University Tees (asi/92947), an Ohio-headquartered firm that provides custom apparel and other merch products to clients in the collegiate space, has acquired Greek House, an 11-year-old firm that delivers branded apparel for sororities, fraternities and college athletes.
Financial terms of the deal between the privately held companies weren’t released. The Greek House team, including founders and current C-suiters Karthik Shanadi and Luke McGurrin, are remaining with the company, executives said.
Leaders said the newly combined company will bring enhancements that benefit both customer bases.
According to executives, these improvements include broader product selection, better pricing, faster responses to customers, streamlined ordering and accelerated turn times on art for custom designs. The acquisition will also help expand the University Tees Campus Manager program, in which students on client campuses sell and market on behalf of the company, making money and gaining real-world business experience.
“We believe this acquisition brings additional value, capabilities and a larger number of Campus Managers to better serve our customers,” said Joe Haddad, co-founder of University Tees. “Together, we aim to elevate our products and services to continue delivering an amazing custom apparel experience.”
McGurrin said good cultural and operational fits were key reasons the acquisition made sense for both firms. “The alignment and synergies that are created with the two companies joining forces is going to mean new opportunities for customers, students and team members that haven’t existed before,” McGurrin said.
For the remainder of 2024 at least, Greek House will go to market as “Greek House, a University Tees company.” The Greek House branding will ultimately come fully under the University Tees name, Katie Wolanczyk, head of marketing and e-commerce for University Tees, told ASI Media.
Founded in 2003 by Haddad and Nick Dadas while they were students at Miami University, Cleveland-based University Tees provides custom decorated apparel and other promotional products like drinkware and bags on more than 350 college campuses. University Tees also does contract decorating. Through the firm’s “Develop People and Change Lives” initiative, University Tees has donated nearly $2 million to support various causes and organizations around the country.
Of late, University Tees has been focused on expansion efforts. In 2022, the company invested in a 90,000-square-foot facility to boost production capabilities – an effort augmented by the addition of two new large automatic presses that enable the handling of larger decoration volumes.
“This acquisition of Greek House, combined with our investment in our facility, positions us to exceed expectations and deliver an amazing custom apparel experience,” University Tees said in a statement.
McGurrin and Shanadi were students at the University of Florida when, in 2013, they launched Greek House with $500 and the goal of making ordering custom apparel as simple as possible on college campuses. Since the founding, the entrepreneurs have brought three additional brands to market – Threadly, College Thread and Athlete’s Thread. The last of those is a supplier of Name Image Likeness merchandise for more than 20,000 collegiate athletes.
