Super Bowl Merchandise Selling At Record Pace Following Giants Victory

The NFL indicated that retail sales of licensed Super Bowl XLVI merchandise "could exceed $200 million this season," and might "reach a record, as local stores struggle to keep up with demand following the Giants' win Sunday," according to Keiko Morris of NEWSDAY. NFL Senior VP/Consumer Products Leo Kane said, "We had a strong playoff, and the Indianapolis market responded bigger than we've ever seen. And the biggest market in the country won the Super Bowl, so that has the makings of being the biggest ever." Morris notes Long Island retailers "described the local response as 'phenomenal.'" The Sports Authority in Bohemia "has sold out of $30 Giants Super Bowl championship caps three times since the victory." Modell's Sporting Goods said that at its stores on Long Island and throughout the New York metro area, "sales of Super Bowl merchandise have been building since the Giants' NFC Championship Game win two weeks ago" (NEWSDAY, 2/7). In New York, Michael Randall notes long- and short-sleeved championship T-shirts "like those worn by Giants players in the locker room after the game were in demand." Hats were the "most popular souvenirs -- specifically, two baseball-style caps: gray ones celebrating the latest championship, and a blue model hailing the Giants as four-time Super Bowl winners" (Middletown TIMES HERALD-RECORD, 2/7). In New Jersey, Charles Webster reports the Modell's store in Brick, N.J., had "reopened at 10 p.m. Sunday following the Giants' fourth Super Bowl victory." It stayed open "until 2 a.m. Monday, and opened its doors again at 7 a.m." (ASBURY PARK PRESS, 2/7).

BUSIER THAN BLACK FRIDAY: Elizabeth Kreher, the Soft-Line Manager at the Dick's Sporting Goods in East Brunswick, N.J., yesterday said, "Everything we had last night sold out. It's like Black Friday, Memorial Day and Father's Day rolled into one." She added that the Super Bowl championship caps "are the most popular item." The store by yesterday afternoon "had received two more shipments of Giants Super Bowl merchandise, and a few more shipments were expected later in the day" (MYCENTRALJERSEY.com, 2/6). In Connecticut, Vinti Singh cites an employee at the Dick's Sporting Goods location in Danbury as saying the store "got its Giants championship clothing about three days before the Super Bowl." Dick's Senior Community Marketing Manager for the New York metro area Jerry Copsinis said, "We'll be getting shipments really every day for the next couple of weeks." A Modell's employee in Stamford, Connecticut said that people "crowded" in the store when shipments were expected to come in yesterday. Although Modell's was "sold out of hats by midday Monday, they had plenty of other merchandise" (CONNECTICUT POST, 2/7).