How does one become a legitimate NFL jersey reseller?

June 12, 2013 5:54 PM

I've been searching the net for days now trying to find a way to become an authorized NFL jersey reseller, to no avail. Who should a prospective retailer deal with? Nike or the NFL? What are some authorized distributors a prospective retailer/reseller could buy from?
posted by dcrocha to Work & Money (3 answers total)

The guys who make the gear -- screen-printers, etc. -- have to get a license from the NFL to use the art. They sell their stuff, as far as I know, directly to big vendors (Target and the like).

My dad had a license in the early 1990s so he could export to Japan, and he had catalogs full of hideously garish stuff * that the manufacturers offered in the hopes that someone would buy it and put it in a store.

You might go into a store that sells a ton of items, note down the names of the manufacturers, and contact them. Or maybe ask the NFL licensing groups?

* (And by "garish" I am specifically thinking about a letter-jacket style jacket featuring a wrap-around airbrush illustration of a raiding party of Vikings pillaging & burning a town, plus the Minnesota NFL team's logo on the front and the word Vikings spelled out down one sleeve. It was breathtaking. My dad thought even Japan couldn't offer a home to this one.)
posted by wenestvedt at 6:59 PM on June 12, 2013

How to become an NFL-licensed vendor.

This doesn't seem to be a trivial undertaking.
posted by dfriedman at 7:35 PM on June 12, 2013

Yeah, but that is the process for a manufacturer, and the OP just wants to sell the jerseys, not print them. (Definitely not a simple process, though, as you say!)
posted by wenestvedt at 8:16 PM on June 12, 2013