{"id":243400,"date":"2025-10-27T12:09:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T12:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/243400\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T12:09:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T12:09:07","slug":"nfl-lululemon-apparel-the-latest-league-push-into-upscale-merchandise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/243400\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Lululemon Apparel the Latest League Push Into Upscale Merchandise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe NFL<\/a> continues to seek new, upscale partners for its licensed merchandise, joining a wider trend seen across the multibillion-dollar industry.<\/p>\n

\n\tLast week, the league announced a collaboration with Naadam, a cashmere clothing company, to sell team-branded sweaters for $380. On Monday, it announced a new collection with Lululemon to add team logos to a number of the athleisure brand\u2019s more popular items, including sweatshirts ($148) and joggers ($128).<\/p>\n

\n\tThis marks the first time Lululemon has sold product featuring the logos of NFL teams. The gear will be sold and distributed across the league\u2019s online shop and team stores, both online and on-site. Many of those are operated by Fanatics<\/a>, in which the NFL has invested multiple times<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe products follow a three-way partnership<\/a> between Fanatics, Lululemon and the NHL<\/a> that launched last year. That collaboration, which started with a handful of teams before expanding to all 32, was proof of concept for many involved. According to Fanatics, on the day the initial collection dropped, the products accounted for 80% of the NHL sales across the company\u2019s various e-commerce sites. For the entire 2024-25 regular season, Lululemon was among the five best-selling NHL brands.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe know there is an opportunity to bring a premium option to sports fans,\u201d Lululemon CEO Calvin McDonald said on an earnings call in December.<\/p>\n

\n\tLike the NFL, Fanatics has also prioritized recent partnerships with higher-end brands. That includes what the company calls \u201chype drops<\/a>\u201d\u2014limited-run collaborations with celebrities, fashion houses or streetwear brands.<\/p>\n

\n\tRecent examples include a collection of college sports gear with Travis Scott\u2019s Cactus Jack<\/a> brand, and a recent World Series partnership<\/a> with The Weeknd. Those deals allow Fanatics to diversify its product\u2014particularly in higher-end gear that its own eponymous brand doesn\u2019t typically sell\u2014and flex its wide distribution network.<\/p>\n

\n\tLululemon stock (Nasdaq: LULU<\/a>) is down more than 50% so far this year, despite general health of the overall activewear market. The company\u2019s founder, who stepped down from the company\u2019s board more than a decade ago, recently paid for an ad<\/a> in The Wall Street Journal accusing current executives of \u201cdismantling\u201d the company\u2019s business model and prioritizing \u201cWall Street at the expense of customers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NFL continues to seek new, upscale partners for its licensed merchandise, joining a wider trend seen across…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,35732,22887,514,448,82],"class_list":["post-243400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fanatics","tag-michael-rubin","tag-nfl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}