Fanatics-backed vintage sports brand Mitchell & Ness hires Nike executive as CEO

Mitchell & Ness, the approach to life clothes model identified for its throwback and classic jerseys and attire that was acquired by Fanatics final 12 months, has employed Nike government Eli Kumekpor as its new CEO.

Kumekpor, who most lately served as the worldwide vice chairman and basic supervisor of Jordan Brand’s males’s business, will change former CEO Kevin Wulff, who joined Fanatics when Mitchell & Ness was acquired and is now retiring.

Established in 1904 in Philadelphia, Mitchell & Ness makes and sells classic jerseys and attire collections for almost each main sports activities league. Fanatics acquired a 75% stake within the firm in February 2022 in a deal that valued the corporate at $250 million, with the opposite 25% going to a bunch of celebrities and athletes together with Jay-Z, Lebron James, Kevin Hart, and Kevin Durant.

In 2022, the corporate was a $350 million business and noticed annual development of 30%, Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin advised CNBC in October 2022.

Mitchell & Ness has signed a number of new rights offers since being acquired by Fanatics throughout quite a lot of leagues, faculties, and gamers’ associations, together with a licensing take care of the NHL that covers all of its groups, and an expanded headwear and reversion jersey catalog with MLB.

While the model will proceed to lean into the heritage and nostalgia features of sports activities merchandise with jerseys of retired gamers and the utilization of outdated logos and coloration schemes, Kumekpor mentioned he sees a possibility to additional lean into the intersection of sports activities, tradition, way of life, and trend, taking many classes from his time at Nike and Jordan Brand.

“There’s an opportunity served through the lens of vintage and the retired player base, but I think as we look at our partnerships, how do we now expand the footprint of that?” he mentioned. “We want to serve that entire continuum from nostalgia and beyond, and that includes looking at opportunities with active rosters and active players.”

Kumekpor, who earlier than Nike spent greater than a decade within the health-care business at firms together with AstraZeneca, Alcon, Life Technologies, and Cigna, mentioned he additionally sees room to develop the concentrate on “cutting edge innovation from a design perspective.”

“How do you take the old and make it new and fresh again,” he mentioned, referencing among the issues that Jordan Brand has executed round its in depth catalog of beloved sneakers. “Nostalgia means a lot of different things to different consumer groups, so we want to make sure we’re keeping the brand premium.”