“I f—ing love being the underdog.” In a Fanatics-branded private helicopter flying over New Jersey en route to Manhattan’s West 30th Street helipad, billionaire Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin expresses his thoughts on his company, which has an increasingly ubiquitous presence in the world of sports. “I like to think of myself as a startup,” says Rubin.
“All we want to do is make things better for the fan, better for the collector.” Advertisement On Saturday, Sept. 14, Fanatics demonstrated that interest by organizing its third “Topps Hobby Rip Night” with events across 568 hobby shops around the world, including 10 shops outside the U.
S. (Toronto, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, London, Paris, Milan, Thessaloniki in Greece, and Roermond and Amsterdam in the Netherlands). The events featured games and giveaways, including over 100,000 free packs of event-specific cards.
But perhaps most crucially, they also included personal appearances by 100 athletes and entertainers like Tom Brady at Triple Sports Cards in Dallas, Victor Wembanyama at Boomtown Cards & Collectibles in San Antonio, Kevin Hart at Collector’s World in Annandale, Virginia, JuJu Watkins at Burbank Sportscards in Burbank, California and Mike Trout at Average Joe’s Sports Cards in Buena Park, California — big names with pop-culture relevance that draws social-media attention and entices people out to hobby shops in big numbers, particularly kids. According to Topps, an estimated 50,000 people turn.