Renewal by Andersen and its Oklahoma affiliate Esler Companies have struck a long-term partnership with University of Oklahoma Athletics, bringing student-athlete Name, Image and Likeness deals, fan sweepstakes and in-venue activations to Sooners football, men's and women's basketball and other sports. The agreement, brokered through the sports marketing firm Learfield, folds OU into a simultaneous four-school expansion that also includes the University of Texas, University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Connecticut.
The deal was first detailed by The Journal Record, which reported that the partnerships will include digital and social media content alongside the NIL opportunities and sweepstakes. Esler Companies CEO Matt Esler said college sports “create pride, belonging and shared experience,” framing the arrangement as more than a sponsorship play. He added that being a trusted community partner means investing time, resources and expertise in the people and places that make a community strong, according to the same report.
Learfield, which holds multimedia rights for more than 1,200 collegiate institutions, manages corporate partnerships and brand alignments across major college athletic programs nationwide, according to Learfield. The firm's role in brokering this deal echoes its own recent corporate history, since Hoodline previously reported on TPG's takeover of Learfield as private equity moved deeper into college sports media rights.
Esler's Five-Year History in Oklahoma
Esler Companies is not new to the state. It first established a local footprint in Oklahoma in October 2020 when it acquired Renewal by Andersen of Oklahoma, a franchise serving Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Northwest Arkansas, alongside regional acquisitions in North and Central Texas, per Esler Companies' own account of the deal. Oklahoma is one of nine U.S. regions where Esler Companies now operates Renewal by Andersen businesses, according to the Journal Record's reporting on the OU announcement.
Headquartered in Smithfield, Rhode Island, Esler Companies bills itself as the largest independent affiliate of Renewal by Andersen, employing more than 1,400 workers with dedicated sales and marketing hubs in Massachusetts and Texas, according to a company profile obtained by Lever. Renewal by Andersen itself was launched in 1995 as the full-service replacement window division of Bayport, Minnesota-based Andersen Corporation, a privately held manufacturer founded in 1903 that now employs more than 12,000 people, per Andersen Corporation's own company history.
NIL Deals and Fan Engagement on the Table
The OU agreement folds in Name, Image and Likeness opportunities for Sooners student-athletes alongside venue activations, fan sweepstakes and year-round digital content managed through Learfield's first-party fan data, the sports marketing firm said in its announcement. The partnerships will also include in-venue events, the Journal Record reported, part of what Renewal by Andersen and Esler Companies described as a larger effort to build relationships with customers and communities through college athletics.
The push into college sports marks a shift for the brand, which had previously focused its sports sponsorship efforts on professional leagues, including Major League Soccer's Philadelphia Union, according to Learfield's announcement. Moving from a single pro soccer club to four major university athletic programs at once represents a considerably larger bet on collegiate sports marketing.
Scholarship Program and Community Giving Tied to the Deal
Beyond the athletics tie-in, Renewal by Andersen plans to work with the University of Oklahoma and local organizations on philanthropic initiatives focused on community needs, per the Journal Record. The company is leaning on its existing Door of Opportunity Scholarship Program, which represents more than $5 million in educational investments and has awarded more than 400 scholarships to high school seniors pursuing college degrees or trade certifications, according to Esler Companies' own accounting of the program reaching that milestone last August. The scholarship evaluates students on personal resilience rather than strict high school GPA thresholds, the company has said.
Esler Companies also runs an internal Window of Giving initiative that provides a 3:1 corporate match for employee charitable donations up to $1,000 annually per worker to support community causes, according to the company's own description of the program. That framework is expected to help fund the local Oklahoma philanthropic projects tied to the new OU partnership, though which specific nonprofits will be selected has not yet been announced.
Part of a Broader SEC-Era Push at OU
The new corporate tie-up lands amid a broader effort by OU Athletics to monetize fan experiences as the university settles into Southeastern Conference play. Hoodline previously reported on paid tailgating debuting at Boyd Lawn ahead of the Sooners' season opener, part of the same commercial expansion now extending to window replacement sponsorships and NIL activations. The exact financial value of the long-term OU deal and the precise number of student-athletes who will receive NIL contracts have not been disclosed.
