Vintage looks give licensing a lasting lift - Sporting Goods Update - Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association predicts licensed sports apparel trend will continue

DSN Retailing Today, Jan 6, 2003 by Mike Troy

Resurgent demand for sports licensed products, particularly apparel bearing the insignia of professional football, basketball, baseball and hockey teams appears to be a trend that will stick around at least through next year.

That's the word from the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA) based on input from licensing executives with Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League and the Collegiate Licensing Corporation.

Their views and those of several manufacturers are included in a recently released SOMA study of the licensed products industry, which explains why sports licensed products sales are growing while overall licensed product sales remain challenging in an environment of tight consumer spending. All of the major sports licensing organizations reported sales gains for 2002 that were predominantly fueled by two trends.

"The two strongest licensed product categories were apparel, where sales gains were led by the sudden and sweeping popularity of high-priced vintage jerseys, and video games which benefited from the introduction of new consoles in 2001," according to the SGMA study "Some people want cars that look like earlier models, some want toasters that remind them of grandma's and others want apparel that echoes the past. In sports licensing, demand has skyrocketed for authentically made copies of outdated jerseys, perhaps the jersey the San Diego Padres wore 30 years ago or the Philadelphia 76ers jersey exactly like one worn by Allen Iverson only five years ago."

The increased demand for licensed merchandise was labeled a "dramatic reversal of fortunes" by SGMA since sales of sports licensed products peaked in the mid'90s at around $13.8 billion and then declined steadily until 2001, when they were estimated at $10.5 billion. However, the popularity of vintage jerseys begs the question of whether the sales upturn is sustainable or will simply wither when hip-hop recording artists, who are credited with sparking the craze, abandon the licensed look the way they did in the '90s.

The short answer is "no," according to SGMA's report, because circumstances are different today Although a fashion shift away from the team look contributed to a decline in licensed products during the '90s, other big factors were a baseball strike in 1994 that led to the cancellation of the World Series and a delayed start to the 1995 baseball season, and also Michael Jordan's retirement from the Chicago Bulls in 1998.

According to SGMA's findings, even if the vintage craze should wane, the rebound in licensed product sales is for real. The leagues are now doing business with fewer licensees or in some cases, such as the NFL's relationship with Reebok, aligning themselves with an exclusive licensee. There is also an improved fashion sense on the part of licensors and licensees so that, as SGMA puts it, "colleges and teams now allow designers to modify traditional colors and logos on some lines of casual apparel, such as sweatshirts and caps, in order to make garments that are in tune with current fashion yet retain the authenticity of the team or university brand."

The Internet is also allowing displaced sports fans, access to their favorite team's jerseys as retailers now offer more extensive selections of merchandise on their Web sites.