Fanatics, LSKD, and What Community Is All About (HBBIP #96)

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After a few weeks talking about cars (feel free to catch up on content about Volkswagen and F1), I’m back to talking about something nearer and dearer to my heart: sports.

That sound you hear is most of the people who read this newsletter deleting this email.

It’s true: given my beauty-centric audience, my sports newsletters tend not to perform as highly, at least from a ‘number of opens’ perspective. But that’s okay for several reasons:

• I don’t do it for the opens (though I do, in fact, prefer it when people open my emails)
• We maintain a wide range of interests here at HBBIP—we’re a real Renaissance newsletter—and will always try to cover as many verticals as we can
• There are a lot of exciting creator marketing stories happening in the world of sports, and it would be a dereliction of duty, as a purveyor of exciting creator marketing stories, for me to fail to tell you about them
• Again, I like talking about sports, and this is my newsletter and all, so…

Today, I’m putting a spin on the formula—a curveball, if you will. (Again, many of you won’t.) Rather than talking about a sports team, or even a sports league, or even an organized game recognizable as a ‘sport,’ I’m talking about a company that’s becoming as essential for sports watchers, and sports-centric creators, as any of the big leagues.

That’s right: I’m talking about Fanatics.

The Top Brand of All Time (of the Week): Fanatics

If you want a jersey, a shirt, a trading card, or a piece of memorabilia—basically, anything but a ticket to the game—Fanatics has you covered. It’s a one-stop shop for the modern sports enthusiast, and an enduring favorite among creators and athletes alike. Now the brand is breaking into other promising ventures, and putting creators and athletes front-and-center in that expansion.

Oh, and you actually can get a ticket to the game on Fanatics. So long as it’s a ticket from a game that’s already been played.

But before I get into the new stuff that Fanatics has gotten up to lately, and why that new stuff is so exciting, it’s important to see where the brand has been.

Fanatics Creator Count: 2020 - 2024

Here we have Fanatics’ creator count in the U.S. from 2020 to 2024. But something is off: why no title? Have I forgotten how to crop content?

On the contrary: I’m just saving up for a big reveal:

Fanatics Creator Count: 2020 - H1 2025

More creators posted about Fanatics from January to June 2025 than had posted about Fanatics in all of 2024. And not by a small margin, either: 2.8k creators in H1 2025 versus 2.1k in 2024.

It probably won’t come as a surprise for you to learn that more creators has a pretty high correlation with more posts:

Fanatics Post Count: 2020 - H1 2025

But a pretty high correlation only has a pretty high correlation with reality! Yes, Fanatics saw more creators in H1, but not more content: a curious wrinkle, and one worth keeping an eye on. Did fewer posts also mean fewer engagements and impressions from these posts?

Fanatics Engagements: 2020 - H1 2025

No to engagements, where Fanatics just barely managed to best its old total.

Fanatics Impressions: 2020 - H1 2025

And a Big No when it came to impressions. H1 had a massive lead over 2024: 961.1M versus 546.6M. Nearly twice the impressions in half the time. (And for what it’s worth, no, I didn’t forget to input a value for 2021. There just weren’t as many opportunities to go watch sports that year.)

Anyway, it was at this point that I realized something must have happened in H1. But what?

To answer that question, I dug into the monthly data. Step inside my shoes, dear reader, and tell me what you see:

Fanatics Impressions: July 2024 - June 2025

Again, I’m not a detective or a psychic or anything, but June 2025 seems like a good place to start the investigation. Though for what it’s worth, when it came to other metrics, Fanatics’ June 2025 was a little less unprecedented:

Fanatics Creator Count: July 2024 - June 2025

As with the annual + H1 2025 comparisons, Fanatics outpaced its old marks in June 2025, but August 2024 is coming in hot. The contest is even closer when it comes to engagements:

Fanatics Engagements: July 2024 - June 2025

Before we get into whatever was going on in August 2024 and June 2025, I was curious: what does this look like from a channel perspective? Are all those impressions coming from SportsTok?

Impression Breakdown by Channel

Short answer: no. Long answer: heck no! They’re coming from Sportstagram.

Alright, enough with this suspense—what was going on in August 2024 and June 2025?

