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Fanatics Brands Assessment for Accreditation

The FLA board of directors in June 2021 voted to accredit the social compliance program of Fanatics Brands, the private label division of Fanatics, Inc., a global leader for licensed sports merchandise headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, that specializes in licensed fan apparel for the world’s most popular leagues, brands, and collegiate and professional teams.

Fanatics Brands manufactures its products at three owned and operated facilities in Tampa, Florida, Easton, Pennsylvania, and Norman, Oklahoma, and sources from 94 contracted facilities across 17 countries. Accreditation by the FLA recognizes that Fanatics Brands has systems in place to identify and remediate unfair labor practices in its global supply chain.

The FLA accreditation report is the result of a lengthy review of a company’s social compliance program against international labor standards. The accreditation report on Fanatics Brands’ program noted the following:

  • Commitment to workplace standards: Sustainability at Fanatics Brands, the company’s social compliance program, includes 11 global staff members, including regional managers in six countries. The company publishes its labor standards commitments online, reinforcing its obligations.
  • Responsible purchasing practices: A long-range planning template and adherence to planning and operations calendars preserves production lead times and mitigates last-minute changes to orders. Regular cross-departmental meetings and weekly meetings with suppliers provide forums to analyze the impact of purchasing practices on working conditions.
  • Fair compensation: Fanatics Brands has used the FLA Fair Compensation Dashboard to analyze wage data from 21 percent of its suppliers in scope and map wages against living wage estimates. Fanatics Brands drafted a blueprint for making living wage progress using this information.
  • Monitoring: FLA verified that 100 percent of Fanatics Brands owned and tier one contract facilities received a full social compliance audit over a two-year period. Further, Fanatics Brands deployed an online workforce impact survey to all suppliers in response to COVID-19 restrictions that limited in-person audits. The survey focused on retrenchment risks, wage payment accuracy, and health and safety issues.
  • Training: An extensive social compliance training program for Fanatics Brands staff includes a required introductory training on responsible purchasing practices for all staff, and quarterly and annual sessions on workplace standards and topics such as grievance mechanisms, retrenchment, and freedom of association and collective bargaining for sustainability staff. The commitment to training extends to ensuring that global suppliers are aware of their responsibilities and the production workers are fully informed of their rights.