Fanatics, Travis Scott’s Cactus Jack Label Team Up for NCAA Apparel

Fanatics is teaming up with rapper Travis Scott to launch a new line of college sports apparel that will leverage multiple parts of its vast apparel and distribution empire.

The clothing will be designed and produced by Scott’s Cactus Jack brand and Fanatics-owned Mitchell & Ness. It will be sold on the Fanatics website, at Fanatics-owned Lids locations, via athletic department e-commerce shops run by Fanatics and at on-campus bookstores operated by Barnes & Noble College, with whom Fanatics and Lids have a long-term operational partnership.

It’s a double-licensor set-up—Mitchell & Ness has secured licenses with the colleges and Cactus Jack, both of whom will receive a royalty on product sales. This structure is similar to NFL collabs that Mitchell & Ness has done with Rihanna’s Fenty brand or Usher.

The Cactus Jack collaboration is built to leverage two major hallmarks of Fanatics’ business—the many interconnected pieces of its business, and its close ties to athletes, music stars and other influencers. Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin keeps a very public profile tied to his celebrity relationships; he makes courtside appearances with A-listers, hosts an exclusive summer “white party” at his Hamptons home and throws an extravagant Super Bowl party. (Scott performed at the Super Bowl event in Las Vegas this year.)

Mitchell & Ness, the retro and lifestyle apparel brand, is good proxy for both. Fanatics bought the brand in 2022 for $250 million, alongside a group of minority investors that includes Jay-Z, Meek Mill, Lil Baby and the TikTok-famous D’Amelio family, along with NBA stars James Harden, Joel Embiid, Kevin Durant and LeBron James. Many of those backers were already partners with Fanatics, or Rubin, in other ventures. (Rubin sold his equity in the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils in order to partner more closely with the athletes themselves.) It quickly utilized Fanatics licensing relationships to expand its product into new areas, like the NHL.

A 10-time Grammy Award nominee, Scott formed Cactus Jack Records in 2017. The brand has expanded into other areas including philanthropy, gaming, consumer goods and fashion, including prior collaborations with Nike, McDonald’s and A Bathing Ape. The 32-year-old is also increasing his presence in sports—he was courtside at the Iowa basketball game when Caitlin Clark broke the all-time scoring record, and recently teamed up with the Houston Astros to host a college baseball tournament between HBCUs.

The Fanatics partnership will feature apparel for 28 different schools, including nine SEC schools (Georgia, Alabama, LSU, Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Kentucky, Florida, plus newcomers Oklahoma and Texas) and seven Big Ten schools (Michigan, Michigan State, Wisconsin and Penn State, plus newcomers Oregon, USC and UCLA). It also includes four HBCUs (Southern, Grambling State and North Carolina A&T).

All those schools have either a local Lids store on campus or a bookstore operated by Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE: BNED), which in 2020 signed a wide-ranging partnership with a Fanatics/Lids joint venture. Under the deal, the joint venture made a $15 million equity investment in Barnes & Noble Education, which has relationships with more than 750 campus bookstores. Lids took over the in-store sports merch operations for those shops, while Fanatics took over the e-commerce part of the business.

(This story’s headline has been updated.)