The Dodgers enter play Friday with a 9.5 game lead in the NL West following a recent historic winning stretch, and Dodgers fans are “generating extra and unexpected sales business for Southland restaurants, sports bars and apparel shops,” according to Paresh Dave of the L.A. TIMES. L.A.-area sporting goods store Bling Circus Owner Coby Goodman said, “Demand just shot through the roof. We started calling vendors, 'Anything you've got. Send it. Whatever it is.'” Dave reports Bling Circus “sold about three to four Dodgers hats a day in early June, when the Dodgers looked awful and were in last place.” However, a month later, the Dodgers had “rocketed up the standings and Bling started selling 15 to 20 hats a day.” Vintage Brooklyn Dodgers merchandise has been “particularly in demand.” A handful of other apparel shops reported that anything with RF Yasiel Puig's name on it “has been swept off racks as soon as it arrives.” Official Dodgers stores in June said that Puig jerseys were “selling faster than anything else in the stores' history.” California-based retailer Fanzz Sports Assistant Manager William Galdamez said that Dodgers caps “were the chain's top-selling head wear.” He said that his store is “planning to order several dozen more jerseys and hats than usual" to meet demand. Meanwhile, Galdamez’ shop “hasn't had to order any batches of Angels merchandise since the season started” (L.A. TIMES, 8/23).
GOING TO THE LIBRARY: The MLBPA and photo partner Getty Images recently shot Puig and P Hyun-Jin Ryu as part of their existing and now-growing photo library project. Formed two years ago, the union's stock photo library now includes more than 150,000 images and is used for a variety of endorsement, editorial, licensing and personal purposes. "It was a sort of a slow start where we were encouraging agents at first to make their players available for photo shoots. Now it's flipped around, and they're very often coming to us with ideas. The core mission is to offer a one-stop solution," said MLBPA Dir of Licensing & Business Development Evan Kaplan. Both Puig and Ryu have been in demand among companies for endorsements; Puig recently aligned with Rudy Project sunglasses, and Ryu earlier this year inked with Korea-based Hanmi Bank (Eric Fisher, Staff Writer).
