The primary goal of most businesses in any industry is to profit. However, there are a significant number of brands that go the extra mile in order to catalyze change and impact the lives of others. One of them is Athlete’s Thread.
Athlete’s Thread is a custom apparel brand dedicated to college student athletes. Passionately co-founded by Luke McGurrin and Karthik Shanadi with a purpose, this trailblazing company aims to provide a platform that allows athletes to become more than just personalities on the playing field.
After the National Collegiate Athletic Association or NCAA adopted a new policy that allowed athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness, Athlete’s Thread saw a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help athletes take advantage of the rule. However, they also witnessed that the new policy only encouraged companies to work with star athletes from every school, robbing seemingly ordinary sportspersons of the chance to kick-start their money-making pursuits. For this reason, Athlete’s Thread has made it its mission to make it easier for every athlete to enter the NIL space regardless of their team, gender, popularity, or social following.
Essentially, Athlete’s Thread helps athletes by simplifying the process of launching their own merch. This is done by starting the ball rolling with online stores, fully-licensed designs, and a micro store with 8 to 12 products. Through this strategy, the company can launch any athlete toward the industry’s summits in just three days.
Athlete’s Thread may seem a novel idea in this day and age, but it is run by two powerhouses who have already made significant strides in the world of apparel. As a matter of fact, Luke McGurrin and Karthik Shanadi’s journey began in 2013 when they founded Greek House, a custom-apparel ordering platform that saw much success that the two went on to breathe life into another venture: College Thread – a move that allowed them to expand their services to more student organizations and educational institutions. Threadly then came into existence, which enabled McGurrin and Shanadi to stretch their horizons beyond the four walls of institutions, providing custom apparel to any organization, such as businesses, content creators, churches, and more. Years down the road, Athlete’s Thread was then established with a vision in mind.
“While Athlete’s Thread is a new opportunity, this is ten years of experience leading us up to this point, and we’re ready to scale like crazy after refining and perfecting our technology,” McGurrin said.
Although Athlete’s Thread is mostly known to help athletes gain the ability to make money out of their name, image, and likeness, McGurrin and Shanadi reveal that the company is more focused on enabling people to tell their stories. For this reason, the brand not only seeks to provide money-making opportunities but also aims to offer a voice to athletes from all walks of life.
“The best part about this is helping tell the unique story of every student-athlete,” McGurrin said. “We believe that if you’re a student-athlete, even if ESPN isn’t telling your story, you’re already a hometown hero and have a huge community behind you that would love to support you. What we really want to do is help all of these students realize how much they have accomplished and be the driving force to not only get their story out but help them be successful.”
Currently, Athlete’s Thread is working with 2,000 athletes from various colleges. As the brand’s vision is to help more young athletes thrive, it aims to increase its numbers to 8,000 by the end of the year. Through this, it hopes to amplify its message by providing a platform for athletes across the world.
