NFL and NWSL athletes invest in injury-prevention cleat brand Caddix

Caddix, the Baltimore-based cleat company whose SmartStuds technology is engineered to reduce lower-body injury risk, has secured strategic investment from NFL quarterback Joe Flacco and National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) defender Kayla Sharples, the company announced March 25.

The two athletes join a multi-sport investor group that already includes professionals from the NFL, the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) and the Women’s Lacrosse League (WLL), expanding Caddix’s roster of equity-holding athletes across competitive field sports. Both Flacco and Sharples are using Caddix cleats in training and competition, pairing their financial stake with active product testing.

The injury-prevention case that underpins Caddix’s investor pitch

The company’s pitch to investors is grounded in a well-documented sports medicine problem. An estimated 250,000 ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injuries occur annually in the US, with roughly 70 to 75 percent resulting from non-contact movements – cutting, pivoting or landing – rather than direct collisions. Caddix’s SmartStuds system targets the rotational forces that biomechanics research associates with those injury patterns, aiming to improve traction stability without the stiffness that traditional cleat designs can create.

Flacco, currently quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals and a Super Bowl champion with the Baltimore Ravens in 2013, described the core trade-off in his own assessment of the product: “You still get the traction you need without feeling stuck to the turf,” he said in the company announcement.

Female-athlete design and a women’s sports investor add a distinct dimension

Kayla Sharples, a defender for the Kansas City Current, highlighted a design priority that sets Caddix apart from most cleat manufacturers: a focus on female-specific fit and support, rather than adapting a male-engineered product. “I felt more confident in my movement from the first time I wore them,” Sharples said. Her involvement follows a pattern of women’s soccer athletes backing companies that address structural gaps in sports equipment designed for female athletes.

Skin in the game: Caddix athletes invest and wear

Caddix does not send its investors to a media day and call it a partnership. Flacco and Sharples are wearing the cleats in training and on the field – an implicit condition that turns equity backing into a live product test across two professional leagues. For a startup without the marketing budget of an established footwear brand, that visible adoption is worth more than a conventional endorsement deal.