Starter Chair David Beckerman not only founded a company
that has grown to $365M is sales, but he also propelled what had
been a "rather sleepy industry" into a $12B retail business,
according to Terry Lefton of BRANDWEEK. But "as happens with
pioneers," his success has attracted enough competition that when
the NFL compiles royalty figures at the end of its fiscal year in
March, Starter's top spot "could be threatened for the first time
in memory." But, Lefton notes, "credit Beckerman with creating
an industry within an industry." Former MLB Properties President
Rick White: "David's genius was that he was the first person to
understand how dynamic sports brands are. ... Before Beckerman,
no one in the licensing business thought to put their own logo on
the outside of their garments. He created authentics and he
hitchhiked on the power of those logos to build his own brand."
Beckerman's success in growing the category eventually attracted
Reebok and Nike, and their "massive" marketing budgets.
Beckerman: "The No. 1 thing as it relates to licensing is that
this is our business full-time. ... They [Nike and Reebok] are in
part-time. ... They also don't have a broad portfolio of licenses
across all the leagues" (BRANDWEEK, 9/9 issue).
