BSN SPORTS Signals Aggressive Growth with New Chief Commercial Officer

DALLAS, TX – February 19, 2026 – BSN SPORTS, a dominant force in team athletic apparel and equipment, has announced a significant strategic move with the appointment of Avery Jessup to the newly created role of Chief Commercial Officer. The hiring of the seasoned executive, who brings high-level experience from consumer giants like Fanatics and Nike, signals a clear intent to unify commercial operations and accelerate a digital-first growth strategy in the competitive team sports market.

In this new capacity, Jessup will oversee a wide swath of the company's customer-facing functions, including Sales Operations, Digital and E-commerce, Marketing, Pricing, Licensing, and Customer Experience. The move is designed to break down traditional silos and create a more integrated go-to-market engine for the Varsity Brands division, which serves over 150,000 teams and organizations nationwide.

"Avery's experience as a proven commercial leader with deep experience across digital, retail, and wholesale environments makes him an ideal fit for the work we're doing to grow our offerings and meet the dynamic needs of our customers," said Terry Babilla, President of BSN SPORTS. Babilla highlighted Jessup's "strong commercial discipline, a proven record of anticipating needs and delivering for customers," as key attributes that will help the company drive sustainable growth.

A Strategic Play for Commercial Unification

The creation of a CCO position is a modern corporate maneuver aimed at synchronizing all revenue-generating activities under a single leader. For BSN SPORTS, this represents a pivotal shift from a collection of functional departments to a unified commercial front. By placing sales, digital, and marketing under one umbrella, the company aims to deliver a seamless experience for its core customers—schools, coaches, and athletic directors—from initial contact to final delivery.

This structural change comes as BSN SPORTS has already made significant strides in modernizing its operations. The company has seen a reported 60% increase in the average sales book size per professional over the last five years, largely attributed to its adoption of Creatio's no-code platform to transform its 2,000-person sales force. With a solid foundation that generated $102.5 million in online sales in 2024, Jessup is not starting from scratch. Instead, he is tasked with building upon this momentum, leveraging his expertise to refine and scale these digital capabilities into a primary growth driver.

The Digital Playbook of a Proven Leader

Jessup’s resume reads like a playbook for modern commercial success. Most recently, as Global Chief Commercial Officer at Fanatics Collectibles, he was accountable for multi-billion-dollar revenue performance, where he delivered record growth by advancing data-driven pricing and go-to-market strategies across both digital and physical channels.

Prior to that, he spent nearly a decade at Nike, holding senior roles within its iconic Jordan Brand. As Head of Marketplace for North America, he managed the complex interplay between direct-to-consumer (DTC) channels and wholesale partners, a critical skill for a distributor like BSN SPORTS that partners with major brands while building its own sales channels. His experience at Nike, a master of brand storytelling and digital customer engagement, provides him with a unique perspective on how to elevate the customer experience in the team sports sector.

His early career at Domino's Pizza, focusing on growth and operations in the Asia-Pacific region, rounds out a profile of a leader comfortable with complex logistics, global-scale operations, and aggressive market expansion. This diverse background positions him to apply innovative strategies from different industries to the unique B2B model of BSN SPORTS.

The Broader Varsity Brands Growth Mandate

This high-profile appointment is not happening in a vacuum. It is a key component of a larger growth strategy orchestrated by parent company Varsity Brands and its owner, KKR, the global investment firm that acquired it in 2024. KKR’s stated objective is to support Varsity Brands' growth by amplifying e-commerce operations and pursuing digital expansion.

This top-down mandate is evident across the organization. Varsity Brands has been strengthening its executive team with strategic hires and recently announced a strategic investment from Patricof Co (P/Co), a private investment platform for professional athletes, to leverage their insights and accelerate growth. Furthermore, BSN SPORTS has been expanding its market reach, launching initiatives like "Club Direct" to specifically target the burgeoning youth club sports market and resuming its acquisition strategy of smaller team dealers.

In a highly competitive landscape that includes direct sales from major brands like Under Armour and Adidas, as well as a host of specialized equipment providers, BSN SPORTS is making a clear statement. The creation of the CCO role and the hiring of a leader with Jessup's pedigree is a decisive move to out-maneuver competitors through superior execution, a unified commercial strategy, and a relentless focus on the digital customer experience.

Jessup himself appears ready for the challenge, framing his new role as a pivotal next step for the established company. "BSN SPORTS has built a strong foundation of success, and this next chapter is all about how we take that base and sharpen our commercial execution in a way that better serves schools, coaches, and communities," Jessup stated. "I'm excited to partner with Terry and the entire team to learn more about what works, help advance new ideas and identify ways that we can do even more for our current and future customers."