Fanatics Fanatics’ retail business ends another year of furious expansion in the North American sports market with 45 venue partners, part of a focus to turn e-commerce relationships into omni-channel ones. Fanatics added the Baltimore Ravens, Chicago Bears, Diamond Baseball Holdings, Minnesota Wild, Real Salt Lake, Tennessee Titans, and Washington Nationals as new clients this year, and is growing its attention on event clients like WWE, UFC, and NHL one-offs. In the NFL, 11-year-old Fanatics runs 28 of 32 team sites, with 16 of those including in-venue retail, too.Capital investment in stores was a significant feature of Fanatics’ 2024; the company invested in either new location buildouts, full-store renovations, or smaller improvements at 39 client venues. Some of the investment has gone into RFID technology — Fanatics partners with Zebra Technologies in that area to shorten transaction times and increase through-put and sales volume, while also making inventory management easier. The Detroit Lions, Pittsburgh Pirates, and San Francisco Giants were three team clients that received major team store overhauls this year, with heightened focuses on personalization, whether customized jerseys or the Topps card experience in Pittsburgh (Fanatics bought Topps in 2022), or in the feel and aesthetic of the store itself.“Cap-ex is one of the areas that we really feel like we’ve put a stamp on in recent years, localizing that team shop feel as you walk into that team shop environment,” said Luke Fraser, Fanatics SVP, Global Retail. “Years ago, probably transactional but now these stores are an extension of a team’s brand.”Beyond the core items — jerseys and hats — Fanatics focused in 2024 on localizing its clients’ product offering. At a typical Fanatics team store, 80% of the product is traditional gear and merch, with 20% local and custom to the team.“It’s a small representation but the meaning can be so much more,” Fraser said.The localization effort is driven by a core buying group solely focused on local product exclusive to each team and market. Courtney Ray, Director of Local Marketing and Merchandising, oversees seven people spread across the U.S. buying for the teams in the region in which they live. Ray said her team often curates from scratch, finding local brands or artists and working with them to develop new team-focused products. They’re often tying new merch releases to alternate uniform launches, like the NBA City Edition jerseys or the Minnesota Vikings’ Winter Whiteout game against the Bears last week, which included the launch of an all-white merch line. Forty-six percent of sales at the U.S. Bank Stadium team store were for Winter Whiteout gear, and half of that was from local merch collections.“What’s trending, what’s working locally and what makes sense with the program we’re doing as well,” Ray said.

Fanatics' 2024 expansion highlighted by venue partners, capital investments in stores

Fanatics Fanatics’ retail business ends another year of furious expansion in the North American sports market with 45 venue partners, part of a focus to turn e-commerce relationships into omni-channel ones. Fanatics added the Baltimore Ravens, Chicago Bears, Diamond Baseball Holdings, Minnesota Wild, Real Salt Lake, Tennessee Titans, and Washington Nationals as new clients this […]

Fanatics

Fanatics’ retail business ends another year of furious expansion in the North American sports market with 45 venue partners, part of a focus to turn e-commerce relationships into omni-channel ones. Fanatics added the Baltimore Ravens, Chicago Bears, Diamond Baseball Holdings, Minnesota Wild, Real Salt Lake, Tennessee Titans, and Washington Nationals as new clients this year, and is growing its attention on event clients like WWE, UFC, and NHL one-offs. In the NFL, 11-year-old Fanatics runs 28 of 32 team sites, with 16 of those including in-venue retail, too.

Capital investment in stores was a significant feature of Fanatics’ 2024; the company invested in either new location buildouts, full-store renovations, or smaller improvements at 39 client venues. Some of the investment has gone into RFID technology — Fanatics partners with Zebra Technologies in that area to shorten transaction times and increase through-put and sales volume, while also making inventory management easier. The Detroit Lions, Pittsburgh Pirates, and San Francisco Giants were three team clients that received major team store overhauls this year, with heightened focuses on personalization, whether customized jerseys or the Topps card experience in Pittsburgh (Fanatics bought Topps in 2022), or in the feel and aesthetic of the store itself.

“Cap-ex is one of the areas that we really feel like we’ve put a stamp on in recent years, localizing that team shop feel as you walk into that team shop environment,” said Luke Fraser, Fanatics SVP, Global Retail. “Years ago, probably transactional but now these stores are an extension of a team’s brand.”

Beyond the core items — jerseys and hats — Fanatics focused in 2024 on localizing its clients’ product offering. At a typical Fanatics team store, 80% of the product is traditional gear and merch, with 20% local and custom to the team.

“It’s a small representation but the meaning can be so much more,” Fraser said.

The localization effort is driven by a core buying group solely focused on local product exclusive to each team and market. Courtney Ray, Director of Local Marketing and Merchandising, oversees seven people spread across the U.S. buying for the teams in the region in which they live. Ray said her team often curates from scratch, finding local brands or artists and working with them to develop new team-focused products. They’re often tying new merch releases to alternate uniform launches, like the NBA City Edition jerseys or the Minnesota Vikings’ Winter Whiteout game against the Bears last week, which included the launch of an all-white merch line. Forty-six percent of sales at the U.S. Bank Stadium team store were for Winter Whiteout gear, and half of that was from local merch collections.

“What’s trending, what’s working locally and what makes sense with the program we’re doing as well,” Ray said.