Boosting the Bevo brand
New flagship store for Longhorn fanatics brings the burnt orange to UT’s Moody Center
Sports apparel merchandiser Fanatics has something big in store for University of Texas basketball fans.
As part of an expanded partnership with UT, Jacksonville, Florida-based Fanatics will open a roughly 1,800-square-foot Longhorn apparel store inside the new Moody Center. The $338 million facility is set to open next April. It’ll replace the Frank Erwin Center as the home arena for the men’s and women’s Longhorn basketball teams.
The Fanatics location, described as a “state-of-the-art flagship retail store,” will feature traditional shopping as well as mobile checkout capabilities and online-order pickups. In addition, Fanatics will create “new experiences” before, during, and after UT football games, and will establish pop-up shops during the Bevo Blvd. street party at football games.
Fanatics and another sports apparel merchandiser, Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based HanesBrands, have been tapped to create a new collection of gear for Longhorn fans. Local and national retailers will sell the apparel. HanesBrands already has set up a Champion shop at the University Co-op, next to the UT campus.
“Fanatics and HanesBrands are each committed to significantly expanding the assortment and distribution of Texas merchandise, which complements our fan-focused licensed merchandise strategy,” Drew Martin, executive senior associate athletics director for external affairs at UT, says in a news release.