Where to Draw the Line on Chiefs Products?

By Eric Thomas

Here’s a business question that sounds like a philosophical question: When does a sweatshirt become a Kansas City Chiefs sweatshirt? 

I wondered this recently when I saw a sweatshirt celebrating “Kansas City Football” the other day. No mention of the Chiefs. No team logo. No white uniform numbers outlined in gold. 

This question — what is a Chiefs product? — will also be a multimillion-dollar question during the first weeks of 2025 as screen printers ship off boxes of red-and-gold products: sweatshirts, sweaters, jackets, t-shirts, tank tops, coffee mugs, hats, framed art, posters, socks, mittens and yes, socks (I bought a pair today).

In the lead-up to the Chiefs returning to the Super Bowl, some businesses around the Kansas City metro area will bandwagon for the Chiefs to make money. During the Super Bowl victory parade last year, contraband shirts flooded downtown Kansas City in pop-up stores sheltered underneath tents.

However, other local wholesalers and retailers are proofreading their apparel designs carefully. Selling a sweatshirt with a particular designs or typography is illegal without a licensing agreement. The line — between a legal sweatshirt and an illegal sweatshirt — is often unclear.

But that distinction is now clear to Kristina Gann-Abright, the owner of the ShananiGanns in Shawnee.

With an audience of Chiefs fans listening this week, Gann-Albright pointed out a red sweater with “Kansas City” printed in gold tinsel. She explained how she also ordered a version of the same sweater that said, “Chiefs.”

The sweaters “were really cute, and it looked like they were legit,” Gann-Albright said. “And so I messaged (the wholesaler). I said, ‘Hey, where’s the hologram stickers?’ No response. And I said, ‘I can’t sell these without the hologram sticker.’ No response. So they’re sitting in a box (in the storage room).”

Gann-Albright said that without the hologram sticker, the signifier of a licensed product, she can’t sell “Chiefs” sweaters legally. Instead, she will give them away for free.

A raid by law enforcement during the Super Bowl fever of 2020, Gann-Albright said, taught her the importance of the word “Chiefs” on apparel. Now, she checks products carefully. 

“We have to walk on eggshells every day, every day,” Gann-Albright said. “Because I’m like, ‘Oh, s***, is that right?’ I’ve gotten to the point where I text (law enforcement). I take a picture and I am like, ‘Okay, what do you think?’”

Gann-Albright works with 48 designers and wholesalers to create her store’s variety. ShananiGanns stocks so many designs that my wife gave up when I texted her the possibilities for her Super Bowl outfit. 

“There are too many,” she said. “I will need to come in.” 

When Gann-Albright has an idea, she said she immediately messages a group chat that includes her most frequent creators. 

So, when Travis Kelce quoted a song by KC and the Sunshine Band from the stage at the AFC Championship game, a sweatshirt was born. After a bit of research, one designer decided to twist the lyric a bit, steering clear of the copyright danger they saw. 

Three days after Kelce quoted the lyric, you could buy an ivory crew sweatshirt at ShananiGanns reading, “Do a Little Dance, Make a Little Love, Touchdown Tonight.”

“It has to be something,” Gann-Albright said. “And it’s whatever comes out of those players’ mouths, right? You have to watch every single game and watch every single moment.”

A Bonner Springs custom printer, Fancy Your Fanny, supplies Gann-Albright with products, while also selling products on its website. Their production area this week was a mash of cardboard boxes, shipping labels and products. The husband-and-wife ownership team, Aaron and Morgan Natalie, said that “Kansas City Merch” is about 10 percent of their annual revenue. 

“Just being different,” Morgan said, is the biggest challenge of selling products to Chiefs fans.

“There’s so many small businesses printing Kansas City stuff,” Morgan said in the middle of a week of 16-hour days. “Last year, we did a Taylor Swift shirt that had all of her different game day looks on there, and that was a huge hit. We still sell a lot of those.”

To appeal to fans while also avoiding Chiefs intellectual property, many designers lean on cultural references. Fancy Your Fanny created a play on the movie “Wayne’s World” but referenced head coach Andy Reid. The “Reid’s World” red shirt reads: “We’re not Worthy.” 

