49ers fever "has gripped the Bay Area, and merchants are poised to cash in" on the team's first Super Bowl appearance in 18 years, according to a front-page piece by Heather Somerville of the SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS. Niners gear was a "hot seller even before Sunday's NFC Championship victory," as S.F. was the "top-selling NFL team on Fanatics.com ... both last week and for the month of January." Fanatics.com spokesperson Mark Vasquez said that team sales are "up 240 percent compared with January of last year." Meanwhile, NFL Corporate Communications Manager Joanna Hunter said that on NFLShop.com, the team's sales "were up 85 percent from last year going into the playoffs." Sales last week "shot up nearly 70 percent compared with the same week a year ago." Somerville noted The Sports Authority yesterday "opened an hour early" to celebrate the NFC Championship. S.F.-based The Sports Authority Sales Manager David Vannatta said that the store has been "sold out of all" QB Colin Kaepernick merchandise "for days." NFLShop.com sold out of Kaepernick's jersey "last week and had to scramble to restock." Hunter said that the jersey is the "hottest-selling in the NFL, and Kaepernick accounted for 35 percent of the team's total merchandise sales last week." But Somerville notes the "surge in 49ers merchandise sales hasn't matched the shopping craze that swept the Bay Area when the Giants advanced to and then won the World Series" (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 1/22).
ALL IN THE FAMILY: ESPN.com's Darren Rovell wrote he does not expect 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh and Ravens coach John Harbaugh to "be doing much in the way of cashing in off the Super Bowl matchup." If there is an "opportunity for a company to associate itself with the brotherly battle, it might be through their mother, Jackie." If Jackie Harbaugh is "open to doing deals, natural partnerships would be the standard products that mothers buy for their sons" (ESPN.com, 1/21).
