Survey: Retired NFLers Suffer Ongoing Pain Posey Inks Deal With BodyArmor SuperDrink USA Today Expands Ad Meter Beyond SB Names & Faces Will Retirement Affect Beckham's Brand Appeal? Michigan: No Plans For Alternate Unis In '13 EA, Amazon Team On "Madden" Promo NBC Already 75% Sold Out For Sochi Games Mayweather Tops SI's Fortunate 50 List Record Profits Let Packers Focus On Football
Upcoming Conferences and Events
SBD/January 4, 2013/Marketing and Sponsorship
New Era President Pete Augustine Discusses NFL Headgear Deal One Year In
Published January 4, 2013
Augustine says New Era is focused on adding mall-based retail locations
Q: You look in the crowd during an NFL game, and you look on the field, and that hat hasn’t really been an essential part of game day. Have things changed?
Augustine: The numbers on the business before us suggested there wasn’t much of a business. But we saw that as an opportunity. When we were talking with the NFL, they told us that most players threw their caps into the stands after every game and we were pretty sure the guys weren’t going to throw our caps out. ... There were a lot of guys who weren’t sure a fitted cap was them (that were) wearing it by the end of the season. Going into the season we felt like if 15 players per game wore a hat on the sidelines we’d be happy. And I think we’re at double that.
Q: I’ve seen a lot of the guys wearing the knit hats and obviously fans have caught on, too.
Augustine: It will be a 1 million program for us and it’s primarily fueled by the NFL. What surprises us is that none of the on-field hat products before we came in had any performance fabric in it.
Q: Any issues with the players?
Augustine: We’re happy that a guy like Tom Brady is wearing our product. He used to black out the Reebok logo on the hat, and Reebok was apparently fine with that. We made sure coming in that the NFL supported us here.
Q: You have 14 stores, which is an interesting strategy in the e-commerce world we live in. I was surprised to hear the goal is to get to 100 worldwide. Why are you guys doing this?
Augustine: We look at it as an opportunity to tell a bigger brand story. We’ll put more in mall-based stores this year, but it really gives us a chance to celebrate movie launches and broaden out our product testing (ESPN.com, 1/2).
