Preston Parsons

Less than 25 years apart

Jaxson Hayes single-handedly canceled the dunk contest for the rest of history.

Meet Michael Rubin He turned $2,500 in Bar Mitzvah money into Fanatics, a $30 Billion sports powerhouse. Born in 1972 to a Jewish family in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania, Rubin showed entrepreneurial drive early. • At 12, he started a ski-tuning shop in his parents’ basement. • At 14, using his $2,500 Bar Mitzvah money as seed capital (and a lease signed by his father), he opened Mike’s Ski and Sport in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. By 16, he was $120,000 in debt. He settled with creditors using a $37,000 loan from his father—on the condition he attend college. He briefly attended Villanova University but dropped out after a smart deal: borrowing $17,000 to buy $200,000 worth of overstock equipment at a discount, then reselling it for $75,000. He sold his ski shops and launched KPR Sports (named after his parents’ initials), a closeout company for overstock athletic gear. • By age 21 (1993), KPR hit $1 million in sales. • By 1995, it reached $50 million. In 1998, Rubin founded Global Sports Incorporated, which became GSI Commerce—a major e-commerce and logistics player. In 2011, at age 38, he sold GSI to eBay for $2.4 billion! eBay kept the fulfillment business; Rubin bought back the consumer brands at a bargain, including Fanatics (licensed sports merchandise), Rue La La, and ShopRunner. He became CEO of Fanatics and focused on scaling it aggressively: • Secured major partnerships with Nike, NFL, MLB, and over 900 leagues/teams. • During COVID-19 (2020), repurposed an MLB uniform plant to produce hospital gowns and PPE. • Raised big funding rounds: $350M (2020, valuation $6.2B), more in 2021, then $1.5B + $700M (2022, valuation hit $31 billion). • Expanded into trading cards (acquired Topps for $500M in 2022) and betting/gaming (launched 2023). From a teenage ski shop to a global leader in sports merchandise, trading cards, and more, Michael Rubin’s journey is a classic American Jewish entrepreneurial success story built on hustle, smart deals, and Values.

SEC. DUFFY: "Dressing with some respect, whether it's a pair of jeans & a decent shirt, I would encourage people to maybe dress a little better which encourages us to maybe behave all a little better. Let's try not to wear slippers & pajamas as we come to the airport."