BRANDWEEK's Terry Lefton attended the NSGA show in
Chicago and filed the following report:
WOMEN'S DAY: Champion and Spalding "report brisk sales"
of WNBA licensed apparel and the signature Spalding ball,
"while core NBA apparel sales are flat at best." Lefton:
"Helping to boost revenues next season will be two hot
categories: kids' apparel and licensed domestic products.
... The league will also expand on court beyond longtime NBA
and current WNBA uniform and warmup supplier Champion." NBA
CMO Rick Welts, on WNBA expansion: "I didn't think we would
be talking about this so early, but there's a real
likelihood we will go up from eight teams next year."
GET TOUGH: Logo Athletic will debut a new ad featuring
its NFL endorsers during the second quarter of the opening
ABC "Monday Night Football" game -- the first time Logo has
purchased time on "MNF." Logo has also bought time on ESPN,
Turner, SportsChannel and "various spot markets." Its third
and fourth quarter media spending is around $3.5-4M.
SOLE MEN: PA-based KPR Sports will unveil a $70
signature shoe for Karl Malone around its Apex brand. It
will be introduced "with limited distribution in Utah in
November, with a nationwide intro in January." KPR "expects
to sign a few more veteran NBA players" for its Apex
brand....Reebok will use its DMX technology in the next
version of the Allen Iverson signature shoe, set for a
November launch. Lefton: "Look for Reebok to sign one or
more rookies to assemble a posse of 'speed players' that
already includes Iverson, Kenny Anderson and Nick Van Exel."
NFL NEWS: NFL's VP/Licensing Jim Connelly is predicting
a "low double-digit sales increase this season, with kids
and domestics especially strong." But Lefton writes there
is an "embarrassment of riches at the top," with the NFL's
top 10 teams "accounting for better than 80% of sales, the
most disproportionate share ever" (BRANDWEEK, 7/21 issue).