“We like to put a lot of pop culture vibes,” Morgan said. “Those tend to help.”

Charlie Hustle, another Kansas City apparel company, has held full and limited licensing agreements with major teams, including the Chiefs, the University of Kansas and Sporting Kansas City. Even so, Charlie Hustle’s staff of 20 also relies on timely designs that dip into the latest news surrounding the Chiefs, according to Greg Moore, the company’s president. 

Opposing fans have been wagging their fingers, tired of the Chiefs winning close games. Sports talk shows have boiled over with conspiracies about referees favoring the defending champs. 

In response, the brand released shirts proclaiming, “Kansas City versus The World.” Before Charlie Hustle released the product, Moore said they found a slightly different wording, “Kansas City Against the World,” was off limits. So, they too needed a twist to tip-toe inbounds (Patrick Mahomes would be proud).

“We want to play within the rules and make sure we’re not purposely p***ing people off,” Moore said. “We definitely make sure that it’s the right thing. We did our due diligence. It does not violate any trademarks that anyone owns, any filings, any copyrights. And it’s very simple: Kansas City, people don’t like us right now because we are getting spoiled. And we should be proud of that.” 

(A similar sentiment from Fancy Your Fanny: “Talk About the Refs. We’ll Talk about the Rings.”)

In this Wild West of un-licensed catch phrases and cultural memes, there is little protection against someone stealing your idea. The best-selling shirt at ShananiGanns this week, “Shut Up Tony Romo,” is being sold on an unrelated website, to Albright-Gann’s frustration. 

Everyone I talked to this week agreed: The local apparel design community is generally kind from one business to another. If another business uses your idea, you don’t retaliate. You just stop being helpful to them, Morgan Natalie of Fancy Your Fanny said. 

These good vibes might flow from a lucky sports decade that has buoyed Kansas City fan apparel. Two World Series appearances for the Royals. A national championship for KU men’s basketball. And five Super Bowl appearances for the Chiefs. 

In some ways, Moore said, the repeated Super Bowls have softened the market for Chiefs gear. At Charlie Hustle, sales of Chiefs-related gear has fallen each year. A Super Bowl win is required to get KC fans truly amped now. No one is buying an AFC Championship t-shirt, much less a AFC West regular season champs t-shirt.

However, Chiefs products still represent an important start-of-year revenue boost for Charlie Hustle. Plus, Moore says, each time the company has a frantic month, they get better at managing the chaos. 

Revenue related to the Chiefs is vital at ShananiGanns. 

I asked, “What does making it to the Super Bowl do for you guys?” 

“It’s bigger than Christmas,” Gann-Albright said. “It’s three times bigger than Christmas. Three times bigger. The Super Bowl gives you one more week, one more week. People are buying stuff to wear on every day (leading up to the game) because they can’t wear the same thing every single day, right?”

All the football-related profit pressure makes both Moore and Gann-Albright superstitious when watching the Chiefs. 

Gann-Abright has her routine. She invites her son’s same 16 friends to the house, orders the same items from Old Shawnee Pizza, finds a quiet place to watch the game. And don’t blame her if she changes the channel to “House Hunters” when she “gets p***ed.” 

Moore’s wardrobe is loyal to the Charlie Hustle brand, wearing a “Sunday Funday” gray hoodie. Underneath it? An “old Arrowhead licensed red t-shirt,” also from Charlie Hustle.

“It’s really stressful,” Moore said. “This is my fandom. “This is my football team, really, since I’ve been born. It also really affects Charlie Hustle. I wouldn’t go as far to say this makes or breaks our year, but the last two years especially, it’s allowed us to really seize opportunities that we otherwise want to do.

“We’ve been able to grow so much thanks to these Super Bowl runs that we do. We are so thankful for it and appreciate it. I know we know how lucky we are — not only with Patrick, Travis and Andy and so on. 

“But the way it helps out small businesses and Charlie Hustle, it’s probably what makes me very superstitious wearing my clothing on those game days.”

Eric Thomas teaches visual journalism and photojournalism at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.