Lafayette Hill’s Michael Rubin has a ‘need for speed’

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Michael Rubin, 45, got into the industry as a 12-year-old selling ski equipment out of his parents’ basement in nearby Lafayette Hill. (Image courtesy nytimes.com)

This fall, as some of the N.F.L.’s corporate partners fretted about the league’s handling of its players kneeling during the national anthem, the sports merchandise company Fanatics pounced.

When Alejandro Villanueva, a Pittsburgh Steelers offensive lineman, stood for the anthem and the rest of the team stayed in the locker room, his name began trending on Twitter. Fanatics, with headquarters in Conshohocken,  quickly posted a rendering of his No. 78 jersey on its website and on the N.F.L.’s online shop, which it also operates, writes Zach Schonbrun for nytimes.com. 

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Sales skyrocketed. Manufacturing facilities in Kentucky and Florida went to work pressing Mr. Villanueva’s name and number onto thousands of blank Pittsburgh jerseys for next-day shipping. Overnight, a player who had never caught a pass or scored a touchdown had the N.F.L.’s best-selling jersey.

“That moment happened, people wanted to immediately buy that jersey,” Michael Rubin, the company’s chairman and principal owner said. “A week later, that moment is mostly over.”

Mr. Rubin, 45, got into the industry as a 12-year-old selling ski equipment out of his parents’ basement in nearby Lafayette Hill.

He attended Villanova University for one semester before dropping out to start a business that handled online sales and fulfillment for big-box retailers just as the e-commerce wave was beginning. He sold the company, G.S.I. Commerce, to eBay for $2.4 billion in 2011, not long after he became a part-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers. (He also owns a stake in the New Jersey Devils.)

To read the complete story click here.

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