Naming rights weren’t invented when New Era President and CEO Chris Koch’s great-grandfather borrowed $5,000 in 1920 to start the cap company. Nonetheless, the Buffalo Bills open their home schedule Thursday in a stadium rechristened as New Era Field. As Koch looks to expand New Era’s apparel side, he’s hopeful the title sponsorship deal will elevate the brand — and maybe help sell a few more licensed caps as well.
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We are in 85 countries and it’s already given us more presence there. When you talk to people about Buffalo, N.Y., many miss the Buffalo part and assume we’re close to New York City, which is more than 300 miles away. So it’s a way to underscore our hometown. For that and so many reasons, Paul McAdam [executive vice president, North America] said to me, ‘It certainly isn’t in the budget, but it makes so much sense, we’re going to figure out how to pay for it.’”
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Photo by: AP IMAGES
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On naming rights directly affecting sales: I’m not exactly sure it will sell more caps. It’s definitely more of a brand play, and we’ll be measuring brand recognition before and after. Overall, it gives us a bigger national presence and that puts our brand at a different level.
A hometown play: We’d talked about [naming rights] as far back as when Ralph Wilson was alive [he died in March 2014], but it was a more casual conversation. … Recently, the more [Bills owner] Terry Pegula and I talked, the more it made sense. We’ve had such a long relationship with the Bills, and we share a lot of the same values.
On the first game at New Era Field: The Bills are playing their home opener on national TV against the New York Jets, and you throw on top Color Rush Night for the NFL and Bruce Smith being honored at halftime, it’s going to be pretty emotional for me.
On the troubled sporting goods retail landscape: We felt the same thing a lot of people did this year when [The Sports Authority] went under, but we’re making that volume back up at places like Dick’s. Every one of our top 27 accounts is up. … It’s a tougher business now, because it means more smaller orders and, of course, every retailer wants their order faster, but we have still been growing our business. … E-com is pushing that to some extent, but as a consumer I want something now and I want it unique and fast.
On New Era’s own retail strategy: We have close to 100 of our own stores, with close to 40 stand-alone stores in Korea. Domestically, we’re taking a hard look at it and we will end up with five really high-end New Era brand experience stores in New York, L.A., Toronto, New Orleans and the home store in Buffalo. … It really is about having a good brand experience in those locations more than selling loads of caps.
