Mara Erickson

2/14/2022
Marketing and Sponsorship
Fanatics: A Brand for Fans

Fanatics is an officially licensed sports team brand for many major sport teams in North

America. It’s one of the largest official retailers for professional sports team apparel and

officially licensed sports apparel in North America. The company sponsors numerous

commercials during sporting events on television and is frequently present in online

advertisements. Fanatics is a well-known sports brand dedicated to designing and creating a

better fan experience for sports fans in North America. Many sport fans are familiar with the

name and know what Fanatics brings to sport teams and their brands. The company offers

different types of products like clothing, jerseys, and many different accessories like jewelry and

home decoration.

The brand has several different strengths and a few weaknesses. One of the main

strengths of the company Fanatics has been the vast diversity of sports and leagues with which it

officially partners. These partnerships include the Big 4, the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB along

with the PGA, NASCAR, and MLS (Fanatics). This diverse set of partnerships allows Fanatics

to expand their demographics throughout the sports world. Another strength of Fanatics is how

quickly it responds to viral sport plays and creates a product for fans to buy almost

instantaneously. For example, when Khail Mack of the Chicago Bears scored a surprising

touchdown in his first game with the Bears, Fanatics made his jersey and made it available for

sale by the time halftime arrived (Fast Company). A major asset for Fanatics as a brand is how

flexible they can be since they are primarily an online store. As an online entity they have

numerous options for a huge selection and wide variety of products for their customers.
 However strong Fanatics is as a brand, there are some weaknesses they could address.

When surveyed, hockey fans did not find the Fanatics branded official jerseys as favorable.

Women hockey fans appeared to have a higher approval rating of their jerseys. However,

compared to the authentic Adidas on-ice hockey jerseys, the Fanatics product seems to be less

desirable. One specific example of consumer dissatisfaction is evident when it comes to Fanatics

quality and supply (Strong). According to fans, Fanatics doesn’t make enough products to meet

some consumer demands and the quality of the Fanatics brand name products is sub-par for the

cost of their items (Strong). This is a clear weakness on the Fanatics brand that I have noticed it

myself; Fanatics could improve on the quality of products to entice more fans into buying their

products.

Fanatics is a rather large sports brand, and yet, there remain numerous opportunities for

further development. The two main opportunities I see for Fanatics are expanding into the Meta

universe along with gaining a partnership with Upper Deck and their trading cards. During the

business briefs during a few classes, I’ve learned that there are huge opportunities to capitalize

on the new technologies that are getting developed in Meta. The Super Bowl commercials were

all about crypto and online technologies. It is within this vein that I see an opportunity for

Fanatics and their partnerships with all the major sports in North America, to create a new

opportunity for fans to get involved and buy into. Upper Deck is primarily a sports card and

collectible company that creates the sports cards for various popular sports. This is a great

opportunity for Fanatics to broaden their potential customers and create their own Fanatics

branded cards as well to increase the diversity of their products.

Outside vendors like Nike, Under Armor, and Adidas, are large competitors with

Fanatics, even though Fanatics has its large partnerships with most sports in North America.
Another main competitor to Fanatics would be the personal team website and their team stores

for any professional sports team. This is considered a main threat since customers do like the

more authenticity of team apparel in their stores and their websites. A more global threat to

Fanatics is the current pandemic that is impacting businesses and brands on a global level. This

threat is more of a general threat since other businesses and brands must deal with it, too.

Fanatics has felt the economic impact of COVID 19 just as so many businesses have. Current

inflation trends and job losses tightens up fan-based spending and the total impact is yet to be

seen.

As a larger brand, Fanatics has a larger geographic area along with larger demographics.

The key offices they have include New York, Florida, and California (Fanatics). They also have

international headquarters as well (Fanatics). Smaller locations include major sport cities and

major college cities as well. In recent years, Fanatics has been continually adding in major

brands, fashion lines and collections to their store. This has helped them gain a larger

demographic with women and with customers of more diverse backgrounds. In the past,

sportswear hasn’t catered much to women, however, Fanatics is changing that with their wider

selection and collections made to fit women’s needs and wants. This allows them to reach out to

women to broaden their demographic. With many sports partnerships, Fanatics has been able to

create enough sport diversity so that there’s a sport and a team for nearly every type of sport.

They have recently gotten into esports which is a huge boost to broaden their demographics

further. Overall, Fanatics has done a wonderful job expanding internationally and extended their

demographics to adjust to the changing environment.

