HanesBrands, Winston-Salem, N.C., is designing, printing and shipping more than 500,000 units of clothing throughout the duration of the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.
The company’s apparel brands being shipped include Champion, Alternative and ComfortWash. Its graphic design, screen-printing and logistics teams based in Lenexa, Kan., began designing and printing T-shirts and other apparel on Selection Sunday, and again repeated the process on Selection Monday.
As the exclusive NCAA supplier of on-site tournament fanwear, the company leverages its production scale and flexibility — including a team of in-house graphic designers and direct-to-garment printing operations — to customize, produce, ship and sell apparel to game sites across the country as teams advance in the tournament, according to the company. The company also uses in-market screen-printers to supply local retailers with team-specific tournament fanwear.
For each round, the design, printing and shipping process is repeated, and will conclude with the Final Four, where the company will sell licensed fanwear at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, 15 NCAA sanctioned hotels, the March Madness Music Festival and Fan Fest during the men’s tournament. The company also will sell apparel at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla., six NCAA sanctioned hotels and Tourney Town during the women’s tournament.
“Developing apparel for the tournament is always a challenge that pushes us to continue innovating and improving our supply-chain efficiency,” says John Fryer, HanesBrands president, sports and graphic apparel. “Although our streamlined process makes things look easy, there is a tremendous amount of behind-the-scenes work and complex logistics taking place to ensure we are meeting demand to keep the fans happy.”
More than 150 items are available at each stage of the events. Alternative Apparel, which was acquired by HanesBrands in 2017, is a new, eco-friendly offering for this year’s tournament.
For the Final Four, Target stores throughout the Minneapolis area, as well as the Mall of America, will feature HanesBrands retail spaces. — D.S.
