On the surface, it may seem like a far cry from Macy’s. But there are actually a lot of similarities between the department store and Fanatics Commerce, the merchandising arm of the licensed sports platform.
Just ask Sam Archibald.
A little less than two years ago, Archibald joined Fanatics Commerce as chief merchandising officer, where he oversees all merchandising for the company’s online and physical channels. What that translates into is a business that will exceed $7 billion in sales this year.
Fanatics, which launched in 2011, started out as an e-commerce company selling licensed sports merchandise. But over 15 years, it has grown into a behemoth that has partnerships with more than 900 sports properties — from professional leagues to teams and colleges — operates more than 2,000 retail locations including all Lids stores, is the majority owner of Mitchell & Ness, has collectibles, betting and gaming divisions and runs the popular Fanatics Fest every summer.
The company is on pace to reach $14 billion in sales this year and the goal is to hit $50 billion in annual revenue over the next five to 10 years.
But as big as Fanatics has become, its singular focus continues to be on sports — markedly different from a multibrand retailer such as Macy’s, where Archibald spent around 16 years in two stints, rising to senior vice president and general manager of apparel, overseeing men’s, women’s and children’s.
“I had an incredible career at Macy’s,” Archibald said. “I started as an intern at what was Macy’s East at the time and I took on so many different roles in the organization and had the opportunity to learn so much. I was in men’s, women’s, the home store.”
He left for a while to lead the Calvin Klein direct-to-consumer business before returning to the department store post-pandemic to help the team reformat and reset the apparel business.
Then Michael Rubin came calling.
It took more than six months for the founder and chief executive officer of Fanatics to convince Archibald to make the leap. But he has no regrets.
“I was not looking for a job and I didn’t know Michael at all,” Archibald said. “But when I looked at Fanatics, I saw that sports was a growing business where my skill set could be additive to the organization. And it is an entrepreneurially led business, which also appealed to me. It gave me the opportunity to take a business to the next level, and that was really interesting to me, both personally and professionally. It was difficult to leave Macy’s because I love the company. There are wonderful people there and they have a great business, but it was just time.”
Since joining Fanatics, Archibald has gotten an immersive education in the licensed sports merchandising business. In traditional retailing, the goal is to predict the next hot brand or trend six to 18 months in advance. But at Fanatics, the company reacts within hours of major sports events and produces merchandise that is ready to be sold to fans immediately.
“This is a very passionate business,” he said. “If you don’t have a 34/34 in Levi’s, your customer is going to be disappointed. But if you don’t have the jersey for a specific event or game, you’re going to ruin their entire day, month or year.”
He said people really care about how they show up to a tailgate or a game, and it’s up to Fanatics to ensure it has the right product in stock, that it’s a quality product and it’s delivered on time.
That speed to market is the biggest difference between Fanatics and traditional retail, Archibald said. “Twenty percent of our weekly volume is done in products that have been launched within 14 days,” he said. “That’s a lot of new drops. We drop 400-plus programs a year, which means we’re dropping something almost every day. We have 500-plus brands that we do business with and work with more than 1,200 teams. And all of those fan bases have a little something different.”
When LeBron James announced he was leaving the L.A. Lakers and joining the 76ers, Fanatics was able to produce jerseys within hours to meet the demand. “We got jerseys and a full assortment of apparel live within an hour,” he said. “It was the best sales of a player joining a new team in company history. It beat Shohei Ohtani joining the Dodgers.”
Fanatics is also prepared to do the same for the next winner of the World Series and Super Bowl. “The reaction to the business is a very big part of what we do every day,” he said.
The company keeps blanks ready to be printed at a moment’s notice. In the past, assortments for both teams would be prepared in advance and the loser’s merchandise would be discarded.
Even so, the sheer size of the market is daunting. Fanatics navigates everything from NFL product with multimillion-dollar volume to a small school where the overall sales are just $6,000. “That’s a merchant skill that requires a lot of focus,” Archibald said.
It also led to his mantra: “More new, more often.”
“We came to a realization two years ago when I joined that we need a lot more frequency,” Archibald said. It’s here that his experience in the larger market is useful. Recently, Fanatics launched collaborations with Tuckernuck for the NFL, Lululemon for NFL, NHL, MLB and MLS, Abercrombie & Fitch for the NFL and LoveShackFancy for collegiate apparel.
