The scenic route to success: How Pri Shumate parlayed her brush with fame into a dynamic career

Such is the case for Pri Shumate ’97, a Texas A&M University former student and innovative, people-focused marketing executive whose resume includes senior-level positions with internationally recognizable brands such as Nike, Hurley, the World Surf League, Airbnb, Columbia Sportswear Company and the Miami Dolphins. Her career path began in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and brought her seconds from stardom before sending her to Texas A&M, where she discovered and cultivated the natural talent that would define her impressive career.

“I wanted to be a rock star,” Shumate admitted through a chuckle. “My voice had other plans, so I tried the next best thing: I auditioned to be one of the first VJs for MTV Brazil. Ten thousand people showed up. I was literally in the final three. Then they picked two, and I wasn’t one of them.”

When the MTV VJ gig fell through, Shumate immediately decided to chase another dream and attend college in the United States — a place she had become fond of during previous visits. Her father spent a large portion of every year in El Paso, Texas, for work, which created an excellent opportunity for her to relocate and study in the Lone Star State. Lacking the myriad online resources that prospective college students enjoy today, she had to make a life-changing decision about her future the old-fashioned way.

“I was like, ‘Dad, send me the catalogs!’ This was catalog time — there was no website. And so, my dad sent me the catalogs for Texas A&M, The University of Texas at Austin and Texas Tech University. And I honestly just looked through the catalogs,” Shumate recalled. “I was like, ‘Ooh, I’m going to go to this one. It just feels friendly.’ It was really the American dream that kind of got me there — and a couple of circumstances. But that’s how I landed at Texas A&M. I knew very little about the university before I got there, but it was a total transformation after I arrived.”

Setting foot on the Texas A&M campus in College Station for the first time was a surreal experience for Shumate, who never visited the school in person before the day of her student orientation. With her mother and sister at her side for support, she explored the campus, quickly recognizing many of the buildings she had seen in the catalogs. Although comforting, that small degree of visual familiarity didn’t prevent the three newcomers from getting lost. Luckily for them, help arrived quickly, and a passing professor and his wife offered some much-needed assistance and a heaping helping of that legendary Aggie hospitality.

“I told him where I was supposed to be and when, and he was like, ‘Oh, well, let me help you.’ And I was like, ‘What? Do people really do that? Do they take you where you need to go?’” Shumate said. “They did! And we were way early, so they bought us lunch. And that was it. I was hooked.”  

That unexpected act of kindness was Shumate’s first real encounter with the concept of selfless service — one of the six Core Values Texas A&M embodies as an institution dedicated to developing leaders of character who stand together as a force for good. In time, she developed a deep understanding of service and has incorporated it into every aspect of her life ever since.

“Service doesn’t have to be this gigantic thing. It can be service to your fellow human, you know, when somebody says hi to you, when they invite you in,” Shumate explained. “It means service in everything that you do. How can you think about other people? How can you think about your community? And it kind of feels natural at Texas A&M. There’s an integration between life and service there that I think is really important.”

After her initial warm welcome, Shumate dove headfirst into the full Texas A&M experience. Among a variety of other activities, she hosted a weekly student-run block of international music on KAMU-FM and led campus tours for prospective students. She also joined the Texas A&M Handball Team, competing in multiple tournaments and earning the prestigious Marty Decatur Sportsmanship Award in 1995. Eventually, her activities and interests began revealing a clear through line.

“In college, I could not stop marketing things. I started my own PR organization at Texas A&M. I was a campus tour guide — and if you think about it, that’s literally brand storytelling for a live audience. Every time I walked a family across campus, I was telling Texas A&M’s story. I just didn’t realize I was marketing yet,” Shumate reflected. “I was the AT&T campus rep for two years. Every summer, I was in some kind of marketing internship: the Target business program, a Dallas ad agency, running the Chili’s rewards program. I wasn’t building a resume. I just genuinely couldn’t help myself.”

After graduating summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Business Administration in marketing, Shumate went on to kick off her career with a position at the iconic sportswear giant Nike. This initial foot in the door became her first of many steps up the corporate ladder during the 17 years she spent with the company, culminating in an impactful two-year tenure as vice president of global brand marketing for Nike Running. In 2019, she made the decision to part ways with the company, trading the security of familiarity for the excitement and learning potential of eventful stints in leadership roles with the World Surf League, Airbnb, Columbia Sportswear Company and the Miami Dolphins.

“Nike gave me everything as a marketer — scale, rigor, the best brand on the planet. I’ll be forever grateful for it. But at some point, I started asking: What’s out there? Can things be done differently? What do you learn when the budget isn’t $80 million, when there’s no safety net, when you have to be scrappy? So, I left,” Shumate said. “Some days I wonder about the road not taken. But the range of what I’ve experienced since — surf leagues, tech startups, an 84-year-old heritage brand, a stadium running four sports properties at once — I wouldn’t trade it.”

