Cincinnati Bengals receiver Tee Higgins partners with Under Armour

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins is the newest Under Armour athlete.

After wearing Nike for his first six NFL seasons, Higgins will debut gear from the Baltimore-based brand on Sunday in the season opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

“My other brand [deal] was up,” Higgins told Andscape. “I love everything [Under Armour] is pushing for — the clothing, the cleats, the gloves.”

“Tee represents what we’re looking for in an athlete and partner,” Trey Evans, Under Armour director of America’s sports marketing, told Andscape. “At Under Armour, our ideal athlete partnerships go beyond performance, and he is someone who embodies that ethos.”

Higgins joins an Under Armour NFL roster that includes Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward and Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson.

Higgins has already noticed Jefferson’s busy summer with Under Armour, headlined by “Bayou King” cleats, the JJets Flight School at the brand’s Baltimore campus, and a flag football tour across Asia.

Higgins said one thing that appealed to him about Under Armour was seeing how athletes such as Jefferson have used the brand as a platform for community engagement and youth football initiatives.

“I like what Justin did this offseason in China,” Higgins said. “You don’t see things like that.”

While Jefferson has used Under Armour as a partner to grow football in new spaces, Higgins said his own plans with the brand start closer to home, drawing inspiration from his childhood in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Higgins’ first football game as a child was almost his last — on a hot day in Oak Ridge, he quit minutes into his debut in a local Boys & Girls Club league.

“I went and sat in the stands with my auntie,” Higgins said, laughing. “She bribed me with Hot Wheels cars, and I went back down there.”

After he quickly scored two touchdowns upon his return to the field, the seed was planted.

“Ever since then, I’ve loved the game and loved scoring,” Higgins said with a smile.

A second-round draft pick in 2020 after playing three years at Clemson, Higgins has 45 career touchdowns in six NFL seasons, and he caught two TD passes in Super Bowl LVI in 2022. Last season, he hauled in a career-high 11 touchdown catches and earned his first Pro Bowl selection.

Higgins hopes the Bengals can return to the playoffs this season after a three-year postseason drought.

“I’ve got a taste of it,” Higgins said. “A taste is not enough. I’ve been with the same team my whole career. My biggest focus is getting to the big game and winning it.”

Entering his seventh season with the Bengals, Higgins has embraced his position as a veteran in Cincinnati. And while Higgins said winning remains his primary goal, he noted the source of his motivations have evolved as he has built a family and a familiarity with the Bengals fanbase.

“My daughter drives me to be the best version of myself every single day, just so she can have the best life she can live,” Higgins said. “She’s 1, and she’ll be at all the home games this year.”

Entering his first season with Under Armour, the drive to do more on the field is backed by the desire to give more off of it. Higgins is studying the template Jefferson has set.

“Kind of how Justin did it going back home, I want to go back home and put on a camp,” Higgins said. “I want to give back to the community I grew up in. Seeing how these guys work with Justin, whether it be T-shirts or shorts, anything helps.”

He also cites Gunna as an Under Armor ambassador whose work he enjoys, noting he joined the rapper at one of his famed Wunna Run Club events at the Pro Bowl earlier this year.

The ability to connect to the youth from a platform of success means much to Higgins, especially as such opportunities were limited to him as a kid in Oak Ridge.

“Tee shares our belief that sports are a powerful vehicle for creating opportunities and inspiring young people,” Evans said. “He’s passionate about making a positive impact in the communities that helped shape him.”

Coming up, Higgins never ran routes with an All-Pro wideout or went jogging with a Platinum artist. Interactions with professional athletes came few and far between, so the one chance he did have — a basketball camp run by an overseas journeyman — stuck with him.

That experience inspired him to share trade secrets and advice with the next generation.

“I always wanted to be in those guys’ shoes,” Higgins said. “Now that I am in those shoes, I want to give back to the younger kids and give them my knowledge.”

For the first time in Higgins’ NFL career, those shoes are now Under Armours, a partnership he hopes can help expand his impact beyond the field.

“I’m looking forward to helping out, whether it be my community back home or Cincinnati,” Higgins said.