Thinking in Public
Fanatics should start selling the entrepreneur jersey. I want the Elon one. I want the Jensen one. I don't care about Luka or LeBron anymore — I care about G-Unit sneakers and an Elon jersey with an infinity number and a rocket stitched on the back.
Entrepreneurs are the athletes now, at least for a big chunk of us. The culture already treats them that way — we just haven't printed the merch.
Elon's number is the infinity symbol, rocket on the back. Jensen's has the leather jacket collar stitched into it. Real numbering, real stitching, worn like a real jersey — because that's what it is.
Company stats printed like player stats — revenue, valuation, exits — on the back of the card.
Every batch gets a rookie set. Most go nowhere. A few become the card everyone wishes they'd kept.
A televised night where the next cohort of founders gets picked and handed a jersey on stage, like the NFL draft.
Fanatics takes cost. Everything else goes to the nonprofit the entrepreneur names on the tag.
That last one is the actual pitch, not the merch. Fanatics already knows how to print a jersey and move it at scale. Point that machine at founders instead of athletes, let the entrepreneur choose where the money goes, and you've built a jersey business and a giving arm in the same box.
I'd buy the Elon one on day one. I'd wear it more than I've worn any actual sports jersey in my life.