Shumate considers herself a fearless, passionate and enterprising leader with a permanent seat at the intersection of product and brand. She has a successful track record of fusing analytics with creativity to orchestrate participation marketing initiatives that transform apparel, lifestyle and sport brands and connect them more deeply with consumers. Whether she’s steering strategy within large, complex organizations or making quick decisions in smaller grassroots environments, one principle anchors her leadership: People come first.   

“It always starts with people. Before strategy, before data — people. Build the relationships. Understand what someone else is trying to accomplish. Show them how you can help them succeed or do something they didn’t know they could,” Shumate said. “Lead with real insight. Not just data — insight. There’s a difference. Data tells you what happened. Insight tells you why it matters and what to do about it. The best decisions I’ve made in my career came from sitting with both — the numbers and the human context behind them.”

A clear example of this philosophy in action comes from the time Shumate spent as vice president of global brand marketing at Nike Running. Facing competitors’ increasingly effective incursions into the running market, she turned to data from the Nike Run Club app to identify the problem and course correct.

“I sat down with the digital product team, and they were like, ‘Here’s what we see. We’re marketing to this hyperskinny fast runner who wears short shorts, but the world of running is absolutely changing around us. The average run in the app isn’t 10 miles; it’s 2.6. The average pace isn’t 7 minutes; it’s 12,’” Shumate remembered. “We had a vision of this specific runner, but there were all these new runners, and we weren’t seeing them.”

Armed with these actionable insights, Shumate shifted strategy to embrace the growing population of everyday runners, reaching out to existing run clubs and placing the app at the center of every initiative. By engaging the everyday runners as active participants in the brand — giving them products to try and paying attention to their feedback — she gained a deeper understanding of the audience and how to meet its needs. As a result of these people-focused efforts, the number of Nike Run Club users increased from about 7 million to more than 17 million by the time she left Nike in pursuit of new opportunities.    

“Using the app was a massive way to connect with consumers and stay connected throughout, understanding when they run and how they run. Do they need different products for different weather depending on where they’re running? It was a wealth of information, and I think that the biggest thing there was enabling them. The running was already happening, so we didn’t have to start it. We could enable it,” Shumate shared. “I think that that was one of the moments in my career that I feel like we inspired so many people, because we saw them.”

Now more than two and a half decades down her career path, Shumate is taking another sharp turn. In September 2025, she launched a new business that combines her marketing and branding expertise with the lessons she learned from her recent work with sports properties — all guided by the people-first philosophy she’s long championed.

“It’s called Slipstream. A slipstream is actually that pocket of air that exists between two cars that allows them to draft and go faster together. And that’s why I named it that, because I feel like with my experience now, I have the ability to help brands and sports partners and sport properties partner better together,” Shumate said. “As someone who has been on both sides, my goal now is to help brands and support partnerships come together on behalf of consumers.”

By coming to the United States and taking full advantage of a life-shaping experience at Texas A&M, Shumate not only discovered her passion for marketing but also embraced many of the values that shaped her as both a person and a professional.

“People tell me they love my energy and my positive confidence. The energy? That might be the Brazilian in me. The confidence? That’s Texas A&M,” Shumate said. “It’s not that Texas A&M just told me to be confident; it’s that it created the conditions for confidence. From the moment you step on campus, you’re greeting strangers with a ‘Howdy!’ You’re expected to show up, to serve, to participate. Texas A&M gave me responsibility first — then told me I could do anything. That order matters.” 

Beyond her career, Shumate is a wife and mother who cares deeply about her husband, Brian, and their sons, Rossi and Indy. She has navigated the twists and turns in her career path with intention, ensuring the people she loves never take a back seat to her professional endeavors.  

“Throughout everything — the big jobs, the turnarounds, the startups — I never stopped being me. And I never missed my kids growing up to do it,” Shumate said. “I’m proud of the campaigns and the revenue numbers, but I’m more proud that I figured out how to do meaningful work without losing sight of the people who matter most to me.”

The concept of selfless service that Texas A&M introduced to Shumate before her first class even began remains at the heart of every decision she makes. Eager to live up to the university’s call to action by contributing to an ever-expanding force for good in the world, she has donated her time and expertise to nonprofit organizations such as the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (now Blood Cancer United), the Children’s Healing Art Project and Feeding South Florida. She has also mentored emerging marketing professionals through Adweek’s Executive Mentor Program and sits on the advisory board of Ometria, which provides a CDXP (customer data and experience platform) that helps retailers achieve customer-focused growth. As a proud Aggie, she knows that anything less just wouldn’t be enough.  

“Because of Texas A&M, I try to leave every place better than I found it: I truly try to be a force for good. I’ll also walk up to anyone in the world and introduce myself. No fear. No hesitation. Lastly, I pick myself up when I fall because I know I’m worth it. All of that? Texas A&M,” Shumate said through her characteristic smile. “Aggies are taught to be anything they want and to look out for everyone else while they’re at it. That’s a rare combination. And it’s stuck with me every single day of my career.”

Shumate will be part of the “In Good Company” panels during South by Southwest in Austin. The Fast Company Grill and Texas A&M are hosting a day dedicated to innovators, brand leaders and entrepreneurs committed to positive impact, responsibility and business for good in a changing world.