Fanatics

Every sports retailer followed the same path: manufacturer, distributor, then retailer. A four-dollar jersey sold to distributors at eight, then to fans at one hundred. Fanatics owned every single layer instead. Factory, license, website, and shops all in house. A jersey costing four dollars went directly to the website for seventy-nine dollars. Vertical integration meant Fanatics could price dynamically. When a team won the championship, demand spiked. Fanatics owned the factory and ramped production to ten thousand jerseys daily. Captured all demand. No dead stock. No distributor or retailer margins. Fanatics owned customer data. A fan bought a jersey and Fanatics knew their size, team, price sensitivity.