The Memphis company that turned cheerleading into a sport - uniforms, camps, and championships, all under one roof.
Varsity Spirit's brandmark. From a single summer camp in 1974, the company built the apparel, training and competition infrastructure that most of American cheerleading now runs on.
Watch a cheer squad take the mat at a national championship - the matching uniforms, the choreographed music, the pyramid that snaps into place on the eight-count - and you are looking at a category that Varsity Spirit did more than any other company to define. Based in Memphis, Tennessee, Varsity Spirit designs and manufactures cheerleading and dance apparel, runs the training camps where routines are learned, and produces the competitions where they are judged.
The company was founded in 1974 by Jeff Webb, a former yell leader at the University of Oklahoma, as the Universal Cheerleaders Association. Webb's idea was simple and, at the time, unusual: treat cheerleading as an athletic discipline with skills, standards and a season. He introduced partner stunts, pyramids, tumbling and music into routines - the elements that now feel inseparable from the sport.
By 1981, Varsity had produced the first nationally televised cheerleading competition on ESPN, giving the activity a scoreboard and an audience. Camps came first, then championships, then apparel - and the three reinforced one another. A team trains at camp, buys a uniform, and competes at an event, often all within the same brand family.
Today Varsity Spirit reports impacting more than a million athletes each year. Its Universal Cheerleaders Association alone trains over 180,000 cheerleaders every summer across thousands of camp sessions. It operates as the anchor division of Varsity Brands, a group that private equity firm KKR acquired in 2024 in a deal valued at roughly $4.5 billion.
“Varsity Spirit is the global leader in cheerleading, dance team and band apparel, camps and competitions, impacting more than a million athletes each year.”
- Varsity Spirit company descriptionDesigns and manufactures custom cheer and dance uniforms and gear, runs summer camps and clinics, and produces regional, national and international competitions - the full lifecycle of a season.
K-12 and college cheer and dance squads, all-star gyms, coaches, and the athletes and families who buy apparel and attend camps - reaching more than a million athletes a year.
Gives a once-informal activity structure: standardized training, safety guidance, professionally made uniforms, and a competitive path from local events to nationals.
Vertical integration. Few rivals cover apparel, camps and competitions at once. That breadth is its edge - and the reason it has drawn antitrust scrutiny.
Fifty years of routine design, event production, apparel manufacturing and coaching education - plus long-running work on cheer safety standards and certification.
The center of the youth cheer and dance market, a division of Varsity Brands alongside BSN Sports and Herff Jones in the broader school-spirit economy.
The business runs on the school calendar. Uniforms are ordered in the fall, camps fill the summer, and competitions dominate winter and spring. That rhythm turns a passionate community into repeat, seasonal demand - a recurring-revenue engine dressed up as tradition.
The reach is genuinely large. A single event, the NCA All-Star National Championship, has grown to more than 28,000 athletes, 1,500-plus teams and 100,000 spectators - among the largest cheerleading events ever staged.
Custom cheer and dance uniforms, warmups, campwear, activewear and costumes in performance fabrics.
The Universal Cheerleaders Association trains 180,000+ cheerleaders each summer across 3,200+ sessions.
The Universal Dance Association delivers camps, choreography and training for dance teams.
Camps and championship events, including the record-setting NCA All-Star National Championship.
Regional, national and televised championships that draw tens of thousands of athletes.
Direct-to-consumer retail of cheer shoes, poms, bows, accessories and camp gear.
Jeff Webb didn't invent cheerleading. He invented the version with stunts, pyramids and music - then built the company that made that version the standard. Born in 1949 and a yell leader at the University of Oklahoma, he launched what became Varsity Spirit in 1974 and grew it into an industry. He died in 2026 at age 76 following an accident; tributes across the sport called him the father of modern cheerleading.
Jeff Webb launches the Universal Cheerleaders Association, running summer cheer camps.
UCA holds its first National College Cheerleading Championship.
The National High School Cheerleading Championship debuts.
Varsity produces the first nationally televised cheerleading competition on ESPN.
Varsity backs the creation of the U.S. All Star Federation.
Varsity acquires National Spirit Group, adding the NCA to its brand family.
Varsity buys a main competitor, consolidating the competition market.
Bain acquires the parent company for about $2.5 billion.
KKR completes a ~$4.5 billion acquisition of Varsity Brands.
The architect of modern cheerleading dies at age 76.
Varsity Spirit's breadth is its greatest strength and its biggest legal exposure. Rival apparel makers and event producers - among them the Open Championship Series, Rebel Athletic, Nfinity, GK Elite and Chasse - compete in slices of the market, but few match Varsity across apparel, camps and competitions at once.
That dominance has drawn antitrust litigation. Plaintiffs alleged Varsity used acquisitions and market power to control cheer competitions, camps and apparel. The company reached settlements without admitting liability, including $43.5 million in 2023 and $82.5 million in 2024, with further litigation continuing.
Within its parent, Varsity Brands, the company sits alongside BSN Sports and Herff Jones, spanning sports apparel and school recognition products - a broader school-spirit economy that has attracted three private-equity owners in under a decade.