MLB has "licensed the rights to all 30 team images to Ramp Sports, a small but upper-end ski and snowboard maker, which hopes to turn the ski slopes into a place where baseball enthusiasts can strut their team spirit in the off season," according to Bruce Horovitz of USA TODAY. MLB VP/Licensing Steve Armus said, "Baseball is a lot more than what you see on the field. We're always looking for new ways to accommodate fans in what they're doing off the field." Team-branded skis "start at $649 (add another $200 for bindings and poles) and the snowboards start at $549 (add another $100 for bindings)." Armus: "We're always looking for the things that are different -- but obvious -- and this is one of them." Until now, skis and snowboards with customized designs "have been almost impossible to come by because the manufacturing process was done on big presses which required lots of orders to be profitable." But with "new technologies that don't use the presses, the order sizes can be much smaller." Ramp President & Founder Mike Kilchenstein said that he "approached MLB -- and immediately got a thumbs-up." He added that he also approached the NFL, which "has not yet responded." Kilchenstein said that he "only expects to sell about a dozen pair of skis and boards per team" this year. But he "anticipates selling upwards of 500 per team" within five years. He added that the company is "even looking into making 'special edition' World Series skis and board designs" (USA TODAY, 10/18).
