MLB saw record sales at its 35,000-square-foot merchandise shop within the All-Star Game FanFest at the San Diego Convention Center. The league reported that its MLB.com Shop broke previous sales records at the '07 FanFest in S.F. and '08 in N.Y. Sales were up 36% from last year’s FanFest shop in Cincinnati. The record was not unexpected, as MLB’s leading apparel licenses, New Era for caps and Majestic for jerseys, were chasing incremental business beyond their original orders for weeks before the ASG. With plenty of retail space to work with, many MLB licensees were merchandising well beyond prior years, including DJs, an appearance by R2D2 to push Star Wars/MLB cross-licensed products, artists doing customized takes on products and MLB player appearances. “Believe it or not, we never even had player appearances before, because of space considerations,’’ said Aramark Sports & Entertainment President Carl Mittleman, whose company operated the FanFest store for the 18th consecutive year. “When you get that kind of merchandising support, you see these kind of results" (Terry Lefton, Editor-at-Large). ESPN.com's Darren Rovell noted the sales record was fueled by the demand for "retro brown-and-gold batting practice jerseys and hats." So many fans wanted a jersey of Padres 1B Wil Myers "that Majestic had to fly in more No. 4s in the suitcases of their arriving executives." MLB VP/Consumer Products Adam Blinderman: "We candidly didn't think sales would be like this" (ESPN.com, 7/13).
