Fanning Fan Fever Selling Licensed Merchandise to Serious Sports Followers

By Sara Karnish

Sports fans’ loyalty remains strong through the most trying times. Fan store retailers say although their sales have declined overall in 2020, fans’ devotion to their favorite teams has not wavered. Some customers’ buying habits have changed, but tried-andtrue merchandise like jerseys, caps, and T-shirts remain strong sellers.

David Sklarlka , co-owner of Bleacher Bums, a family-owned franchise of five sports stores in Central Pennsylvania with its flagship store in Camp Hill, Pa., said, “The NFL is 70 percent of our business. We have a whole section that is just NFL sweatshirts and jerseys. Every year, the NFL does a ‘Salute to Service’ series of sweatshirts, hats, and jackets that the players wear on Veterans’ Day. It’s our best-seller every year.”

Although devoted sports fans rarely waver from “their” team, Luke Pesha , owner of Chicago Sports & Novelty, with three brick-and-mortar stores and one Guaranteed Rate Field kiosk location in Chicago, Ill., said sometimes sales are driven by how a team is do-

“The NFL is 70 percent of our business. We have a whole section that is just NFL sweatshirts and jerseys. Every year, the NFL does a ‘Salute to Service’ series of sweatshirts, hats, and jackets that the players wear on Veterans’ Day. It’s our best-seller every year.”

David

ing. He names adjustable caps as their biggest seller, followed by men’s shirts and knitwear.

Josh Ganal , owner/buyer, Grandstand Ltd., in Chicago, Ill., said the same. “It ranges depending on the teams. Consistently jerseys are always a popular item as well as headwear. Headwear is a huge market right now because of [mask and gaiter] trends.”

Amanda Duenas , owner of Sports Collection in Boston, Mass., said headwear is also one of their biggest sellers. “For 2021 we’ll have regular T-shirts with different designs. Every year we try to get in some new designs.”

As for what’s new in licensed merchandise for 2021, some retailers say their 2020 products never reached their full selling potential due to mandatory shutdowns and an overall decrease in consumer spending. “Next year will be interesting because most of our manufacturers didn’t get to execute their lines,” Pesha said. “Every year the MLB will do special edition caps for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and other holidays, but they didn’t get to do them in 2020. So our new items for 2021 will be what we didn’t get to put out in 2020.”

Next year, Ganal said he will continue to carry the items sports fans see players wearing on TV. “Items that are team issued and worn while in play or during interviews are always the most sought after because fans recognize it as being ‘authentic’ and will want to wear exactly what their favorite team/ player wears,” he explained.

Pesha said neon is trending once again, as well as “long sleeves. We were going to dabble in leopard- and animal-print. We’re also seeing the bulkier outerwear going out and customers going more for the T-shirts and sweatshirts. The licensed items are usually an under layer; the team logos on the bulkier items are very small.”

Sklarlka said he is excited to feature Riddell’s new collection of helmets for 2021. “We’ll see the new helmets shipping for March. They do all the NFL teams and a limited number of colleges. The Salute to Service merchandise comes out in the fall of ’21—that’s always extremely good for us. They are the items we know we’re getting for next year.” Some carryover items at Bleacher Bums include a series of framed pictures of Super Bowl teams and hockey teams. “They came out in the fourth quarter of 2020. The pictures come with replicated rings to hang with the framed

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Fanning Fan Fever (From page 84) piece. The rings are exact replicas of the rings the players get. They will be extremely big for us in 2021. We also carry hover helmets, which is a mini replica of a team helmet. It has a magnet on the top and comes with a stand. The helmet actually floats in midair.”

Sklarlka said they have shifted their marketing and sales focus slightly. “Our online presence is up tremendously [due to current circumstances] but we focus on our brick-and-mortar locations. In the world of sports marketing, Fanatics is a very big player online, so it’s hard for us to do much SEO and compete with them. We are online and market online—we have Facebook—but we’re in the malls and looking to get the traffic flow from the mall business.”

It is difficult to predict trends for 2021, but some of the retailers expect the demand for headwear to continue. Duenas said, “masks and gaiters with licensed sports logos” will continue trending in her 3,000-square-foot flagship store. Ganal said headwear is a big trend for them right now—“specifically New Era headwear in the fitted 59Fifty style. Everything from multiple logos, different color ways, colors in general, small logos and big logos,” he explained.

