Things changed for David the week after his college wrestling career came to an end.

“All these companies started contacting me and the first one was Flips Wrestling,” he said.

Other companies started knocking on the Magic Man’s door as well, and soon Taylor became an adidas athlete with his own brand of shoe, the Mat Wizard.

His sponsors are wrestling people marketing their products to a wrestling-specific audience. It's wrestlers supporting wrestlers, or as Taylor put it, “It’s giving wrestlers the ability to compete and make a living. The only thing they need to do is come to practice everyday with the intent to become a World and Olympic Champion”  

Being involved with business was a new experience for Taylor, and along with that came dealing with contracts. He remembers feeling a little anxious before his first meeting with the adidas team and thinking, “Man I've always wanted a shoe. What am I gonna do if they offer one? This is awesome. I've dreamed of this my whole life, but I don't want to get my hopes up becuase I don't know if it's a reality or a possibility but maybe it could be.'”

Taylor believes that the idea that one must be an Olympic champion to get a shoe is something that the wrestling community has to get past. He argues that yes, winning the Olympics is great, and giving someone a shoe because of that is certainly warrented, but to think no one else should get one is small minded and does nothing to help grow the sport and the athletes.

As a youth David wanted to wear the Cael Sanderson shoe because he was his idol. At the time, Sanderson was not an Olympic champion and that's Taylor's point.

“Why not have more shoes out there in the wrestling community where more kids can wear the shoe of their idol,” he asks.

The idea of brand promotion and self promotion is new to this generation of athletes. Between Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc., athletes have a way to connect and interact with fans like never before through social media. Having the ability to give people a chance to look inside your life can be a powerful way to build your brand.

As Taylor sees it there are two ways one can go about it.

“You can just be who you are,” he said, “or you can be somebody that doesn't necessarily be a direct relation to who you are.”

To emphasize his point, Taylor uses the always-outspoken Ben Askren as an example. While growing up, Taylor was turned off by Askren's antics and arrogance but he didn't actually know him and didn't realize what he was doing. Since then, he has gottent to know Askren and respects him as a smart, humble guy.

“Was he a great wrestler? Yes. Did he win, did he back up what he was doing? Absolutely,” Taylor said. “There were a lot of people who loved him but a lot of people that hated him but they were all talking about him. That's building a brand.”

While he was in college, and without knowing it, Taylor was building his own brand as the Magic Man. Between his entertaining wrestling style and his active presence on social media he was able to cull a following of loyal fans. Now that he is out of college, he is able to capitalize on and continue to build that brand.

“We're building these brand loyalties without necessarily knowing what we're doing,” Taylor said. “ The kids that are buying these shoes and getting these clothes, they're becoming brand loyal and what we think isn't possible within the sport, it's happening right now.”

Be sure to check out Taylor's website and follow him on Twitter and Instagram. 
 

 

As a kid, I idolized Cael Sanderson. In college, I was able to wrestle for Cael Sanderson. Currently, as I train to win an Olympic Gold Medal, I get to train with Cael Sanderson. #roadtorio2016 #86kg #M2

A photo posted by David Taylor (@magicman_psu) on Oct 30, 2015 at 4:43pm PDT