Fanatics College
Holding partnerships with more than 150 colleges, universities and conferences, Fanatics College understands the deep-burning fan passion that lies within the collegiate sports industry.
Fanatics College prides itself in creating and fostering direct connections for and with fans through a shared passion: a celebration of the campus experience. Whether it’s the first onesie for the new Wildcat fan in the family or “The Shirt” for the incoming first year student at Notre Dame, Fanatics’ portfolio of brands delivers these meaningful and authentic fan experiences throughout the full lifecycle of fandom through its pioneering vertical commerce model -- a cohesive integration of technology, data, e-commerce, end-to-end manufacturing, and brand management services.
Seeing exponential growth in collegiate sales over the last decade and realizing its full potential in the industry, Fanatics has affirmed its leadership position in the collegiate licensed merchandise industry through various strategic acquisitions and partnerships. What began with the purchase of Fermata Partners, a leading collegiate brand management agency, in 2017 and the creation of this stand-alone division has only continued to cement Fanatics College’s position as a thought leader and multi-solution provider for its collegiate partners. In 2020, Fanatics announced the asset purchase of Top of the World, the leading collegiate headwear licensee, and acquisition of WinCraft, college’s top hardgoods licensee.
With the 2021 Supreme Court ruling in NCAA vs Alston came a new age of marketing and branding opportunities for college athletes to benefit from their name, image and likeness (NIL) across many commercial categories.
Since the ruling, the Fanatics College team has used innovative deal-making, agility, and industry-leading capabilities to become a pioneer in the evolving NIL landscape. Fanatics College has launched multiple groundbreaking programs providing thousands of student athletes with opportunities to capitalize on their name, image, and likeness. Initiatives include: creating the largest men’s and women’s NIL jersey and apparel customization program with OneTeam Partners; partnering with Topps to bring to market licensed NIL trading cards; and opening an NIL-focused team store with Alabama.
With its progress in the NIL landscape, e-commerce and in-venue partnerships with more than 150 colleges, universities, conferences, the NCAA, and a deep partnership with BNED for campus store merchandising, and manufacturing licenses with more than 600 universities spanning the U.S. across all product categories, Fanatics College is poised to continue pioneering collegiate licensing over the next decade and beyond.
A new joint venture between Fanatics, Lids, and Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (BNED) kicked off in 2021 that brings a paradigm shift to the college bookstore merchandise model. Fanatics’ cutting-edge e-commerce and technology expertise now offers BNED campus stores expanded product selection, a world-class online and mobile experience, and a progressive direct-to-consumer platform. Coupled with Lids, BNC and its campus stores now have improved access to trend and sales performance data on licensees, product styles, and design treatments.
Through the joint venture, Fanatics powers the e-commerce business for the nearly 800 BNED college and university bookstores, while Lids oversees the team merchandise sold in the stores and BNED operates the day-to-day physical store business.
Exclusive College Partners
Fanatics College has pioneered a new, innovative fan gear model under which Fanatics holds exclusive licensing partnerships with some of the biggest college programs – including University of Notre Dame, University of Alabama, University of Texas, University of Oregon, University of Miami, University of Oklahoma and University of Florida – which grants the company rights to become one of the school’s primary apparel, headwear and hardgoods partners. These new, long-term partnerships combine licensing, manufacturing, design and delivery through a uniquely comprehensive model in which Fanatics complements the on-field performance brands as a primary fan gear licensee, thus creating the largest assortments of program merchandise ever offered.
Topps, the preeminent licensed trading card brand that has serviced collectors, fans and retailers for more than 70 years in professional sports and entertainment, has also quickly become the leading brand for the nation’s top universities. On the heels of Fanatics’ acquisition of the company in January 2022, Topps launched its first collegiate products, all under the Bowman U brand, in early 2023 and that featured the top college athletes across football and basketball. With licensing partnerships now in place with close to 200 universities and 300 college athletes, Topps has elevated the collegiate trading card category with its highly sought-after and innovative offerings. Most recently in Fall 2023, Topps launched Bowman U NOW, an extension of its popular ecommerce platform that celebrates pivotal moments in college sports as they happen. To date, Topps has released hundreds of base, autographed and relic Bowman U NOW cards featuring collegiate stars such as Caleb Williams, Zach Edey and Paige Bueckers, and in March 2024 partnered with the NCAA to launch the first officially licensed March Madness trading cards, featuring 20 of the top athletes in the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.
In April 2024, Nike and Fanatics launched a new partnership granting Fanatics exclusive consumer product licensing rights to manufacture and distribute at retail Nike adult products (jerseys, sideline apparel, fan gear and headwear) for more than 20 of Nike’s top university partners. Nike remains the on-field supplier for uniforms, footwear and other gear for these universities. The model, which builds upon the existing partnerships that Nike and Fanatics have with MLB and the NFL, showcases an innovative approach to servicing consumer demand at retail that emphasizes the strengths of both companies.