Team Insight - July, 2007
The Million Dollar Club ... and Me
For a few hours recently, I was in the presence of greatness. Okay, maybe greatness is too strong of a word, but it was certainly really, really goodness. The occasion was the Million Dollar Club sessions at the recent Team Athletic Goods (TAG) sales...
A Report Card on the Inaugural SGMA Spring Market
What would happen if you held a trade show and some people came, some didn’t, but there was enough excitement and positive feedback to make it worth the trip? In the case of the inaugural SGMA Spring Market, held in Las Vegas in early June, the answ...
Kevin Plank Rocks The Conference
If anyone has any doubt that Kevin Plank, founder and CEO of Under Armour, is the closest thing the sporting goods industry has to a rock star these days, you needed only to see how vendors and retailers alike mobbed him after his keynote presentatio...
The Next Big (Toe) Thing?
Pokemon. Nintendo. Hibachi Steakhouses. The Toyota Camry. Over the past few decades the great nation of Japan has contributed plenty of marketable products to the United States. Now with the infusion of Japanese players in Major League Baseball (name...
One Small Leap For A Team 'Sport'
For years, cheerleading has been straddling the line between a “sport” and an “activity.” But last month the Florida High School Athletic Association helped push it a little bit closer to being widely recognized as a sport when it declared cheerlead...
A Timely Vault For Gill
No pole vaulter wants to be 15 feet in the air and have his pole snap at the pinnacle, causing a painful and dangerous return to earth. That’s why the engineers at Gill Athletics, Champaign, IL, designed the Carbon FX, a pole designed to reduce the o...
Up For Adoption
State adoptions mean lower margins, higher prices for schools and more competition — and they turn team dealers into order takers, not salespeople.
George Kline has had it with state adoptions. So while Bethlehem Sporting Goods is certainly not going to stop selling balls to its schools in eastern Pennsylvania, it does mean he thinks the concept has gone too far and no longer makes sense for tea...
Driving The Lane
Basketball continues to lead in youth participation numbers and dealers are scoring well by focusing on cloth and balls, while looking for opportunities to come off the bench with hardgoods.
As the nation’s top team sport in terms of participation, team dealers certainly appreciate the basketball business. On the sales side, hoops typically rank as the No. 2 or 3 seller, which is testament itself to the sport’s widespread appeal since mo...
Opportunity Is Looking Up
Walk into the gym some day and see where the opportunity for backboards – both new and replacement – rests for team dealers. Vendors are more than willing to help out with specs, delivery and installation.
Team dealers may be looking on the court for the bulk of their basketball sales by outfitting players with uniforms and shoes and then handing them the ball to play the game. But it just may pay off to look up for some added sales. Those backboards h...
Inflation Control
Inflatables are a solid business for the simple reason that teams need to replenish their ball supply every season.
Mention “inflation” to most people and they’re likely to go off on a rant about gas prices, taxes and how milkshakes used to cost a nickel. But ask a team dealer and his mind immediately turns to a staple – although sometimes low-margin -- product of...
Basic Instincts
More team apparel vendors are adopting
If FOR SOME REASON you’re still scratching your head over the Under Armour phenomenon and the tremendous growth in the moisture management apparel category at both team and retail, there’s only one thing left for you to do: Put the gear on – Under Ar...
Hope Springs Eternal
It’s not the bottom of the ninth quite yet for baseball and softball. While participation seems to be decreasing, team dealers are reporting that it’s still business as usual in both sports.
More than in any other sport, the numbers usually tell the story in baseball and softball. No other sport relies as heavily on statistics to chronicle its past, chart a player’s success or determine strategy during competition. Does this fascination ...
Pro Choice
Are wood bats safer than metal bats? Tom Cove, president of the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, answers with an emphatic ‘NO!’
As more concerned parents and politicians across the nation push to ban metal bats, Tom Cove is asking for cooler heads to prevail, especially as research findings continue to point to the fact that baseball is safe and that all bats present an equal...
Put A Lid On It
A Team Intelligence Vendor Roundtable takes a look at what’s new in team caps, what trends re driving the business and, most importantly, how dealers can make more money using their heads.
Moisture management. Fitted caps. High-tech, multi-colored embroidery. Closed-backs. Three panel decorations. Team headwear has certainly come a long way from the days of all-wool caps. But have these all-wool caps been replaced completely? Team In...
Score With Personalization
As a team dealer, you’re already aware of so many details in the team sports field — the upcoming changes ahead in soccer uniforms or the importance of having the T-shirts with moisture management properties on hand.
Offering athletic numbering, player names, full color transfers, short run logos and having the ability to do it in-house is one of the easiest and least expensive ways to get started in garment decoration. Owning a heat press is the key to being a...
Out of Africe
Sporting goods supplier Champro has returned to Ethiopia for its apparel sourcing. Becoming involved with a local school has made the investment both profitable and rewarding.
When Bill Hunt stepped foot onto Ethiopian soil for the first time as a Peace Corps volunteer back in the inspired times of 1970, he recognized the potential of this underdeveloped nation and dreamed of starting a business venture there someday. ...
Training Day
Making sure your roadmen and inside sales people are properly trained in product and ‘selling’
Imagine you start a day with a To-Do List of, say, 10 items. Call your best customers, check on key deliveries, meet with your banker, maybe conduct a job interview (or perhaps you need to fire someone). If you’re lucky, perhaps you have a lunch at a...
Playing TAG
A trade magazine editor is allowed to act like a team dealer for a weekend at the Team Athletic Goods Sales Training Seminar in Las Vegas.
Some people would think that bringing close to 400 roadmen and team dealers to Las Vegas for a long weekend would be a recipe for disaster. The combination of good food, gambling, world-class entertainment, wedding chapels and late nights of networ...
The End Zone
SGAA Honors Its Own With a new trade show serving as a backdrop, the Sporting Goods Agents Association (SGAA) last month honored one of its own, along with a long-time vendor, during its annual meeting at the SGMA Spring Market in Las Vegas. Billy...
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