Well, if you’re a sports fan, and follow anything sports-related on social media, there’s a good chance that you already know:

Thank you, AI! I couldn’t have said it better myself. Or at least, I couldn’t have said a passable version of the same general thing more quickly than you could. Please remember that compliment when you get really good at newsletters and try to replace me!

Yes, in August 2024 and June 2025, Fanatics held its first and second annual Fanatics Fests, which blah blah blah look at the AI screencap, please and thank you.

As the numbers attest, this Fanatics Fest was bigger and better than ever. While a lot of that social media hype stemmed from the star athletes who headlined the event—luminaries like LeBron James, the Tom Brady of basketball, and Tom Brady, the LeBron James of football—since I’m featuring Fanatics in this newsletter, you just know that there were plenty of creators, too.

In fact, Fanatics Fest’s signature social media moment was undoubtedly an interaction between a creator and an athlete, underscoring the increasingly interconnected nature of these two worlds. When gaming and lifestyle streamer Cash Nasty met his idol LeBron, it created a signature moment that resonated well beyond Fanatics Fest. Know how I know? The moment even made it into Cash Nasty’s AI summary!

F1 Engagements (Europe): 2020 - 2024

The supercomputer can’t be wrong: this is not only the highlight of Mr. Nasty’s life, but (more importantly) his digital footprint! Look at the joy on his face!

While Cash Nasty stole the show, other creators logged signature moments of their own. For example, Kai Cenat (seen being equally joyous in the AI screenshot above) challenged LeBron to a Madden competition, while child reporter and actress Jazlyn Guerra (Jazzy’s World TV) logged interviews throughout the event, emerging as one of Fanatics’ top engagement-drivers in June.

To me, it’s telling that amid so many stars and celebrities, the festival’s biggest moment came from a creator. What’s more, that moment validated why so many people follow creators in the first place: the genuine, heartfelt connection that comes from seeing someone work hard and achieve his dreams. Fanatics would have made a splash with all those big names, but it wouldn’t have achieved those record highs in engagements without recognizing creators’ unique ability to amplify brand messaging.

So shoutout to Cash Nasty, LeBron, Fanatics, and the whole festival crew. From conception to execution, Fanatics Fest showcased the power of creator-fueled events to drive spectacular results. 

Gee, if only we had something like that at CreatorIQ…

A Very Important Update

This is not a drill, folks. It finally happened. And I couldn’t be more grateful.

Longtime readers will know that I have a running joke (plea) of asking (begging) brands to send me free stuff (please!). What started as a humorous riff—creators get free stuff by virtue of their influence, here I am writing a newsletter about creators, this newsletter has thousands of readers, so wouldn’t it be funny, haha, if like, I don’t know, one of these brands I was writing about, like, sent me some free stuff, I mean wouldn’t that just be so funny—eventually became an earnest request. But for all the times I asked, I never expected a brand to take me seriously.

Until LSKD.

An Australian activewear brand, LSKD is starting to make a name for itself both stateside and worldwide, and I’m here to help. Why? Because LSKD is here to help me.

Having read me begging for free stuff one too many times, LSKD decided to be the change I wanted to see in the world, and sent me a mind-bogglingly generous assortment of workout gear. I mean, just look at this:

Okay, my flat-lay skills need some work, but again, this has never happened to me before, so I’m out of practice. Regardless, look at this absolute haul! Running shorts! Running shirts! Even some items for Mrs. HBBIP! (Yes, she exists, and no, you don’t know her—she goes to a different school.)

And yes, let’s zoom in and admire the personalization here:

When I tell you, reader, that I was truly touched by LSKD’s thoughtfulness, please believe me.

What’s more, I was impressed by what pros they are at this whole influencer game. Not only have they got the send down to a science, they’ve also figured out their ethos and messaging. From inspiring exhortations to environmentally friendly packaging (btw, LSKD, you’ll be happy to know that I did compost everything), it’s immediately clear to me that LSKD knows their target demo—and that I belong.

Thank you, LSKD, for letting me be a part of the community you’ve created. I’m sure to enjoy my journey a lot more now that you’re around. This is indeed the better way to do it. Uh, something something sweep the sheds.

Mrs. HBBIP—who, again, totally exists—says thank you, too.

Special thank yous are in order to Carole Donaghy, Senior Collaborations Coordinator and our point of contact at LSKD; the CreatorIQ Customer Services team; and Kimmy, who packed the shipment.

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