TUFF | The Uniform Funding Foundation
Today's Friday Feature focuses on The Uniform Funding Foundation, a non-profit founded by former D1 football players providing equipment to bolster young athletes.
TUFF Background
The Uniform Funding Foundation, also known as TUFF, was founded in 2018 by Adam Shibley. At the time, Shibley was entering his sophomore season as a walk-on linebacker at the University of Michigan. His concern surrounding the increasingly common pay-to-play dynamic of youth athletics encouraged him to found The Uniform Funding Foundation.
According to a poll from the University of Michigan which was focused on Children’s Health, 61% of athletes in the middle and high school age ranges were charged an average fee of $381 per season. This led to disproportionate impacts on athletic participation by household income. 85% of children aged 6-12 with household incomes over $75,000 per year participated in sports activity. When household income fell to under $25,000 per year, so did the corresponding rate of athletic participation, as less than 70% of children aged 6-12 participated in sports. The Uniform Funding Foundation “helps to alleviate the financial burden placed on individuals from low-income communities” through their uniform and equipment donations.
Shibley was joined at TUFF by a number of his Michigan Football teammates, including Jess Speight (Chief Operating Officer), Joel Honigford, and Josh Ross, who made the Baltimore Ravens roster as a rookie last season. Board Members of note at TUFF include Gus Johnson, Tracy Wolfson, Mason Cole, Marc Jacobson, and Greg Baty.
OSC recently sat down with Adam Shibley and Jess Speight to discuss the foundation’s previous successes and its future growth
TUFF College Tours & NIL
The foundation has raised over $600,000 since it was founded in late 2018, providing uniforms and equipment to over 4,000 youth athletes. In 2022, TUFF launched a college tour initiative, exposing young student-athletes to major D1 college campuses. The college tour begins with taking youth football teams through the academic facilities before finishing at athletic facilities, stressing TUFF’s commitment to education before sports.
TUFF has capitalized on the NIL movement in collegiate athletics to continue to grow their college tour initiative. Through partnerships with NIL collectives, TUFF has co-hosted a number of these college tours. The NIL collective will compensate a number of student-athletes to run the tour, connecting young student-athletes with their collegiate counterparts, to give them “access that would not otherwise be possible”
At a recent uniform donation event in Chicago, TUFF was joined by four football student-athletes — Nana Osafo-Mensah (Notre Dame), Howard Cross III (Notre Dame), Alexander Lidback (Michigan), and Jake Thaw (Michigan).
Throughout the conversation, Shibley emphasized the goal of TUFF as “being student-athletes for younger student-athletes.” By launching student organizations on college campuses this September, TUFF hopes to encourage the next generation of collegiate student-athletes to “start their philanthropic journey.”
“NIL has allowed them to start giving back in a way that Jess [Speight] and I never could have during our playing days,” said Shibley.
For their next project, TUFF plans to provide their first ever high-school scholarships to a class of student-athletes from underserved areas beginning in August 2024. The selected student-athletes will receive scholarship support to attend academically prestigious high schools in the Cleveland area—where Shibley grew up.
TUFF Worldwide
During our conversation, both Shibley and Speight shared their most impactful and inspiring TUFF donation.
For Shibley, it was a recent partnership with Michael Leon (Front Left above), a Junior on the University of Michigan Men’s Soccer Team. Leon grew up in Accra, Ghana, before training at youth soccer academies in England (Manchester City) and Denmark (FC Nordsjaelland). Leon then moved to the United States, attending Hotchkiss Prep in Connecticut before arriving at the University of Michigan. TUFF organized “The Michael Leon Project,” and in May of this year, Shibley and Speight traveled to Accra, Ghana alongside Leon to help him donate over 100 uniforms and soccer balls to youth athletes from his community. The best part of their trip, said Shibley, was “the joy that the community had for Michael’s homecoming.”
A brief documentary on The Michael Leon Project will launch next month.
For Speight, it was the realization of a project “over three years in the making.” Speight recently returned from donating uniforms in American Samoa. Given the “tremendous amount of time and effort” to coordinate the donation, he had no qualms referring to the project as “the biggest success we’ve had yet.” Uniforms were donated to all six High School Varsity teams on the islands, with a total value of over $64,000 in uniforms and equipment benefitting over 300 student-athletes. The Tafuna Warriors will travel, with their new uniforms, to play four games in California this upcoming August. Speight said that before the donation, many of the schools only had hand-me down uniforms from teams in the US, all of which had the wrong nickname displayed. At times lost for words to describe the project, Speight called it a “surreal experience.”
To connect with The Uniform Funding Foundation for any future partnership opportunities, visit their website HERE. The TUFF team is happy and available to discuss any and all opportunities. Be sure to follow them on Instagram HERE for all the latest updates and donations.