Show Your Fandom

Dallas apparel innovator FanPrint hits big time with NFLPA deal

With the NFL season now in full swing, a Dallas-based apparel company is in a unique position to outfit fans with one-of-a-kind pieces while also providing some much-needed assistance to former football players.

FanPrint, which counts former Dallas Cowboy Darren Woodson as its director of partnerships, is a 2-year-old company and Tech Wildcatters grad that wanted to connect athletes to their fans using the power of social media. But they don't make your usual jerseys and hats; instead, FanPrint crowd sources its designs to deliver original, whimsical shirts, tank tops, hoodies and onesies.

After starting with some of the top sports graphic designers, FanPrint has slowly but surely built up a community of sports-loving artists who continually submit new designs. Any fan can submit their own design to FanPrint, ensuring that everything on the website is created by and for sports fans.

FanPrint was recently licensed by the NFL Players Association, and they worked out a deal where the royalties for every licensed NFLPA product goes to a player assistance fund that helps former athletes whose careers were shortened by injuries. It is the first and only NFLPA licensee to direct their royalties to the fund.

"Working with NFL players was great for FanPrint because it enabled us to grow our company at scale and allows us to help current NFL players have an impact by giving back to former guys in need who used to play in the league," says Rachel Duitch, director of marketing for FanPrint.

To celebrate the partnership, FanPrint thew a cocktail party in the new Tech Wildcatters office downtown, where Woodson and FanPrint founder T.K. Stohlman beamed like proud papas as they shook hands and posed for photos. And they should have been beaming: During the party, FanPrint announced it has also inked deals with the NHL and MLB, so now the company can use the names and likenesses of players in all three leagues.

Among the FanPrint fans in attendance to show their support were Dallas Cowboy great Charles Haley, Tech Wildcatters co-founder Gabriella Draney, Matt Alexander, Mike Sarimsakci, Ross Hougland, Brett Dougall, Scott Boyles and Landon Ledford.

Mike Sarimsakci, Nile Tuzun

Photo by Desiree Espada

Mike Sarimsakci, Nile Tuzun

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Under the Sun

Solar power poised to surpass coal for the first time in Texas

Photo by Bill Mead on Unsplash

Utility-scale solar generation has been increasing steadily in Texas.

Solar power promises to shine even brighter in Texas this year. A new forecast from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) indicates that for the first time, annual power generation from utility-scale solar will surpass annual power generation from coal across the territory covered by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

Solar generation is expected to reach 78 billion kilowatt-hours in 2026 in the ERCOT grid, compared with 60 billion kilowatt-hours for coal, the EIA forecast says. The ERCOT grid supplies power to about 90 percent of Texas.

“Utility-scale solar generation has been increasing steadily in ERCOT as solar capacity additions help meet rapid electricity demand growth,” the forecast says.

Although natural gas remains the dominant source of electricity generation in ERCOT, accounting for an average 44 percent of electricity generation from 2021 to 2025, solar’s share of the generation mix rose from 4 percent to 12 percent. During the same period, coal’s share dropped from 19 percent to 13 percent.

EIA predicts about 40 percent of U.S. solar capacity, or 14 billion kilowatt-hours, added in 2026 will come from Texas.

Although EIA expects annual solar generation to exceed annual coal generation in 2026, solar surpassed coal in ERCOT on a monthly basis for the first time in March 2025, when solar generation totaled 4.33 billion kilowatt-hours and coal’s totaled 4.16 billion kilowatt-hours. Solar generation continued to exceed that of coal until August of that year.

“In 2026, we estimate that solar exceeded coal for the first time in March, and we forecast generation from solar installations in ERCOT will continue to exceed that from coal until December, when coal generation exceeds solar,” says EIA. “We expect solar generation to exceed that of coal for every month in 2027 except January and December.”

For 2027, EIA forecasts annual solar generation of 99 billion kilowatt-hours in the ERCOT grid, compared with 66 billion kilowatt-hours of annual coal generation.

In April, ERCOT projected almost 368 billion kilowatt-hours of demand in ERCOT’s territory by 2032. ERCOT’s all-time peak demand hit 85.5 billion kilowatt-hours in August 2023.

“Texas is experiencing exceptional growth and development, which is reshaping how large load demand is identified, verified, and incorporated into long-term planning,” ERCOT President and CEO Pablo Vegas said. “As a result of a changing landscape, we believe this forecast to be higher than expected … load growth.”

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This article first appeared on our sister site, EnergyCapitalHTX.

solar energy sustainability energy ercot