Small audiences, big opportunity
How NIL & heat printing on demand are opening new paths into sports merchandise
By Dalaney Bradley
Images courtesy of STAHLS’
For years, the economics of decorated apparel favored volume. Large audiences justified large orders, and large orders maximized production efficiency. That model still has a place, but it no longer defines every profitable opportunity in sports merchandise.
As social media fuels more specialized communities, demand is increasingly spread across smaller, highly engaged audiences. Each audience may be smaller than the traditional mass market, but its connection to the subject is often much stronger. That enthusiasm can translate into higher purchasing behavior if decorators can offer the right product while interest is high, without taking on too much inventory risk.
Name, Image, and Likeness, commonly known as NIL, is one of the clearest examples of this shift. It has given college athletes more ways to participate in the commercial use of their identities, while creating new merchandise opportunities for retailers, licensees, and decorators. Just as important, NIL has highlighted a broader lesson: audience size matters less when production is flexible, fulfillment is efficient, and the product feels personal.
NIL changes the merchandise equation
Traditional collegiate merchandise is typically centered on universities, conferences, and major team marks. NIL adds the athlete as another potential point of connection. Fans may want to support a quarterback, gymnast, volleyball player, or wrestler who has a meaningful following, but isn’t large enough to support a conventional inventory buy.
That creates a forecasting problem. Ordering hundreds of finished garments before demand is known can leave a retailer with unsold sizes and styles. Ordering too cautiously can create the opposite problem: the product sells out just as attention peaks. Interest may also change quickly after a breakout performance, rivalry game, tournament run, transfer announcement, or social media moment.
Print on demand helps address that uncertainty by moving production closer to the sale. Instead of decorating a full inventory in advance, a business can stock a smaller selection of blank garments and apply approved graphics as orders arrive. Products can be tested in limited quantities, expanded when demand grows, and retired without a warehouse full of obsolete merchandise.
Why heat printing fits this model
A heat press can decorate one garment at a time, but profitable print on demand requires more than production equipment. The order must move cleanly from an online store to artwork approval, production, quality control, packing, and shipment. If employees are manually reentering information at every step, the labor can erase the margin on a small order.
Decorators entering NIL and sports on demand should examine the entire order path. Can a new product be published quickly? Are the athlete, school, and league rights clearly documented? Does the order carry the correct art file and garment information into production? Can staff identify where each order stands? Are shipping labels and customer notifications generated without unnecessary handling?
Licensing discipline is particularly important. Permission to use an athlete’s NIL does not automatically grant permission to use a school’s trademarks, uniforms, or other protected assets. Each program may involve different agreements, royalty requirements, artwork approvals, and sales channels. The best production workflow cannot compensate for unclear rights, so compliance needs to be built into the process from the beginning.
The real challenge is the workflow
Once Photoshop optimization was completed, we moved separation. Simulated process was the choice because of the continuous tone imagery. Normally, we automatically think black shirts because that’s where our sim process printing shines. Super contrast, no black screen needed, predictable transitions, neutral grayscale, and color influence, shadows fade into the black fabric and highlights jump. This project turned our usual assumptions upside down. Out of 300 shirts, only seven were black. Purple, green, cardinal, navy, and gold. The black shirt wasn’t the resource it normally is. Colored garments have influence on the final print. Transitions behave differently. Color balance shifts. The garment color participates in the image. While separating using channels on black would still be standard operating procedure, we would need to create a black screen — not only for the black areas, but also for the shadows. Almost the reverse of the white printer or base plate. Essentially, we built a gray scale under the colors.
A live test in Austin
Few environments put a merchandise program to the test like a major college football weekend. During a recent home football game, the University of Texas Co-op in Austin, Texas, incorporated heat printing as part of a retail activation that leveraged licensed merchandise, blank apparel, decoration technology, and order fulfillment systems into a streamlined production workflow. Rather than relying solely on preproduced inventory, the program demonstrated how merchandise can be created and fulfilled in response to real-time demand.
The activation coincided with the co-op’s traditional game-week happy hour, ESPN College GameDay activity, and the Texas matchup against Ohio State. Products and promotions were tied to the moment, while on-site heat printing helped the retailer respond as fan traffic and interest increased. The co-op reported record sales on both Friday and Saturday.
The broader takeaway is not that every decorator needs a major campus activation. It is that sports demand often develops in real time. When approved artwork, products, equipment, and workflows are prepared in advance, a business can react to that demand while the event still matters. The same principle applies to a high school championship, a youth tournament, a local athlete’s milestone, or a club’s season opener.
Start focused & build a repeatable model
Decorators don’t need thousands of products to enter this market. A focused assortment is usually easier to operate and easier for customers to shop. Start with a few proven garments, approved designs, and clear price points. Define who owns the rights, how orders will be routed, when products will be produced, and how quickly they can be delivered.
It’s also useful to separate everyday demand from event-driven demand. An always-available store may carry core athlete or team designs, while a faster activation plan can support rivalry games, championships, or other short-lived moments. Templates for product pages, artwork, pricing, and production instructions can reduce the time required to launch each new offer.
Finally, measure more than total sales. Track which designs convert, which garment and size combinations move, how long each order takes to produce, where errors occur, and what it costs to fulfill a single item. Those numbers will show whether the program is genuinely scalable or simply generating activity.
NIL may be the most visible example, but the opportunity extends well beyond college athletics. Youth clubs, recreational leagues, emerging sports, individual competitors, and local organizations all have audiences that want merchandise reflecting a specific connection. Heat printing gives decorators a practical way to serve those groups in quantities that traditional manufacturing may not support.
The future of sports merchandise will still include large orders and national programs. It will also include thousands of smaller moments, each with its own audience and timeline. For decorators, the opportunity is not merely to print fewer pieces. It’s to build a faster, more connected system that can turn genuine fan interest into relevant merchandise when interest is strongest.
Dalaney Bradley is a Detroit-based brand strategist at STAHLS’ focused on fashion, heat printing, and branding in the custom apparel industry. She writes about industry trends and business growth for decorators and apparel entrepreneurs on the STAHLS’ blog and other industry publications.
