Jason Franklin has spent the last 20 years proving that sports merchandise can be as thoughtfully designed as anything on a boutique rack. As co‑founder of Sportiqe, the premium lifestyle brand that lives where sports, music, and culture collide, he has helped build a “cultural commerce” platform embedded inside venues from MLB and NBA stadiums to music festivals and ski resorts. Sportiqe’s latest move puts it at the heart of New York City: a Billy Joel collaboration called NEW YORK STATE OF MIND, launched as a shop‑in‑shop at the NBA Store in Manhattan just as the Knicks made their first NBA Finals appearance since 1999.
“When we built that shop-in-shop two years ago inside the NBA Store, I was joking with the store manager and said, ‘Whenever we build these, something good happens,’” Franklin told Entrepreneur. “And sure enough, here we go!” Franklin laughs that he “can’t take all the credit” for the Knicks’ run, but says, “I’m really excited to see it — a whole generation of fans has been waiting for this.”
As the Knicks and Spurs continue their battle for the 2026 NBA crown, Franklin explained how he and his co-founders found a winning playbook for their business.
Dan Bova: How do you prepare your business for unpredictable moments like a Finals run?
Jason Franklin: I think it goes back to the original story of Sportiqe. We wanted to be embedded in culture, not chasing it. A lot of brands chase culture, and we set out to already be there when these moments happen. In the beginning, we asked, “Where are the fans going?” Sure, we wanted to sell more product, but the real question was, where does that fan actually live and gather?
Our first big opportunities were with the NBA. We started selling elevated lifestyle apparel with a better fit, better fabric, better feel—something I felt the consumer desperately needed. Then we expanded: WNBA, ski resorts, Nintendo, breweries, distilleries, music festivals. And we built a 30,000‑square‑foot production facility in 2019. We take an inventory position on our core styles and colors, so when moments happen, we’re already in stock and ready to go.
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When you founded the company, what gap in the market did you see?
The fan experience as a whole. The merch was an afterthought. The mindset was, “We just need something to sell. They’ll buy whatever.” It didn’t fit right, it didn’t feel right, the graphics were terrible. Meanwhile, fans were spending all this money on flights, hotels, tickets. They’re there for a few hours, but they want something they can wear for a lifetime.
We realized they wanted a more boutique, department‑store fit, fabric, and feel—but in a fan environment. Up to that point, no one was really thinking about it that way. They were just throwing logos on T-shirts and sweatshirts. We asked, “What else can we bring this consumer that no one’s thought to bring them?”
Was there a moment early on when you realized, “Okay, we’re onto something big here?
There have been a few, but one that really stands out is a Dave Matthews Band show at Wrigley Field. They were one of our first clients. MLB let us do a collaboration between the team and the band that they could sell the nights of the show. Dave Matthews Band had two sold-out nights at my hometown stadium, and the merch team thought the product we made—roughly 10,000 T-shirts and 8,000 hoodies—would carry them through both nights.
Night one, I’m sitting in the concourse with a good vantage point of the shop, and I watch every single piece we created sell out before the first night is even over. Literally everything. It got to the point where the last customer in line asked a staffer, “Can I buy the one you’re wearing?” and the staffer took it off and sold it. That was an “aha” moment. It was like, okay, this isn’t just in our heads—fans really do want this elevated product.
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How did your thinking about fans and culture lead to something like the Billy Joel collaboration?
I’ve spent so much time in stadiums and concerts, I started asking, “What other IPs actually mean something to these people?” When I go to Madison Square Garden and look up, I see Billy Joel has played there over 150 times. They consider him the third franchise in the building. And when they play the first few bars of “Piano Man” and shut it off, and the whole place knows every word? That person clearly means something to that fan.
So we said, “This person is New York. This is Billy Joel. Why not?” New York State of Mind has become more than a song—it’s a state of being, a badge of honor. If you’re a New Yorker, you rock with that. We created that in apparel and realized we could do this thoughtfully across the country. Last fall we did Sinatra x Yankees with “New York, New York.” Then we brought Tupac’s “California Love” into California with the NBA All‑Star Game. That’s part of our special sauce.
Beyond the brand, what’s your personal “special sauce” as a founder?
I started drawing hats when I was nine years old because I had this crazy head of hair. I think I realized early on that my superpower is I can see culture before it happens. That doesn’t happen overnight; it takes decades in an industry. Because we’re embedded with so many partners, we have this unique vantage point and data on almost every demographic and geography in the country. If you’re a brand trying to break into ski, I can tell you the top‑selling styles and graphics at the top resorts. If you want a younger music‑festival crowd, I can tell you what works there too. Those relationships—built over twenty or thirty years—have turned Sportiqe into a platform that a lot of people want to be part of.
Jason Franklin has spent the last 20 years proving that sports merchandise can be as thoughtfully designed as anything on a boutique rack. As co‑founder of Sportiqe, the premium lifestyle brand that lives where sports, music, and culture collide, he has helped build a “cultural commerce” platform embedded inside venues from MLB and NBA stadiums to music festivals and ski resorts. Sportiqe’s latest move puts it at the heart of New York City: a Billy Joel collaboration called NEW YORK STATE OF MIND, launched as a shop‑in‑shop at the NBA Store in Manhattan just as the Knicks made their first NBA Finals appearance since 1999.
“When we built that shop-in-shop two years ago inside the NBA Store, I was joking with the store manager and said, ‘Whenever we build these, something good happens,’” Franklin told Entrepreneur. “And sure enough, here we go!” Franklin laughs that he “can’t take all the credit” for the Knicks’ run, but says, “I’m really excited to see it — a whole generation of fans has been waiting for this.”
As the Knicks and Spurs continue their battle for the 2026 NBA crown, Franklin explained how he and his co-founders found a winning playbook for their business.
