Children's sportswear stars in licensed apparel industry - Super Show, trade show, Atlanta, Georgia

Discount Store News, March 18, 1991

Children's Sportswear Stars In Licensed Apparel Arena

ATLANTA -- If crowds are any measure of popularity, licensed apparel was among the winners at the recently held Super Show in Atlanta.

The entire Super Show is divided into nine subsections. The Activewear Show and the Licensed Sports Show were the two areas that featured the most action in terms of apparel offerings. The newest addition to the sporting goods event was the Winter Wear Show, which featured a new crop of sports lines, both fashionable and functional.

Winter Wear is somewhat of a misnomer. Rather than focusing on ski or cold weather apparel, the show hosted companies such as Lee, which showed both its jeans and sportswear lines, and Catalina, which offered its bright sportswear in addition to the swimwear it is known for.

Though competing with the large number of apparel exhibitors at the show, licensed apparel did especially well spilling over into every specialty segment from tennis to cycling.

With the category becoming so crowded, many licensors found a new outlet for their products: children's wear.

Young boys have long been a successful customer base for professional sports apparel. Now, the field has grown to include infants and toddlers. Dad and baby can now both be dressed in a Raiders' black and silver snowsuit, though Dad's suit probably won't have feet.

NFL Baby, a division of Picolino U.S.A. Inc., Garden City, N.Y., has had the NFL team license for children's outerwear for the last two years.

Sam Honig, senior vice president, noted that Bradlees is putting its program in place this year, with other discounters looking at increasing their licensing program. The snowsuits are likely to retail from between $35.99 to $44.99, Honig said.

Newborn, infant, and toddler sizes are available from NFL Baby along with kids' sizes 4 to 7. Both home and away color schemes are offered by the company. Its newest addition to the line has been a Newborn prambag for bundling baby.

NFL Baby has been so successful that it hopes to expand its licenses. Honig said that it hoped to negotiate with the children's license division of the NBA for its products.

One thing that remains constant when it comes to sports licensed apparel is consumers' devotion to authenticity. Honig reported that in translating the harsh black and silver colors of the Raiders for children, the company decided a silver on black motif would be a softer, more palatable look that parents would accept.

What he found was that buyers were asking why the company didn't make it black on silver. He expects the merchandise will be changed going forward.

The National Basketball Association feels strongly enough about the children's wear market that it has created a division devoted specifically to that category.

According to Sue Koten, director of children's licensing, NBA, the organization's Little Stuff program is brand new and already getting positive responses from stores such as Kids "R" Us, Kids Footlocker and mass merchants such as Sears and JCPenney's.

Koten expects T-shirts will account for 60% to 70% of sales in the youth area, but all forms of apparel merchandise are fair game. Koten said she was working with the NBA's current roster of apparel licenses and asking them to develop children's programs. She expects that children's manufacturers specifically will soon be offering NBA products.

NBA Little Stuff will vary in style and price points. The Little Stuff area at the NBA's booth featured inexpensive T-shirts as well as a miniature leather bomber jacket with the Chicago Bulls logo on it, which may run into the $200 range in boys sizes 7 to 20.

Bull Frog Sports, New York, has an NBA license as well. The company showed nylon jackets and nylon jogging suits for the littlest athlete.

The National Football League is also a new entry into the children's market in so far that it has teamed up with a proven children's license, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Apparel Prints, Anaheim, Calif., has already signed on to produce Ninja Turtle/NFL Apparel. The company will make tops in boys', girls', pre-teen girls' and junior sizes. More children's licenses are expected to be announced soon.

The term recession-proof has become a favorite among manufacturers and is more often used when describing children's wear than any other area. For Bobby Edwards Ltd., the combination of children's wear and licensing looks like a winner. "We always do well with kids. It has really taken us through the tough times," a spokesman said. "No matter how the economy is, people still buy baby gifts."

The company, based in Rock Hill, S.C., has a Major League Baseball concession and makes stretchies, bibs and other baby items and accessories.

Stadium T's has taken the license craze a step further. The company's T-shirts feature large prints of playing stadiums across the country. Overdyed graphics and texture effects, such as a basketball that feels like a basketball, are some of the special fashion effects on the T-shirts in both adult and children's sizes. Kmart and Family Bargain Centers are among the discounters carrying the line.