Products from Fanatics
Fanatics International provides NHL, NBA and NFL fans around the world with great deals on the latest apparel and fanwear.
Fanatics is the global market leader in licensed sports merchandising. Fanatics delivers to over 180 countries. Fanatics expanded the reach of its licensed sports merchandising business by acquiring UK-based international e-commerce sports company Kitbag in 2016. Fanatics has a successful trading post in the USA and partnerships with the largest sports teams and organizations in the world are also the focus.
Fanatics operates its international business from Manchester and offers retail solutions in addition to online trading. Fanatics has established relationships with globally recognized football clubs from the English Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 and represents all other major US sports leagues, golf, rugby, Formula 1 and tennis.
Fanatics, Inc., founded in 1995, originally came about when brothers Alan and Mitch Trager opened Football Fanatics, a store on the Orange Park Mall that focused on the Jacksonville Jaguars and items from local college teams. A second store was opened in the Avenues Mall by 1997. Brent Trager focused on creating a Fanatics online presence for the retail company and hired the first dedicated e-commerce employee in early 2000.
Fanatics' early success resulted from a business strategy targeting and partnering with high quality content websites. Fanatics started as a customer-centric company with a mission "to put the customer first in everything we do." The first acquisition (2006) was Richard Perels Marketsville, Inc. sports websites, which included a top college e-commerce property. At the time, Marketsville, Inc. represented nearly 25% of Fanatics' online sales as a subsidiary. Richard Perel stayed with Fanatics as Marketing Director until 2014 and helped the company raise funding with a valuation of $ 3.1 billion in 2013. Subsequent acquisitions were RuppShirts, based in Tallahassee, Florida, and Demand Made.
In April 2017, Fanatics bought the sportswear and merchandise manufacturer Majestic Athletic from VF Corporation. Majestic has been the MLB's exclusive on-field uniform supplier since 2005. The deal was a move to replace Majestic as MLB equipment supplier from the 2020 season after Fanatics signed an agreement with Under Armor.
In 2015, the NBA announced a multi-year partnership with Fanatics to operate the 25,000 m² flagship store in New York City. Customers can browse and shop all online inventory using handheld devices in the store at Fanatics' New York Flag Store.
In March 2016, the NFL and Fanatics agreed on a new long-term extension of the collaboration. The NFLPA also granted Fanatics the rights to player merchandise. In March 2017, Fanatics replaced Nike as the largest manufacturer and seller of player merchandise.
In 2015, Fanatics received a license from NASCAR to sell the fan merchandise on the track for all 36 races of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and selected races of the NASCAR Xfinity Series. This contract was introduced on the Pocono Raceway in August 2015. Larger stretches such as Daytona International Speedway used the first corner for fanatics merchandising.
In 2017, the National Hockey League NHL partnered with a major sporting goods manufacturer and introduced a new ice hockey jersey, with Fanatics making the jerseys themselves as the new standard jersey for fans, while others produce the jerseys on the ice.
In December 2015, the MLB announced a merchandise deal in which the rights were split between fanatics and other sporting goods manufacturers. MLS and Fanatics began their partnership in 2017.