Strong Hold

Even a ‘secondary’ sport should not be ignored by team dealers looking to make their own moves

While it is not necessarily ‘recession-proof,’ wrestling has become a consistent and reliable niche market even in challenging economic times.

Schaefer Athletics in Louisville, Colorado is a pretty much a prototypical team dealer. A full-line supplier, the company does a “hardcore team business,” as salesman Dave Ward puts it. Approximately 80 percent of Schaefer’s sales come from schools, and the company is driven by the big three of football, baseball and basketball. But that doesn’t mean that secondary sports aren’t important to Schaefer’s bottom line. Wrestling is a perfect example.

“We do quite a bit of business in wrestling,” says Ward. “It fills in often for us. Our success is based on our one-stop service. We offer everything from singlets to hard goods to mats.”

The past year demonstrated why Schaefer can rely on consistent performance from wrestling. With the challenges posed by the slow-to-recover economy, Ward explains, the sport still managed to give his company a solid revenue source.

“I’d say that wrestling maintained in 2009,” he says.

Chad Clark, VP-sales for major wrestling supplier Cliff Keen, agrees about wrestling’s ability to withstand tough economic times. “All sports are susceptible to pullback,” he says. “But wrestling might be a little more insulated.”

“Our orders didn’t slip from 2008,” he adds. “They are right on par.”

That has been the case for Schaefer, too. “Our wrestling business hasn’t dropped off,” says Ward. “It maybe got a little bigger at the club level.”

For manufacturers, the greatest economic impact has been a change in the timing of orders. “The growing trend seems to be ordering uniforms at the last minute,” says Tim Gardner, VP-sales and marketing for Brute. “Every year schools are ordering later and later, which places a premium on delivery times.”

Clark has experienced the same at Cliff Keen. “We spend 10 months out of the year preparing for the two months when we get hammered,” he says. “That makes staffing a real challenge, especially for the custom business.”

According to Ward, the one area where Schaefer has felt the pinch of the economy is in spirit packs. “Price has become more important,” he says. “But while parents might not be spending money on themselves, they will spend on their kids.”

Schaefer also benefits from being in one of the regions of the country where wrestling’s popularity is on the rise. “The Midwest and Northeast continue to lead the way in wrestling participation,” says Gardner. “But California, Colorado and the Northwest continue to grow as well. The strongest age group is 12-year olds to 18-year olds.”

Recent studies conducted by SGMA and the National Federation of State High School Associations support Gardner’s assertions. SGMA’s U.S. Trends in Team Sports shows that the number of high school wrestlers increased slightly from 2006-07 to 2007-08 to 265,215 participants. Since 2000-01, that total has grown by 4 percent.

The NFSHSA’s 2007-08 Participation Survey identifies California as the nation’s top state in terms of high schools with wrestling teams (807) and wrestlers (25,896). Illinois, Ohio, New York, Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania rank next on the list.

“The high school business continues to be the core of the wrestling business, followed by the youth clubs,” says Gardner. “There has been a steady growth in the youth wrestling business as more and more clubs are springing up all over the country.”

And what products are helping drive that growth? “As in any other sport, it’s the new technologies that are leading the way,” says Gardner. “Whether it’s sublimated singlets or high-performance materials, wrestlers want products that will help them perform better on the mats.”

For Cliff Keen, the top seller has been custom sublimated uniforms. “Artistically, you see it everywhere,” says Clark. “It’s what’s going on with sports fashion in general. You can do so much graphically to the uniform.”

Ward has seen the biggest push in sublimation at the youth level. For high school teams, he says there has been a move back to fleece and performance fleece in warm-ups, “mostly because of price.”

Cloth is also where Schaefer makes its best margins, though Ward adds, “hard goods like scoreboards and mat cleaner can be good, too.”
Clark advises team dealers to look to stock items for their top margins. “Headgear and knee pads are always reliable,” he says, “because the costs haven’t changed much.”

Count on the Coaches

That’s not the only advice that Clark has for team dealers. “Don’t leave the wrestling coaches in the dust,” he cautions. “In times like these, make extra sure that your roadmen are walking into the wrestling room. Coaches tell us all the time that they never even hear from reps. Do yourself a favor and call on them early. Don’t wait until a week before the season starts.”
Gardner underscores the importance of service.

“My best advice for a dealer is to be sure your vendor can deliver what is promised and has a proven track record of doing just that,” he says. “In addition, when it comes to team uniforms, the term ‘made in the USA’ really does mean something.”

For Ward, service goes hand in hand with relationships. “I’m an old wrestling coach,” he says. “The sport isn’t that hard to sell. It’s not as price competitive as other sports. It all goes back to relationships. That camaraderie is a plus.”

“We don’t approach wrestling any different than any other sport,” he adds. “We put in the same time on it, except for football. Service still counts.”


MAT NEWS ...

Teamwork Enters the Wrestling Market
Team dealers now have another option when it comes to wrestling uniforms. Teamwork Athletic has announced the launch of a line of custom sublimated singlets through its ADV Advanced Custom Uniform division. “They will initially be available in six customizable design templates, which will be available this spring,” says Evelyn Gosnell, Teamwork’s senior marketing manager.

According to Gosnell, Teamwork is targeting virtually every level of wrestling, including youth, high school, college, and adult clubs. The ADV sublimated singlets are made of stretch-fit polyester, which was developed exclusively for wrestling. “They provide cool, lightweight performance that's tough enough for the mat,” says Gosnell.

She adds that Teamwork has no minimums and that the ADV sublimated singlets can be manufactured in 14 business days.

Cliff Keen Partners With Big Ten

Cliff Keen Athletic has entered a media partnership with the Big Ten Network for its wrestling telecasts of the 2009-10 scholastic calendar. The Big Ten Network boasts some of the premier wrestling dual meet match-ups each year and the new media plan includes commercial spots, on-air mentions, spotlights on Cliff Keen and its products each week, as well as a special feature and links on the bigtennetwork.com.

“We are very excited about this new partnership,” says owner Tom Keen. “In conjunction with the launch of our new Web site, the network really gives us incredible visibility to an already astute audience of wrestling enthusiasts who tune in each week for the top Big Ten wrestling match-ups.”

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