When Authentic Brands Group acquired Champion from its former owner HanesBrands in 2024, the brand was lagging. Sales had dropped by 26% year-over-year in the last quarter before the acquisition’s announcement in June, but it was still a $75 million dollar business with strong name recognition.
The new owners had a vision for how to turn Champion back into a dominant name in sports apparel, with one central focus: Champion had to be back in professional sports.
“That was the vision right away,” said Sean McCabe, operating partner at Ames Watson, a private holdings company that is leading Champion’s teamwear business operations. “It’s been a hole in the brand for a long time. Champion needs to be in pro sports leagues.”
Over the last year, Champion has pursued several major sports league partnerships. It’s partnering with smaller leagues like Minor League Baseball and Premier Lacrosse League, as well as with so-called Big 4 leagues like the National Hockey League. Most recently, Champion signed its biggest teamwear partnership yet when it debuted its first official NFL collaboration on June 20. Champion has already debuted officially licensed apparel for some of the biggest teams in the NFL, including the New York Giants, New York Jets, Dallas Cowboys and Washington Commanders. Marketing for Champion’s NFL collections will focus on events like Fanatics Fest NYC, held this past weekend in Manhattan, which cater to sports fanatics and collectible enthusiasts.
Steve Robaire, evp of Champion at Authentic Brands Group, told Glossy that teamwear currently makes up about 15% of Champion’s revenue, but he hopes that number will grow along with Champion’s overall sales.
“We certainly have a competitive advantage because Champion already has a really recognizable name and credibility in sports spaces,” Robaire said. “These league deals really open the door for us to talk to a sports fanatic audience.”
Both Robaire and McCabe said league deals are complex beasts. Not only does Champion have to think about its own brand image, but it needs to be balanced against the image of the league and the image of each individual team, which all have different reputations, aesthetics and sometimes disparate audiences.
“We’re not going to be lazy and have one approach for all of our NFL collections,” Robaire said. “We’re approaching working with each team on an individual basis and will be working with them on things like small capsule [product] drops tied to specific games.”
Champion is currently pursuing other big league deals. It will continue to push into combat sports after its UFC partnership was announced in May, plus it’s interested in the growing world of women’s sports.
Champion’s new approach to league deals and teamwear comes at a time of change for the sports apparel industry. A report from McKinsey released in March showed the overall sports apparel market growing from $173 billion in 2025 to $209 billion by 2029. It also revealed that traditional sports giants like Nike and Adidas are seeing their teamwear revenues slowing down while newer entrants, including Lululemon and Arc’teryx, are taking some of their market share.
Champion is one of many brands with flagging sales but strong name recognition that Authentic has acquired in the last few years, joining the likes of Reebok, Brooks Brothers and Sperry. Authentic’s strategy for many of them has been to work with outside partners like Ames Watson to turn those businesses around. Authentic Brands Group is reportedly mulling an IPO.
