Braddahhood and Sistahhood Grindz founder Ryan Tanaka fondly recalled a time where former University of Hawai‘i men's volleyball outside hitter Filip Humler approached him just as he was set to graduate from UH-Mānoa.
Humler, whose collegiate volleyball career was hampered by injuries, knew he wasn't going to play professionally. The Czech Republic native desired to stay in the Islands, but needed a job in order to extend his visa.
"I asked him, 'What's your dream job?' His dream job was working for Outrigger," Tanaka remembers from his conversation with Humler. "I called Outrigger, one of our participating corporate partners, and they made a job for him, an internship, and then three months later, they created a full-time position. It was his dream company. It was a dream job, and that was all created from Braddahhood Grindz. That was one of 25 stories that we now have across 10 teams."
Tanaka, the president and CEO of KAI Hawai‘i, Underground Services Inc., and the Giovanni Pastrami Restaurant Group, is also the founder of Braddahhood and Sistahhood Grindz, which launched in 2022. The idea was hatched from University of Hawai‘i football coach Timmy Chang asking local business owners for assistance in feeding his team.
Braddahhood Grindz began as an organization that fed select UH teams once a month. It is now an all-encompassing operation that involves 25 restaurants and more than 50 corporate partners. In addition to feeding UH teams, it also serves as a name, image and likeness (NIL) collective for the school. With Humler as a prime example, the organization also assists with career placement.
"It started out with nutrition. It just became so much more," Tanaka said. "It's actually now our way to recruit and retain Hawai‘i's top athletes for the home team. We meet closely with the coaches at the beginning of every season, we find out what more we can do to help support them. Every program has different needs, whether it's a new locker room, it could be training facilities, nutrition, the list goes on. And so how do they recruit with their limited budget, these top athletes nationally, globally?"
By NCAA law, NIL collectives are independent organizations that are not associated with a particular school, although they collaborate with them closely.
"What we're trying to do is take this pool of resources that we have that is adjacent to the university and say, 'Hey, maybe you can come in and find new ways to attract these athletes.' Maybe not with matching dollar-for-dollar," Tanaka says. "Maybe we can provide community, provide team experiences. Provide jobs for them after college, because even if they play professionally, everybody who, even after they go on a special run, they'll need to find a job at some point. That's where we come in. That's where community comes in.
"We're mentoring them from Day 1 and saying hey, here's how you guys can not just be a part of this program, on the court or on the field, but we can actually provide sponsors, because these are Hawai‘i's industry leaders, and then we can place you with them after you complete your athletic career."
On Tuesday, a press conference was held at Giovanni Pastrami in Waikīkī to announce Braddahhood and Sistahhood Grindz's new partnership with the Hawai‘i High School Athletics Association (HHSAA). Members of the Kamehameha and University Laboratory School boys volleyball teams, who won the 2024 HHSAA Division I and Division II titles respectively, were commemorated and treated to a meal.
"The high school students today, they're getting a drawstring bag with a letter. In the letter, there's $125 of gift cards to four different restaurants," Tanaka said of the gift bundle, which also includes signed copies of Rusty Komori's latest book, "Superior."
"Usually after every kickoff event, the college players will also receive several thousands of dollars in different gifts and giveaways as part of an NIL agreement," Tanaka continued. "On the flip side, it's a job, so their job is to help thank and promote these different participating companies."
Despite Braddahhood and Sistahhood Grindz's support of University of Hawai‘i athletes, members of the Kamehameha and University boys volleyball teams were on the receiving end of Tuesday's gifts are not obligated to attend UH.
"This is probably the first time these high school students (in Hawai‘i) are receiving anything from an NIL collective," Tanaka acknowledged.
UH acting athletics director Lois Manin, Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke, Kamehameha director of campus athletics and human performance Rob Hesia, University Laboratory School athletics director Walt Quitan, ‘Ahahui Koa Ānuenue and Nā Koa Football Club president David Kawada, Luther Beck of the HHSAA and Tanaka all spoke at the event.
In his address to attendees of Tuesday's event, Tanaka said Braddahhood and Sistahhood Grindz could only thrive in a place like Hawai‘i.
When asked if she agreed with Tanaka's contention, Manin joked that "there's no 'braddahhood' or 'sistahhood' anywhere else, right?"
"But, yeah. We're on an island and we're away from everybody else, but I believe only in Hawai‘i are you going to have the aloha from everyone to all the companies to come together for the greater good of the community," Manin continued. "I do believe that only in Hawai‘i can something like this survive.
"(Braddahhood Grindz) started from a need for nutrition for football, and then it expanded into this. It has grown into this huge opportunity for our student-athletes. I think the thing I like about it is that it aligns with the original collegiate model of academics and then enter into the workforce. I think that the way that (Tanaka) has grown it has been super creative, and the way that he's committed to it, and he's so selfless, the way that he doesn't make any money off of it. He's just trying to help build a community. That's awesome."
Collegiate athletes weren't permitted to make NIL money until the summer of 2021. This summer, more landmark changes are coming to collegiate sports.
The NCAA-House settlement is still in progress, but plans are in place for Power Four schools to begin revenue sharing among student-athletes. An NIL clearinghouse is also in the works in which every NIL deal worth over $600 is vetted as a legitimate endorsement and not a pay-for-play inducement.
"We're doing our best to get comfortable in the new landscape," Manin said. "We are preparing for the House settlement approval, which hasn't happened yet, but we are trying to put a staff together. We're trying to put a structure together to be able to do revenue sharing with our student-athletes, if allowed, on July 1, but we just don't know yet, because it hasn't really happened. But everybody is preparing for that, so I think that we're in good shape. We just need to figure out how to really triage all the funds and make sure that we're doing everything legally and compliant."
Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
