Emerging company Athlete’s Thread is making waves in the Collegiate Licensing arena as it enables athletes on campus to easily make money off their name, image, and likeness regardless of their team, gender, or social following. This striking development comes at the helm of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s adoption of a new policy that allows athletes to raise profit. 

This policy change has compelled many companies to provide athletes with an avenue to promote their merchandise. Unfortunately, only star players mostly get the opportunity to work alongside big industry players. To give everyone a fair chance to benefit from the new policy, co-founders Luke McGurrin and Karthik Shanadi established Athlete’s Thread.

“The best part about this is helping tell the unique story of every student-athlete,” McGurrin revealed. “We believe that if you’re a student-athlete, even if ESPN isn’t telling your story, you’re already a hometown hero and have a huge community behind you that would love to support you. What we really want to do is help all of these students realize how much they have accomplished and be the driving force to not only get their story out but help them be successful.”

“Our mindset working with all these athletes, the colleges and the athletic directors is to help them tell them their story, but also make sure we are helping them be successful both on and off the field,” Shanadi said. 

McGurrin and Shanadi are seasoned entrepreneurs when it concerns college apparel. They established Greek House in 2013, a platform that made it a lot easier for buyers to order custom apparel. After Greek House, they also established two other brands: College Thread and Threadly. 

“It’s already complex enough being a student and athlete at the same time, so when you start hearing about licensing compliance and taxes, it can become overwhelming. So, there’s also a little bit of a fear of the unknown, and how do I do this safely? So what we’re also trying to do is demystify the name, image and licensing process and make it extremely easy for the athletes to where we’re essentially removing their risk,” McGurrin shared.

Interestingly, Athlete’s Thread presently has more than 2,000 athletes in 12 colleges. There are 58 on standby, simply waiting for them to go live and introduce their athletes. In addition, Athlete’s Thread is already handling impressive names in the list of athletes, including Heisman Trophy Winner Bryce Young and break-out athletes Jahmyr Gibbs, Jalen Milroe, and Trashon Holden at the University of Alabama. 

Without a doubt, Athlete’s Thread is not only impacting the lives of young athletes, but it is also redefining how the sports business is being viewed and run. As a known market disruptor, the company intends to get 8,000 more athletes and ultimately take over a major market share. Its founders already foresee the need to expand beyond merchandise and apparel, which normally includes coffee mugs, stickers, and water bottles. 

As its founders set their eyes on becoming leaders in the Sports Merchandise industry, the company will be starting out with licensed merchandise for college athletes and eventually expand into collegiate retail merchandise and then professional sports.