Marketplace Round-Up
USA TODAY’s Michael McCarthy reports that with the new dress code, Dockers is
offering to “outfit all 450 NBA players from head to toe” this season for an estimated
$432,000. The company would provide each player with five pairs of pants ($55
each), 10 shirts ($35 each), two pairs of shoes ($65 each), nine pairs of socks
($30), one reversible belt ($25) and one blazer ($150). Also, Joseph Abboud
President & CEO Marty Staff said that the company is “in negotiations to outfit
up to 100 NBA players.” McCarthy notes Joseph Abboud has an endorsement deal with
Knicks G Stephon Marbury to “provide a new suit for all 82 games this season.”
In return, Marbury appears in the designer’s ads (USA TODAY, 11/15).
ROUGH SAILING: In Baltimore, Candus Thomson reports that less than 48 hours
after the start of the Volvo Ocean Race, three of the seven yachts are “in Portuguese
ports to repair damage from heavy seas and winds in excess of 35 knots.” Damage
may mean that the two “highest-profile boats — the Disney-backed Pirates
of the Caribbean and Movistar, the Spanish entry — will arrive in Cape Town,
South Africa, the first-leg finish line, in cargo containers rather than under
sail.” For the quadrennial race, which is in the final year of its sponsorship
deal with Volvo, “the damage to the relatively untested boats and the reduced
field do not bode well for its future” (Baltimore SUN, 11/15).
NAMES & FACES: In this week’s SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, Terry Lefton reports
ABC’s John Madden is “next in line to do a Verizon television ad, a la [Cowboys
Owner] Jerry Jones, as the telecom brand seeks to horn in on the NFL equity that
Sprint is paying huge dollars for” (SBJ,
11/14 issue)....NBC’s Jay Leno, on Nike deciding to promote Lakers G Kobe
Bryant again: “They’re bringing him back to endorse a new line of Kobe shoes.
They don’t make you jump higher, but if you’re charged with a crime, they can
help you walk” (“The Tonight Show,” 11/14)....Sports-Stuff.com has acquired
the wireless rights to Colts RB Edgerrin James for the next two years. The company
will produce voice ringtones and wireless Web pages dedicated to James (Sports-Stuff.com).
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