streaming for 72 straight hours, giving fans an unfiltered look at the players, personalities, and off-court moments surrounding the league's marquee event. What started as a way to bring fans behind the scenes quickly became something more valuable, an audience brands wanted to reach. The StudBudz have since parlayed that growing audience into partnerships with more than 20 global brands. Now, the duo is demonstrating how WNBA players can turn cultural relevance and direct connections with fans into a business of their own. The StudBudz Are Selling More Than WNBA Star Power Williams and Hiedeman aren’t simply selling access to two WNBA players. They’re selling the chemistry, humor, and authenticity that made the StudBudz a viral phenomenon in the first place. According to their team at The Thirteenth what makes the StudBudz fan favorites is their authenticity. “Courtney and Natisha are unapologetically themselves in every room they walk into. That authenticity extends to how they show up in partnerships, fan interactions, and more. This provides a very unique and real point of view for brands, fans, and media," said Talent Coordinator Tenzin Dekyi.
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 22: Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman, creators of 'Studbudz', react prior to the NWSL Championship 2025 final between Washington Spirit and NJ/NY Gotham FC at PayPal Park on November 22, 2025 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/NWSL via Getty Images) NWSL via Getty Images Hiedeman affirmed that their dynamic and personalities attract brands and fans, “I think it’s just our personalities and the unique dynamic Courtney and I have. We bring the energy in everything we do, we’re fully engaged, and just ourselves. I think that keeps the people interested and wanting more.” Their authenticity and appeal has also extended well beyond the WNBA. The duo has attracted partnerships across sports, entertainment, food and beverage, retail and lifestyle, giving brands a way to tap into an audience that increasingly views athletes as cultural personalities as much as competitors. During the 2025 WNBA All-Star Weekend, the StudBudz' Twitch stream generated 37 million minutes watched, averaged 8,400 concurrent viewers, peaked at 27,000 viewers and generated 6,234 subscriptions. One year later, those numbers climbed across every major metric. The 2026 StudBudz All-Star stream generated 41.3 million minutes watched, an 11.6% increase from 2025, while average concurrent viewership jumped 32.6% to 11,138. Peak viewership reached 38,216, and subscriptions nearly doubled to 9,888. That reach has made the Studbudz attractive to companies looking for more than traditional sports marketing. Their partnerships with brands such as AT&T, Starbucks, Airbnb, Coach, Cash App and Sprite demonstrate the breadth of their appeal, while collaborations with NBA 2K, ESPN, Bleacher Report and Dick’s Sporting Goods show their ability to move across the sports landscape. For example, last year, the StudBudz partnered with DoorDash creating viral scooter moments that generated over 16M in brand impressions and $550,000 in earned media value. For brands, the value is increasingly tied to the StudBudz’ ability to capture what is happening in sports culture in real time. Williams and Hiedeman have built a platform where their personalities and relationships give fans a different way into the WNBA, while giving marketers access to two athletes with a direct pulse on the culture surrounding the league.
