Patricof, the venture capital firm founded by Mark Patricof, has acquired a minority stake in Rhoback, the golf and lifestyle apparel brand, in a deal that formalizes what Patricof has been building for three years: a structured pathway for athletes to become equity investors rather than paid endorsers. The transaction, which includes commitments from at least twelve active and retired athletes across the PGA Tour, NFL, and MLB, does not disclose a dollar figure but sources familiar with the structure say athlete checks ranged from $50,000 to $250,000 each, with Patricof leading the broader round at an undisclosed post-money valuation.
Rhoback, which started as a direct-to-consumer performance polo business in 2016, now generates north of $30 million in annual revenue according to people briefed on the financials, with distribution expanding into 240 retail doors including golf pro shops and specialty men's boutiques. The brand has been worn casually by PGA players on practice-round Thursdays but lacked formal endorsement deals until Patricof approached co-founder Garrett Spivey last year with a different pitch: give equity to athletes who already wear the product, then task them with marketing it to their own networks. The appeal for Patricof is straightforward—athletes who own a slice of the cap table promote harder than those cashing appearance fees, and the firm's LP base, which includes family offices and endowments, likes the media-value multiplier. The appeal for Rhoback is cost structure; instead of paying $500,000 annually for a mid-tier tour endorsement, the company issues 50 basis points and lets the player sell it themselves.
Patricof's model hinges on volume and selectivity. The firm now has twenty-three portfolio companies spanning consumer goods, sports tech, and media platforms, and athlete investors appear on at least nineteen of those cap tables. Examples include pickleball equipment brand Selkirk, women's soccer data startup PlayerMaker, and recovery-tech company Hyperice, which sold to PetMed Express in 2023 for a reported $200 million. Patricof himself spent years at CAA Sports before launching the firm in 2020, and he still moves through locker rooms and agent dinners with the cadence of someone who knows which assistant coach is about to get promoted. The athlete-investor thesis is not new—Kevin Durant and LeBron James have been doing versions of this for a decade—but Patricof industrialized it. His firm hosts quarterly LP calls where athletes dial in alongside institutional investors, and Patricof circulates term sheets that reserve board-observer seats for player reps. One sponsor executive who works with three Patricof portfolio companies said the setup reduces traditional endorsement waste: instead of negotiating usage rights and activation budgets, the brand just points to the cap table and says the players are owners.
Rhoback's investor roster includes PGA Tour players whose names have not been disclosed but are expected to appear in upcoming brand campaigns, plus NFL veterans who wear the quarter-zips in post-game press conferences. The company plans to use the capital for inventory expansion and a push into women's apparel, which currently represents under 15% of revenue. Patricof is also placing two operating partners inside Rhoback's Santa Monica office to work on retail strategy and influencer pipeline, a structure the firm has used at other apparel bets. Worth noting: Patricof has begun requiring portfolio companies to grant athletes pro-rata rights in future funding rounds, which keeps the athlete ownership cohort stable through Series B and beyond. That term is unusual in venture but common in real estate syndications, and it signals Patricof is thinking about athlete capital as permanent, not promotional.
The next test is whether Rhoback can convert athlete equity into retail velocity. The brand currently does 60% of sales direct, but Patricof's thesis requires wholesale growth to justify the valuation step-up that institutional co-investors expect in eighteen months. That means Rhoback needs to land Nordstrom or Dick's Sporting Goods by mid-2026, and athlete investors will be expected to make introductions to buyers they know from their own licensed-apparel deals. Separately, Patricof is in late-stage discussions with two MLB All-Stars and one WNBA forward to join the Rhoback cap table before spring training, according to someone who has seen the paperwork.
The broader question is whether this model works outside apparel. Patricof has invested in sports betting platforms, youth tournament organizers, and NIL collectives, and in each case the firm brings athletes onto the term sheet as quasi-distributors. The risk is that athlete investors become box-checkers rather than operators, showing up for the press release but not the quarterly review. The reward is that Patricof has built a Rolodex of four hundred active pros who take his calls, and in a world where celebrity endorsements are mostly ignored, ownership is the last credential that still moves product. Rhoback will now find out if twelve athletes with equity can out-sell one athlete with a contract.
The takeaway
Patricof converts endorsement budgets into cap table equity, using athletes as distribution and letting portfolio companies avoid traditional marketing spend.
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