Just do it without Nike

Discount Store News, Feb 23, 1998

McDonald's golden arches are ubiquitous icons that have the ability to capture the appetites of hungry citizens throughout the world. And in the world of sports marketing, Nike's swoosh has similar clout, providing many retailers with a powerful tool to capture consumer's sport shoe and activewear dollars.

Unfortunately, the leverage of many high visibility sports logos are unavailable to most mass merchants. Nevertheless, these retailers must also create powerful activewear presentations to feed America's fitness frenzy and boost the bottom line. The question is, how can they tap into this lucrative market when they can't sell brands like Nike?

"A mass market activewear department is different than other retailers," says Jim Sparks, senior vice president, gmm at Braintree, Mass.-based Bradlees. "It's about not having the Nike and Reebok stuff that everybody else has. You probably have to work harder with this stuff."

Other retailers agree.

"We feel the best approach to activewear is to pick up available brands, whether it be Wilson, Spalding or Rawlings. We have all of those brands in our stores," answers Mike Gallen, vice president, dmm of Abilene, Kan.-based 220-unit Duckwall-Alco Stores. "The trick is to make sure that your merchandise mix is inspired by the current top brand looks," he adds.

"For instance, if you're going to have a Rawlings program or a Wilson program," Gallen explains, "you need to buy mesh because that has been real hot in the Nike line." And even the mass brands allow retailers to extend their margins over generic active merchandise. "Sometimes the customer can't afford Nike but still wants to look that way. However, our customers are willing to pay for an alternative brands," Gallen says. He ranks Wilson as the store's No. 1 active brand, Rawlings as No. 2 and Spalding at No. 3.

Warner Bros. has also joined the contest in the mass market activewear business by marketing its WB Sport line of shoes and clothing. The collection, which so far has enjoyed its greatest success in footwear, is meant to be a stand-alone sports label endorsed by major athletes -- including Shaquille O'Neal.

"For us, the idea was to create the first affordable sports lifestyle brand at the mass market level with world-class caliber athletes endorsing and supporting the product," explains Jeff Orridge, director of sports licensing of Warner Bros. Consumer Products and a key player in the development of the company's WB Sport brand.

The company is planning a big push for the line for fall 1998 and has developed the brand across numerous categories.

"It had never been done before with a full product line for the mass market," Orridge adds. "We decided to go into the mass market because we already had those retailer relationship from the success of the Looney Tunes brand. We also felt that it was important to stand for affordable, value-conscious, superior product in the mass market."

The importance of developing comprehensive active mixes at the discount level is underscored by the results of several surveys and a topic of ongoing study.

One recent report from SGMA found that in 1996, Americans spent approximately $17.22 billion on activewear. Another SGMA study, conducted by the NPD American Shoppers Panel, found that from May 1997 through August of the same year, people spent approximately $12.8 billion compared to $12.2 billion during the same period in 1996.

Overall buying trends, according to a spokeswomen for the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Associations, are going up. "I've spoken to a number of smaller manufacturers who are predicting more than a 40 percent growth rate for 1998," she said. "Then again, I've also spoken to larger, more predominant companies that are calling for a more realistic growth rate between 3 to 5 percent."

Currently, some of the hottest activewear looks for fall 1998 include dark colors, mesh fabrications, anything with sport striping a la Adidas and fleece in menswear. In womenswear, stretch workout gear, brilliant colorations and fleece are all expected to be strong performing items next season. Price points in most mass active departments begin at around $6 for basic fleece components.

Also for fall 1998, retailers and manufacturers are touting the benefits of technical activewear, making apparel trade shows seem more like computer fairs than places to buy apparel. Technical advances for 1998 include anti-bacterial fabrics, for all categories, that fight body odor. Also, fabrications designed to wick moisture away from the body are turning out to be huge purchase items for the coming year.

But one retailer notes a problem with the new batch of tech-items. "Most of the manufacturers making these items are not doing a good job of promoting and marketing it," says Brenda Gleen, a buyer for Columbus, Ohio-based Hart's. "We think that our customers are having a hard time figuring out exactly what the stuff does and how much better it can be than what they're used to."

Glenn notes, however, that if manufacturers step up their promotional and marketing efforts for technical activewear, the category shows great potential for the 115-unit chain.