Williams (left center) and Heideman (right center) were keynote speakers at last year's Amazon unBoxed event where they discussed connecting to their fans, creating community on Twitch, and the impact of athlete-led media. Amazon unBoxed 2025 This is high currency for brands who are specifically trying to target younger and more diverse consumers. As noted by Ogo Akamelu, Founder and Head of Partnerships at The Thirteenth, “Brands who work with them and embrace them have an opportunity to instantly become a talking point of All-Star Weekend. Their personalities shine on camera and it creates for content and livestream clips with immense viral potential.” Furthermore, the duo and their team understand their selling power and enjoy creating activations and content alongside their partners that result in immense ROI. Deyki explained, “We pitch creative ideas that have the potential for creating real impact and moments, and those are what usually drive the engagement, reach, and confessions brands are looking for.” A $1 Million All-Star Weekend That combination of audience, authenticity, and cultural relevance has become increasingly valuable to brands, particularly during the WNBA’s biggest commercial moments. For the StudBudz, that translated into more than $1 million in self-reported brand deals over 72 hours. The duo partnered with 13 brands across content, on-the-ground activations, and social campaigns, leveraging their cultural capital into measurable value for marketers. For AT&T, the WNBA All-Star title sponsor and a sponsor of the StudBudz’ stream, Williams and Hiedeman dyed their hair blue and incorporated the brand into their All-Star content. According to Katie Riley, AT&T’s Assistant Vice President of Social Media, “Working with the StudBudz during WNBA All-Star Weekend allowed us to tap into that passion in a way that felt authentic to their audience, while celebrating the continued growth and excitement surrounding women’s sports.” The StudBudz also partnered with Coach to distribute bags to Gen Z consumers in Chicago and with State Farm to livestream the WNBA All-Star Celebrity 3-Point Contest, featuring Jake from State Farm, Issa Rae, Keke Palmer and fellow All-Star and Minnesota Lynx rookie Olivia Miles. The results demonstrated the commercial value of their reach. The StudBudz generated more than 3 million impressions for State Farm, produced $150,000 in earned media value, and gave the brand access to an audience beyond the traditional basketball broadcast. They’re Building A Brand Business, Not Just Taking Deals The StudBudz’ growing commercial value has also given Williams and Hiedeman the ability to be selective about the brands they bring into their world, with the duo looking for partnerships that resonate with their personalities and the audience they have built. Rather than treating every opportunity as another endorsement, Williams and Hiedeman consider whether a brand fits the culture and community surrounding the StudBudz, without making the content feel disconnected from the personalities that attracted fans in the first place.
Hiedeman (left) and Williams (right) pose in front of their Twitch billboards ahead of the 2026 All-Star Weekend. StudBudz This intentionally is extremely important to the pair, Heideman said, “I feel like everything we’ve done so far has been pretty on brand and aligned with who we are and what we’re interested in. We want to work with brands we actually like and believe in.” Williams echoed this, “If it doesn’t feel natural or like something we’d actually use or be into, then we wouldn't do it.” Again, for the duo, that distinction matters. Their audience followed the StudBudz for the access, humor and chemistry between two friends, and preserving that is part of what makes the platform valuable to brands. That selectivity could become increasingly important as the StudBudz’ commercial opportunities expand. What began as an experiment in giving fans an inside look at their lives as players and WNBA All-Star, has evolved into a business with ambitions that extend well beyond a single weekend. From All-Star Moment To Long-Term Business For Williams and Hiedeman, what began as spontaneous brand opportunities during the Studbudz' first WNBA All-Star stream has evolved into a deliberate commercial strategy, with Williams and Hiedeman already planning their next moves with their team. In 2025, majority of partnerships came together in real time as the duo’s 72-hour stream attracted unexpected attention from brands. The success of that first All-Star experience gave them a blueprint for what could happen when they combined their audience, personalities, and access to the WNBA. By this year’s All-Star Weekend, the approach was far more intentional. Williams and Hiedeman and their team were planning partnerships in advance, identifying brands that aligned with the StudBudz, and building activations around the All-Star schedule rather than simply reacting to opportunities as they emerged.
Williams (left) and Heideman (right), StudBudz, pose for a picture together. Maverick Guiao Heideman explained the difference in the 2025 and 2026 All-Star streams as, “This year everything was more planned, so we had more time to come up with ideas and decide who we wanted to work with.” And they aren’t waiting another year to figure out what’s next. The Studbudz are already working with their team on plans for 2027, demonstrating that All-Star has evolved from a one-weekend content opportunity into a recurring piece of their broader business strategy. As Dekyi detailed, “We’re already thinking about how we can top this year’s WNBA All-Star Weekend stream. We want to stay innovative and continue to create an experience that feels authentic and unlike anything fans have seen before.” Particularly, the StudBudz want to be a part of building and expanding the power of women’s sports and women-led athlete marketing. Williams explained, “Women’s sports are on the rise, especially the WNBA, so brands want to be part of that rise.” Heideman added, “Because of how much the WNBA has grown, you have all the best players in one place, there’s a lot of attention on the league right now, and there’s so much opportunity for good content and interactions.” The Studbudz' evolution from a viral Twitch stream to a seven-figure brand business illustrates the growing commercial power of athlete-driven media. For Williams and Hiedeman, All-Star is no longer simply an event to cover, but a business opportunity to build on year after year. Follow me for more sport business and women’s sports content and news on X, LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok. This article was originally published on Forbes.com