Saints Hot Market Near Same Level As Steelers Saw Last Year

By Terry Lefton, Editor-At-Large

Sales Of Saints Merchandise Already Exceeding Projections

Heading into Super Bowl XLIV, every licensing industry exec was a fan of the Saints because the team’s "if win" orders were outpacing the Colts by four to one. Still, there were some questions about how much sales would spike with a Saints title. Four days after the Saints won their first NFL championship, those questions have been answered. In the early going, New Orleans’ Super Bowl championship licensed merchandise sales are at the same level achieved by the Steelers after their triumph in Super Bowl XLIII last year. NFL VP/Consumer Products Leo Kane said he anticipated a good hot market for the Saints, but "early indications are already exceeding” projections. “You’ve got the pent-up demand of the die-hard Saints fans that have waited more than 40 years, and you have all those fans that were displaced by Katrina,” he said. “But the deciding factor may be all those NFL fans that have adopted the Saints as their second-favorite team because they are a great feel-good story." Kane is hopeful the boost in Saints sales will last through the holiday shopping season. Licensees are not as sanguine, but are still rushing to fill demand. "Saints championship merchandise is tracking very well for us, and it should get another nice bump from Mardi Gras next week," said David Baxter, president of the adidas Group Sports Licensed Division, which encompasses both the adidas and Reebok brands, which has the lead NFL apparel license. "The real question is how long the tail will be on this and how much counterfeiting impacts us, because we have seen a fair amount of that already in New Orleans."

LOOKING LIKE A BIG HOT MARKET: GSI Commerce VP/Licensed E-Commerce Steve Bontempo said this championship should end up as the biggest hot market for NFLShop.com since GSI started running the e-commerce site in ‘06. He said sales were outpacing the Steelers from last year by 80%. NFLShop.com is following up its typical bundled offerings -- like a championship cap, T-shirt, DVD and towel for around $90 -- with an array of championship Saints goods, and more than 300 items will be on sale by the end of the week. The top selling championship items on NFLShop.com early on were typical: caps, T-shirts, DVDs, and the on-field “Trophy Towel” from McArthur Towel & Sports, now in its in second year. However, a women’s championship T-shirt being the fifth-largest seller was a surprise. A leading question about a Saints win was how national the team’s appeal would be. Bontempo yesterday said that 37% of orders were from Louisiana, a state not usually in the top 25; 18% of NFLShop.com’s orders were from Texas and Mississippi; while 45% of sales followed a typical pattern for the site. "That’s like any other day, so there has been some national adoption," Bontempo said.