“What we’re finding is we’re servicing our current consumer with new products and driving interest, but we’re also expanding and growing the market,” he said. “Ninety percent of our customers for LoveShackFancy were new — 50 percent of our customers were new on Abercrombie. So we’re serving our fans and also growing the marketplace by delivering more new, more often.”
That includes the Hometown Remix program with the NHL, a league for which Fanatics creates player uniforms as well as fan apparel. These special-edition uniforms for all 32 teams — designed and developed by Fanatics — are intended to celebrate the city and local culture of each team and are being introduced for the 2026-27 season.
“It’s an alternate uniform for on-ice and fan apparel,” he said. “And I think it will have cultural relevance beyond the traditional hockey fan. Whether they’re a hardcore fan or a lifestyle consumer, we want to be able to serve both of them really well.”
While Fanatics creates both fan and athlete apparel for the NHL, the relationship with the other big leagues is different. Nike makes the uniforms for the NFL and MLB while Fanatics makes the adult fan gear. For the NBA, Nike makes both player and fan apparel and Fanatics sells it.
For colleges, Fanatics runs the e-commerce for almost 100 teams and has a partnership with Barnes & Noble for another couple hundred.
Then there are the brands that have negotiated individual deals with the leagues, such as New Era. In that case, Archibald said, the Fanatics buyers purchase goods that are sold on their platform. “It’s no different than a retailer like Nordstrom or Bloomingdale’s or Macy’s that sells product bought from the marketplace.”
Archibald has also been tasked with increasing Fanatics’ reach with women. “It’s been an underserved category of business in sports licensing across the industry. Obviously, given my background, when I came into the business, I was shocked,” he said.
But he rolled up his sleeves and instituted a plan that calls for more than doubling the women’s business within the next few years. “We’re ahead of schedule on that, which feels really good. We’re making it a priority in the business and organizing our team to have a direct focus on the women’s business.”
The company even has a female advisory council that provides feedback. “We’re listening and we’re reacting,” he said.
A big part of that is an update of the silhouettes to better serve women. “Unisex fits are wonderful, but women don’t want that,” he said. “We’ve focused ourselves on fit, fabric, fashion and brand in the women’s category. We’re executing it across all leagues, and silhouettes are really important. We have an amazing mockneck in our college business — it’s our number-one selling fashion style — but in the past we may not have been as focused on the details.”
Within the Lululemon assortment, a brand popular with women, there were no bottoms offered. So Fanatics worked to add a legging that then “opened up the aperture to other women’s bottoms throughout our business,” he said.
And within the all-important jersey business, Fanatics now offers a women’s fit. “We’ve gotten a lot of feedback from fans on that, so it’s an important part of our growth.”
Among the cultural influences that are helping drive that growth is Erin Andrews, who has a Wear collection for women that got a boost earlier this month when Taylor Swift wore one of the tank tops to cheer on her husband at a Kansas City Chiefs game. “It happened organically,” Archibald said. “We offered it on our site and we sold out pretty promptly.”
Archibald said Andrews was one of the first women to enter the space with an apparel line and has been a good partner to Fanatics. She now has deals with the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NCAA, NWSL, WWE, WNBA and U.S. Soccer.
TV personality Jill Martin also has a women’s collection that spans the NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLB and college sports whose offering was expanded last week.
That’s among the big pushes for holiday. But before that, Fanatics sees opportunities with the World Series where the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays are currently squaring off, as well as the NHL’s Hometown Remix program and the NFL’s Rivalry matchups where special uniforms are created for historic rivals such as the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers.
Specifically for holiday, Fanatics created a gift guide and will also be aggressively marketed for Black Friday and Cyber Monday — initiatives that would be similar to those employed by Macy’s. “The human calendar is the same and gift-giving is the same,” Archibald said. “Half of our business in the fourth quarter is driven through gift-giving. We’re really prepared for the holiday season with specific assortments that span hard goods all the way to apparel and sleepwear.”
Beyond that, Fanatics is already preparing for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. “We’re the official partner of LA28 and Team USA,” Archibald said. “We have fan gear and we’re also outfitting all the volunteers. These large-scale events bring a different level of fandom to the category and create a lot of interest. So we’re really optimistic.”