Have you ever been scrolling online and come across some merchandise, let’s say college oriented, and thought it looked pretty nice? Maybe something you’d like to buy. So, you hit the “shop now” button, go to the search box, enter Rutgers, and get this result:
Yeah, me, too!
And it happens more than I’d like….and that’s a lot. In another life, a few years back, I spoke with a merchant who had said that Rutgers could be difficult to deal with when it came to products. And, I get it: you don’t want garbage
out there with the RU name and logo on it. But a lot of it isn’t garbage.
Take, for example, this site. Seriously, that’s a nice looking shirt. And, it isn’t that these companies only cater to the big dogs. This site has stuff from Georgia Southern, Coastal Carolina, and Eastern Kentucky. And it isn’t just the “niche” online stores; even major retailers don’t seem to do much with RU.
Want to really stretch the limits of this conversation? You can’t even buy a Rutgers rock….okay, “engraved stone”.
And, apparently there are no golfers with an affiliation with RU. Okay, I know there’s stuff out there; even I have a couple of head covers with the R on them. I once tried to buy a shirt from the Rutgers Golf Course….nope. They don’t have an online store and from what I could gather, they do not sell any merch by mail. There are some efforts being made by the official Rutgers Team Store, and that’s a good thing. I get a lot of emails to buy stuff. But as interesting as some of the “Sir Henry” items are, I’m not sure I’m ready to pay $148 for a golf shirt. Full disclosure: some of those sites I linked have stuff around that price, so maybe it’s just me!
My point: there are a lot of sites that sell collegiate-oriented items that do not have anything Rutgers related. And that’s a problem on a whole bunch of fronts.
First, if you’re a Rutgers fan, where do you get your gear, your stuff for game day, or for just hanging out? And, assuming you can find that place (very likely online) that has Rutgers stuff, is the merchandise worth buying….and somewhat reasonably priced? For me, there is just so much of the same stuff: the same hats, the same shirts. Where’s the variety, the unique item, the stylish item?
And secondly, how much money is Rutgers missing out on through licensing the R or the Knight Head? The financial reports that the schools file with the NCAA include revenues from “Royalties, Licensing, Advertisement and Sponsorships”. That’s a pretty broad category that, it appears, includes things beyond merchandise. But licensing the name and images can generate revenue, and Rutgers does not come close to what other schools get. Matt Brown, who writes for The Athletic, has another site he operates that covers this type of information. He recently published a post that lists what D1 public schools reported in sponsorship and licensing revenue in FY25.
We aren’t Michigan….in so many ways. But in that section of the 2024-25 financial report, Michigan reports revenue of $35,556,501 from just royalties, licensing, etc. Wisconsin is just short of $25 million, Washington almost $22 million. That year, Rutgers had $2,679,994 in that category of revenue; it puts us 80th among the D1 public schools. Behind Navy and Air Force among many others.
Want some other non-Big Ten comparisons?
Ohio University has total operating revenues of $36,543,823; 4.8% of that is from royalties and licensing. Rutgers’ total revenues are some four times that of Ohio, but just 1.8% from royalties, et al. If Rutgers was generating the same percentage as Ohio, it would be taking in over $7 million; use the same percentage as Cincinnati with its $118,516,168 of revenue? It would be over $8 million.
And did I mention merchandise in local stores? There are a few places in and around central Jersey where you can buy Rutgers items. When I was still living in New Jersey, I can recall seeing stuff in Kohls, for example. But down here in the Tarheel state, where there is a plethora of DI schools, it’s all over: Target, Academy Sports, Dick’s. Just the other day, this is what I saw while in one if the Dick’s stores in Wilmington:
There’s a royalty for each one of those sales….and it adds up.
One tee-shirt at a time!
