Thread x Sportsmarks

Thread Wallets, a fashion-forward accessories brand known for its appeal to college-age consumers, had minimal exposure to collegiate licensing, limited to a handful of local schools like BYU and Utah. As the company prepared for aggressive growth, they knew collegiate licensing was the next major channel—but lacked the internal resources to tackle it at scale.

The Challenge

With limited bandwidth and no in-house licensing expertise, Thread Wallets faced a crossroads:

• Hire and train a full internal licensing team—an expensive and time-consuming option

• Or find a partner who could act as their team, hit the ground running, and deliver results fast

They chose Sportsmarks to serve as their external licensing department, managing the end-to-end licensing operation.

Our Solution

Sportsmarks became an embedded part of Thread’s organization, coordinating directly with:

• Executive leadership on licensing strategy

• Sales teams and rep groups on market targeting

• Product development on design alignment

• Legal and accounting for compliance and royalty reporting

We handled everything:
✅ License research & applications
✅ Product design approvals
✅ Royalty submissions
✅ Multi-agency compliance (CLC, Fanatics, Brand Comply)
✅ Retail integration and expansion strategy

The Results

In just 3 months, Thread Wallets went from a local licensing player to a national contender:

• 48 collegiate licenses secured — including high-impact schools like Ohio State, Florida, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington, Kentucky, Alabama, Penn State, and Stanford

• 500+ product designs submitted across 5+ product categories

• Licensing now powering new distribution in Dick’s Sporting Goods, Target, Urban Outfitters, Academy Sports, Rally House, and campus bookstores nationwide

Client Testimonial

“We have been extremely pleased with the Sportsmarks team! It’s safe to say we would not have been able to expand this line without them. They’ve taken a massive load off our team and helped us unlock amazing new opportunities.”
— Marc Hodson, CRO, Thread Wallets

Looking Ahead

With Sportsmarks managing the licensing infrastructure, Thread Wallets is poised to scale its licensed product line into new categories, retailers, and partnerships—without the overhead or delay of building an internal team.