San Mateo scores a Fanatics HQ
Online sports retail giant joins the Silicon Valley technology-hub team
SAN MATEO — As Bay Area sports fans enjoy a glorious renaissance fueled by the Giants and Warriors, a company that converts that passion into e-commerce gold has planted its corporate flag in the heart of the Peninsula.
Fanatics, a global leader in online sports merchandise, opened a new West Coast headquarters this month in San Mateo, reflecting the importance of Silicon Valley’s talent pool to the company’s growth in the realm of mobile technology. The move tucks another feather in the cap of the city’s Bay Meadows development, a sprawling two-stage project on the site of
a former horse-racing track.
Founded in 1995 as a retail store in Jacksonville, Florida, Fanatics has evolved into a nearly ubiquitous internet behemoth, running the online stores for all four major sports leagues — football, basketball, baseball and hockey — as well major media outlets and more than 200 professional teams and colleges. The company also runs its own site, Fanatics. com, and makes its own licensed apparel, which account for roughly 15 percent of revenues.
All those hats, jerseys and shorts add up to more than $1 billion in annual sales, according to the company, which owes much of its success to a laserlike focus on the highs and lows of American sports fans. That mindset, along with having its own production line, gives the company the agility to seize on those unpredictable moments every season that send fans into ecstasy.
“We’re really about the fan,” said Raphael Peck, president of Fanatics Branded, the company’s merchandise-production arm. “We’re saying, ‘What does that Philadelphia Eagles fan want right now in this moment?’ And that’s all we think about.”
When Kevin Durant inked his deal July 7 with the Warriors, Fanatics immediately went into production on his jersey. When Villanova University claimed the NCAA basketball title in April, Peck’s team quickly launched a “Phila Nova” product line appealing to Philadelphians who were swept up in the excitement of the suburban team’s improbable triumph.
The company’s emphasis on mobile technology adds to its ability to capitalize on the emotional reactions of fans to championships or jawdropping accomplishments. More than half the firm’s sales now come through mobile devices.
“We’ve been in front of a lot of major trends like the shift to mobile web,” said Lauren Cooks Levitan, Fanatics’ chief financial officer. “We’ve really put a lot of thought and energy into making this frictionless for the customer.”
The company, which has about 2,000 employees, has moved roughly 200 workers from offices in San Francisco and Sunnyvale to the new San Mateo headquarters and plans to hire more. The expanding West Coast hub is focused on data, quantitative marketing and front-end design. It also houses Peck’s product design crew.
The new digs, which allow for relatively easy commutes from San Francisco and the South Bay, are located on the campus of Franklin Templeton Investments, a complex that was constructed during the first phase of the Bay Meadows redevelopment, which abuts Caltrain’s Hillsdale Station.
The 83-acre second phase is now well underway. Survey Monkey is scheduled to move into a partly finished 210,000-square-foot office building in early 2017, and more than 700 residential units have been built or are under construction.
Taken together, it’s a pretty good sign both for San Mateo’s economy and the city’s niche in the high-tech ecosystem, said Mayor Joe Goethals, who happens to be a hard-core Giants fan. The former collegiate baseball player said Fanatics seems like a natural fit for the Bay Area.
“Fanatics’ whole business is celebrating your team,” he said, “and we love to do that here.”