Businesses and nonprofits in Los Angeles have been clamoring for a way to benefit from the influx of fans and cash they expect from the 2028 Summer Olympics. Now, some of them will have the opportunity to produce and sell Olympic-branded merchandise.
Olympic organizing committee LA28 will announce the Made for Two-8 licensing program on Tuesday, and its first partner will be Homeboy Industries, a non-profit organization that runs the world’s largest gang intervention program.
Homeboy Silkscreen & Embroidery will create T-shirts featuring the Olympic torch, Homeboy and LA28 official logos based on designs by Fabian Debora, director of the non-profit Art Institute. The torch image was designed to highlight the upcoming Olympics and the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, where Father Greg Boyle, founder of Homeboy, carried the Olympic torch.
LA28 plans to announce partnerships with a number of other local entities that will produce a variety of items such as stationery, toys, hats, magnets, candles and pet accessories.
The Made for Two-8 program will first work with manufacturers in the city of Los Angeles before expanding to include other areas of Los Angeles County. Los Angeles has more venues than any other city, and its government is a financial guarantor of the Olympics.
“By partnering with LA28, we are essentially announcing to Los Angeles and the world that our community is just as worthy of an event like the Olympics as any other,” said Steve Delgado, co-CEO of Homeboy Industries. “We believe in two things: that everyone has the ability, and that we belong together. That has been our message for 40 years and the message of the modern Olympics.”
Homeboy, which provides jobs to current and former gang members, plans to sell the T-shirts at its headquarters near Chinatown, Los Angeles City Hall, Martin Luther King Community Hospital and Los Angeles International Airport Terminal 2 restaurants, as well as on its online portal. Store home page. LA28 will also have the rights to sell the shirts through its merchandise operations.
LA28 executives say they will find a T-shirt manufacturer (perhaps closer to downtown or East Los Angeles) to produce blank T-shirts and then screen-print them at Homeboy’s factory in a warehouse district near the Los Angeles River.
LA28 and Homeboy did not disclose terms of the deal, but they said the Olympic organizing committee will receive royalties from every T-shirt sold, with profits going to Homeboy to support its range of programs, including tattoo removal, consulting and vocational training.
Homeboy is expected to be the first of many local partners to sign a licensing agreement to use local Olympic committee logos (LA28 and the Olympic rings) on their products.
Other businesses and nonprofits interested in the licensing program must apply through the Regional Procurement Alliance Marketplace at RAMPLA.org between October 20 and February 2027. Those license agreements awarded will be announced in July 2027.
“From day one, our goal has been to ensure that the economic benefits of the Games reach our local communities,” LA28 CEO Renold Hoover said in a statement.
“Fans will find products designed, sourced and made in Los Angeles in our retail stores,” LA28 senior vice president of consumer products Peter Zeytoonjian said in a statement. “Local manufacturers will gain new access to customers around the world.”
The massive promotion surrounding the 2028 Summer Olympics will also include global brands such as Nike and Ralph Lauren. “Our goal is to provide local businesses with the ability to participate in the Olympics,” Zeytoonjian said, “while also giving fans the ability to choose from a different variety of products.”
Homeboy’s Delgado said the nonprofit may later offer different T-shirt designs or expand into mugs and other types of merchandise. Zeytoonjian said LA28 hopes to have plans in place for local manufacturers by the summer of 2027, giving its partners at least a full year to market their products before the Summer Olympics kick off in July 2028.