Campus Ink

Campus Ink is a custom apparel and licensed merchandise platform serving college campuses, operating across three main lines: a Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) licensed platform for college athletes, a licensed merchandise program for Greek organizations (fraternity and sorority headquarters and chapters), and a design and sales academy for college students. The company describes itself as a DTC and B2B merch platform powered by college students and athletes.

Its NIL Store brand builds officially licensed apparel and jersey storefronts for schools, allowing athletes across all sports to sell branded merchandise and receive revenue shares of 20-30% per sale. On the Greek side, Campus Ink provides organization websites, chapter ordering portals, curated product assortments, philanthropy fundraising, seasonal releases and marketing plans, and sells licensed Greek apparel (crewnecks, tees, tanks, hats, socks, jackets) direct to consumers through shop.campus.ink for dozens of national fraternities and sororities. The student academy trains college students part-time and remotely in design, sales, marketing and management, with participants working directly with customers; nearly a third of the company's full-time employees began at Campus Ink as undergraduates.

Campus Ink was founded in 1947 on the University of Illinois campus and was reimagined in 2015. It operates an office in downtown Chicago and a production facility in Urbana, Illinois, where production and fulfillment are handled in-house, including dye sublimation and custom cut-and-sew capability used for NIL jerseys.

Founding story

Steven Farag studied engineering but found he preferred sales and marketing, selling six figures of merchandise for campus-wide events by his senior year while working with a small print shop, Campus Sportswear, that produced his orders. The shop's two owners brought him in as a part owner after graduation; one of them, Jedd Swisher, remains his business partner. Farag built a student design and sales program modeled on his own college experience. When COVID-19 closed campuses and revenue collapsed, the company pivoted to direct-to-consumer sales and became the official merch provider for several national fraternities. After NIL legislation passed, students began selling apparel to University of Illinois basketball players, leading to a partnership with the university, a team store, and more than $100,000 earned by the basketball team in one season. Farag brought in his friend Adam Cook, then a professor at Northwestern, who left his job to help build the NIL venture after Mark Cuban invested following a cold email.

Business model

Campus Ink sells licensed custom apparel and merchandise both direct-to-consumer and B2B. Athlete-branded merchandise is sold through school-specific NIL Store sites, with athletes paid 20-30% of each sale as a revenue share; Greek merchandise is sold via an e-commerce storefront and managed programs for national organizations and their chapters. Additional revenue comes from wholesale and retail distribution, including a private label jersey program wholesaling to bookstores and distribution through retailers such as Follett, Scheels, Dick's Sporting Goods and Fanatics. Production and fulfillment are performed at the company's own facility in Urbana, Illinois, and sales and design work is staffed in part by trained college students.

Product sales of licensed collegiate, athlete and Greek apparel through direct-to-consumer stores, managed organization programs, and wholesale/retail channels, with athlete revenue shares of 20-30% paid out on NIL merchandise sales.

Traction

As of March 2024 the NIL Store network included more than 9,000 athletes across 57 schools, with plans to launch 40-plus additional schools during 2024. The NIL Store announced in January 2024 that it had paid out more than $1 million in revenue shares to student-athletes since inception. University of Illinois men's basketball players earned nearly $100,000 in payouts in the first season. In 2023 the company reported that its business had grown roughly 10x over the prior year and was on pace for $13 million in sales, with 35-plus Power Five schools signed, 2,500-plus athletes earning money, and more than a thousand students trained across 100 campuses. Total funding raised reached $4 million after the March 2024 round.

Latest developments

In March 2024 Campus Ink closed a $2 million round led by Scrum Ventures, bringing total funding to $4 million at a valuation double that of its previous round, with proceeds directed at launching 40-plus additional NIL Store schools in 2024 and building athlete-facing technology. WNBA champion and broadcaster Renee Montgomery also invested. The company continues to operate its Greek licensed apparel storefront and student design and sales program.