Fanatics does have a lot of different items and different sports represented in their store

but there are opportunities for growth for them as a company. The Super Bowl gave a prime
example of what Fanatics could do to grow their brand further. Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati

Bengals, known for his trendy fashions, could help Fanatics build up a fashionable line and

create his own fashion line with Fanatics. This last season in the NFL gave his name a large

boost and the Super Bowl helped give him a national name in the United States. Seeing this,

Fanatics could work with Joe Burrow, sign a deal with him so he makes money himself, and

create a fashionable line that works for everyone to grow as a brand. This would all be approved

by Joe Burrow, so he would still have his own unique fashion as an individual. Another notable

fashion star, Patrik Laine of the Columbus Blue Jackets, is known among NHL fans as a star

player that likes to dress fashionably as well. There is opportunity to grow as a brand since fans,

especially on Twitter, respond positively to posts that feature him showing off his style and

Fanatics could make affordable and trendy fashion lines inspired by major sport players like Joe

Burrow and Patrik Laine.

Fanatics is continually updating and making sure their current advertisement and

branding plan are being made known to the general population and to their targeted audiences.

Their commercials on televisions are specifically featured during sporting events to intrigue

sports fans to log onto Fanatics and look at the different styles of products. They also create new

commercials at a rapid pace to stay up to date on the latest wins and championships as they occur

during sports seasons. One very new branding move made by Fanatics is the purchasing of

Mitchell and Ness with Jay-Z (Brand Equity). Fanatics will own 75 percent of the company with

the other 25 percent belonging to a group of celebrities including Jay-Z (Brand Equity). The

company, Mitchel and Ness, is widely known for its replica jerseys and streetwear (Brand

Equity). This move is important to the Fanatics brand as it continues to expand its brand name.
There could be new and improved jerseys on the Fanatics brand in the future, which could solve

one of its weaknesses.

For a new partnership, I would propose one with Meta. The new and latest trend is to

continue the new technological advancements and place them in sports. The NFL is currently

implementing Meta in some of their latest moves to increase fan involvement, Fanatics can jump

on board with Meta and create large opportunities for their brand. Since Meta is primarily

technology focused, this would fit in with the large geographical area Fanatics covers since

people can connect to the Internet and social media networks instantly. Adding Meta into the

Fanatics brand would increase fan interest and gain new fans to increase the widespread

demographic Fanatics already has. Meta is the newest technology advancement and would

spread the fandom of sports onto a new level. This could grow sales and awareness by a

significant amount if Fanatics can correctly produce fitting products for consumers. Once fans

find satisfaction with this new partnership, they will quickly spread the word about the new

products Meta and Fanatics would offer, thereby increasing the awareness of sports and the

Fanatics name brand in a new and unique way that Meta offers. This partnership would make

sense to both Fanatics and Meta because Fanatics is primarily an online store and Meta

encompasses digital technology. With further development, an entire virtual world can be created

to feed into the current fandoms that occur within the sports world. The fandom with sports is

increasing and this will benefit both companies greatly.

Future goals for this partnership would be to create a virtual marketplace and world for

consumers and fans alike. This would encompass all the official partners for Fanatics and Meta’s

current partnerships as well. Having this set, this would lead to more fans learning about the

Meta universe and what Meta is and what it does. For maximum impact for this partnership, I
would recommend that Fanatics create an appealing first product with Meta to test out the market

for digital products and NFTs. Once the hype is created, Fanatics and Meta can expand the

universe and create more fans and increase the fandom for these sports teams and sports. I would

also investigate how Meta can be used for Fanatics' newer partnership with E-sports since the

fanbase under Esports would be more likely to be into the Meta universe and Meta products than

more traditional sport fans (Fanatics). To get the more traditional sport fans interested in what

Meta has to offer, I recommend creating a simple, easy, and meaningful digital product that

would appeal to the more traditional demographic of sports and sports products in general. To

appeal to women, I would have Fanatics come up with ideas to create a product that would

appeal to female fans of their teams or sports as well. Overall, this could be an impactful

partnership between Meta and Fanatics.

Brand Equity:

www.ETBrandEquity.com. “Sports Apparel Firm Fanatics Buys Mitchell & Ness with Jay-Z - ET

Brandequityd.” ETBrandEquity.com, 20 Feb. 2022,

https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/business-of-brands/sports-apparel-

firm-fanatics-buys-mitchell-ness-with-jay-z/89700178.

Fanatics :

“Sports Apparel, Jerseys, Hats, Sports Fan Gear & Collectibles: Fanatics.com - Officially Licensed

Everything.” Fanatics, http://www.fanatics.com/.

Fast Company:

Beer, Jeff. “This Company Creates Sports Apparel at the Speed of Social Media–and Fans Love It.”

Fast Company, Fast Company, 19 Feb. 2019, www.fastcompany.com/90299072/fanatics-

most-innovative-companies-2019.

Strong:

Strong, AJ. “Fanatics Is Ruining Sports Merchandising.” Teal Town USA, 1 Aug. 2020,

https://tealtownusa.com/2019/02/fanatics-is-ruining-sports-clothing/.