Authentic Brands Group is adding another operator to the licensing network it has built around Champion. On September 29, 2026, Authentic announced a long-term partnership with W Heritage Supply (WHS) to design, develop and distribute Champion Pinnacle, the brand’s premium line, in the United States and Canada. The agreement covers men’s and women’s sportswear, activewear, footwear and headwear.
The deal is notable because some of those categories already sit within Champion’s broader network of operating partners. After Authentic acquired Champion in September 2024, it assigned High Life responsibility for activewear in the U.S. and Canada and BBC responsibility for footwear. Champion Pinnacle now reaches into both categories, but as what Authentic describes as the “highest expression” of the Champion brand.
That structure illustrates a more complicated form of brand licensing. Product category and territory may no longer be enough to define where one operator’s rights end and another’s begin. A brand owner may also need contractual boundaries based on product tier, retail channel, collection, price positioning and use of particular trademarks.
Champion Adds a Premium Line to Its Licensing Network
Authentic completed its acquisition of Champion in September 2024. At the time, it said the brand generated nearly $3 billion in annual global retail sales and announced a network of partners to operate different parts of the business. AMG Companies affiliates were assigned portions of Champion’s core U.S. and Canadian business, including High Life for activewear, while BBC took footwear and Gildan took printwear.
The model has since expanded across territories and channels. In December 2024, Orbico Group entered a 10-year license, with extension options, covering Champion in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Authentic later expanded its relationship with Belle Fashion Group in Greater China, where Belle added apparel rights to footwear and accessories rights it had previously secured.
Champion has also moved into broad retail distribution. A multi-year Target partnership announced in February 2025 launched with more than 500 products, with most priced below $40. The assortment included apparel, accessories, slides and sporting goods.
Champion Pinnacle occupies a different position. Authentic describes it as a premium expression of the brand built around elevated design. WHS is responsible for designing, developing and distributing that business in the U.S. and Canada.
Authentic has not publicly disclosed the contractual boundaries between WHS and Champion’s other operators. There is no indication of a conflict among them. The structure nevertheless shows why a licensing agreement involving an established brand may need more precision than an exclusive list of products and countries.
When Multiple Partners Sell Under the Same Brand
Consider footwear. Authentic previously identified BBC as the Champion footwear partner for the U.S. and Canada. Champion Pinnacle now expressly includes footwear in those same markets. Activewear presents a similar issue because High Life operates that category while WHS has activewear rights for the Pinnacle line.
Those rights can coexist if the agreements establish clear boundaries. One operator might receive the core Champion footwear business while another receives footwear sold under a defined premium collection. Agreements can also separate products by trademarks, approved retailers, distribution channels, pricing parameters, product specifications or other defined characteristics.
That drafting becomes more important when the consumer sees the same primary trademark across each business. A shopper may encounter Champion through an accessible Target collection, core athleticwear, premium Champion Pinnacle products and licensed sports merchandise. Internally, those products may involve different operators and contracts. Externally, they continue to build—or affect—the reputation of the same Champion brand.
Trademark licensing therefore creates a quality-control issue alongside the commercial allocation of rights. A trademark owner generally needs to retain meaningful control over the nature and quality of products sold under its mark. With several operators, that can translate into approval procedures for designs, materials, packaging, advertising and trademark presentation.
The Champion structure adds another concern: brand positioning itself can become part of the licensed territory. If Pinnacle is supposed to represent Champion’s premium tier, the distinction may depend on more than the product label. Retail placement, promotional strategy, collaborations and product design can determine whether consumers actually perceive it as a separate premium offering.
How Champion Can Keep Its Premium Line Distinct
The public announcements do not reveal how Authentic defines “Champion Pinnacle” contractually or which rights take priority where product categories intersect. Those provisions matter because a loosely defined premium license can create commercial friction even when each licensee technically remains within its assigned category.
A contract may need to address whether a Pinnacle shoe can be sold through the same retailers as core Champion footwear, whether another Champion licensee can introduce products at similar price points, and which operator controls a product that crosses traditional category definitions. E-commerce creates another layer because geographic and channel boundaries are harder to maintain when consumers can access multiple collections through digital marketplaces.
Approval rights are equally important. Authentic has an interest in allowing WHS enough flexibility to create a genuinely elevated product line while preserving consistency across the broader Champion portfolio. Too little control can weaken differentiation between collections. Overly restrictive approvals can make the operator less capable of responding to its particular market.
This is one reason sophisticated brand licensing increasingly resembles portfolio architecture. The contract is allocating more than permission to place a trademark on a product. It is allocating a defined commercial space within a larger brand.
Strategic By Design: The Juris Law Group, P.C. Perspective on Brand Licensing
Juris Law Group, P.C.’s brand licensing attorneys assess these structures by looking beyond the initial category grant. Where multiple licensees operate under the same trademark, the agreement should account for how products will actually reach consumers: which marks and sub-brands may be used, which channels are available, what products sit outside the grant, and how future collections or collaborations will be allocated.
The Champion Pinnacle arrangement also illustrates why rights should be drafted with future portfolio expansion in mind. A brand owner may begin with separate apparel and footwear partners and later decide to create a premium collection spanning both categories. Preserving the contractual ability to make that decision—without creating uncertainty over exclusivity or approval authority—can be as important as defining the original license.
Authentic’s next steps with Champion Pinnacle will show how clearly the premium line can be distinguished within an increasingly broad Champion business. WHS brings experience operating heritage brands, while Authentic has expressly positioned the collection as complementary to its wider Champion ecosystem.
The broader development is worth watching because Authentic’s Champion strategy relies on specialization: different companies operate different categories, territories and channels while Authentic retains ownership and management of the brand. Champion Pinnacle adds another dimension to that model by separating rights according to where a product sits within the brand itself. As licensing portfolios become more segmented, the definition of the licensed business may matter as much as the trademark license that makes the business possible.
Common Legal Inquiries
1. Can one brand license the same product category to multiple companies?
Yes, if the rights are structured so the grants can coexist. A brand owner can divide a category by territory, distribution channel, collection, trademark, customer segment or other contractual boundaries. The agreement should define those divisions precisely enough to avoid uncertainty over exclusivity and competing product launches.
2. What should a premium brand licensing agreement define?
A premium license may need to address more than products and territory. Depending on the business, the agreement can define authorized trademarks, product positioning, distribution channels, retailer approvals, design standards, quality control, marketing rights and the relationship between the premium collection and other products sold under the same brand.
3. Why is trademark quality control important in a licensing agreement?
A trademark tells consumers that products come from a consistent commercial source. When third parties manufacture or sell products under the mark, the trademark owner generally needs meaningful control over their nature and quality. Contractual approval rights and brand standards help preserve that consistency across different licensees and product lines.