Sports fans tend to be multi-generational, with plenty of good-natured competition occurring between relatives who support different teams. Retailers see a wide range of customers from all walks of life, but said they do have a core demographic. “Since we’re mainly a gift business, people are in our store shopping for gifts. I would say it’s females aged 35-60. When you look at a household, it’s mainly Mom doing the shopping for the holidays. They’re not the end user but they’re doing the buying. They’re who we’re looking to market to,” Sklarlka explained. Duenas said her customers are “Mostly men who like sports—I would say men aged 20-40 years old. Or women if they want to buy a gift.” Pesha explained his stores are currently closed, as they are in areas of the city with heavy tourist populations and have been unable to reopen due to the pandemic-related decline in foot traffic. However, he said, “On a regular day, our typical customer would be a downtown business employee who was maybe shopping on their lunch break. So we’d get a lot of men, and a lot of visitors. And of course, a lot of families during the holidays.” Ganal said their store sees a wide-ranging clientele. “Because of our location we get clients that are definitely fans of the pro teams in the city and we will also see clientele that are heavily into lifestyle/streetwear fashion,” he said. “When there is a shoe release that is heavily sought after we almost always will have something that will match. At times streetwear can determine the strength of certain items that we carry so that is why we have such a diverse clientele. There aren’t many places where you can pick up an outfit for a newborn while your biggest sneaker collector can also pick out something to match his new shoes.”

Merchandising has always been a top driver for

When the Customers Are Kids, What Is Selling?

Sports fan stores’ inventory often extends to the younger generation. Retailers carry an assortment of merchandise that appeals to kids’ and teens’ desire for style and shows their loyalty to a favorite team.

“We sell almost the same in kids as what we sell for adults,” said Owner/Buyer Josh Ganal of Grandstand Ltd.’s kids’ section. “If there is a direct takedown from the adult line, we try to carry it. We carry sizes from newborn all the way up to big youth.” Co-Owner David Sklarlka said Bleacher Bums carries items for the smallest fans on up. “We have everything from onesies in 0-3 months to bibs, pacifiers, T-shirts, jerseys. We go up to 18-20 (Youth XL). We sell a good bit of kids’ clothing—it’s about 1/10 of our store.” Sports fans can find similar items at Chicago Sport and Novelty. “We sell T-shirts, jerseys, two-piece sets, onesies, and hats for children from newborn to youth XL (18-20),” said Owner Luke Pesha. Sports Collection carries some items for kids. “We have a basic T-shirt and cap set. Kids’ winter hats. Hooded sweatshirts. And logoed PJ bottoms, which are a great gift,” Owner Amanda Duenas said. ❖ sales, but many owners have had to recreate their in-store displays online due to the increase in digital commerce. Because customers are limiting their time in stores due to health and safety concerns, store layout and merchandising is more critical than ever. Customers are spending less time browsing and more time picking up exactly what they need, so they must be able to find what they’re looking for.

“Merchandising is the whole ball game. If you have a clean store, organized shelves, and tidy displays you will do better than if your assortment is all over,” Pesha said. “We have found that if the customer does not have to struggle to get an item down, or the rack is not over-filled [that tends] to lead to a purchase. Nothing turns off a customer more than a dirty store or not being able to browse a rack because it is over-filled.”

Ganal said it’s important to listen to customer feedback and pay attention to their shopping patterns when they come into a store. “We all have this vision for our business and how it should be presented, but the truth of the matter is sometimes all it takes to properly merchandise is something as simple as moving a specific product from one end of a display to the other. If you really want to merchandise, personally I like to watch what my clients do as they walk through the store. What is it that their eyes get drawn to? I then take that and try to walk the store through their eyes and take in their perspective. I find that the answers are there—we just have to listen.”

Duenas said the independent sport fan store industry is facing more competition from the big box stores. “It’s really hard to compete in the sports business. There are so many stores jumping on board because they realize the sports business is huge, especially in New England. Even the larger chains have big sports sections. I try to pick merchandise that’s different from the larger chains. I work with a lot of people who will do different designs. It’s very creative around here.” ❖