The Minnesota Wild have entered into a new long-term partnership with Fanatics, a leading global digital sports platform and provider of licensed sports merchandise, to elevate the retail experience for fans. Effective immediately, Fanatics becomes the team's official end-to-end retail partner, assuming operations of all physical retail locations at the Xcel Energy Center and managing the online store HockeyLodge.com. This collaboration aims to create a unified omnichannel shopping experience for Wild enthusiasts.
Previously, Fanatics powered the Wild's official e-commerce site through its league-wide partnership with the NHL. The expanded agreement now integrates both online and in-arena retail operations, ensuring a seamless and consistent shopping experience whether fans are browsing online, on mobile devices, or attending games.
Carin Anderson, Senior Vice President of Corporate Partnerships and Retail Management for the Minnesota Wild, expressed enthusiasm about the new partnership. She noted that fans will enjoy an enhanced experience both online and at the upgraded Xcel Energy Center store, with a greater variety and increased availability of their favorite team merchandise.
As part of the deal, Fanatics will invest significantly in upgrading the retail spaces at the Xcel Energy Center, including stores, kiosks, and other touchpoints. These enhancements are designed to optimize the shopping experience during games and events. By unifying e-commerce and in-venue retail, Fanatics aims to provide a consistent and convenient shopping environment for all fans.
Through its extensive licensed apparel partnership with the NHL—which includes rights to design, manufacture, and distribute all categories of authentic and replica jerseys, as well as a wide selection of fan apparel and headwear—Fanatics will offer Wild fans an expanded range of high-quality team merchandise. Starting this season, Fanatics becomes the NHL's official provider for on-ice uniforms. For the first time in over a decade, fans will have the opportunity to purchase the same Fanatics-branded, Made-in-Canada on-ice jerseys worn by the players during games.
In addition to Fanatics-branded products, the retail offerings will include apparel, headwear, hard goods, and lifestyle items from top brands such as Mitchell & Ness, New Era, Minnesota-based WinCraft, and local favorites like UNRL, SotaStick, Levelwear, and many more.
Ed O’Brien, Senior Vice President of Business Development at Fanatics, expressed excitement about becoming the official omnichannel retail partner of the Wild. He emphasized the importance of hockey in Minnesota's culture and reiterated Fanatics' commitment to providing an unparalleled retail experience so fans can celebrate the game and proudly support their team both on game days and beyond.
Over the past several months, Fanatics has been implementing upgrades and renovations to The Hockey Lodge, the team's flagship retail location. The store is set to host a grand opening event on September 21 at 11 a.m., coinciding with the date when the NHL and Fanatics will introduce the new portfolio of authentic and replica jerseys to fans.
With this partnership, the Minnesota Wild become the third NHL team for which Fanatics operates both in-venue and e-commerce retail. The team joins other Minnesota-based sports organizations that have partnered with Fanatics, including the NBA's Timberwolves, the WNBA's Lynx, the NFL's Vikings, and the University of Minnesota Athletics.