For last night's game, the Bucks unveiled a shirt that shows Antetokounmpo's "mean mug" facebucks
The Bucks finished the NBA regular season as the league's top seed while playing in the new Fiserv Forum, and the team's Pro Shop year-to-date sales "have increased by 30% in the fiscal year that ends in June," according to Sarah Hauer of the MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL. The Bucks Pro Shop sells apparel at four locations in Fiserv Forum, as well as at 10 additional off-site locations and online. Bucks Retail Dir Chrysta Jorgensen said that team gear with F Giannis Antetokounmpo's name or likeness "makes up about half of the top-10 selling items" and that G Eric Bledsoe is the "second most popular player." Ahead of the Bucks' first playoff game last Sunday, the store at Fiserv Forum "rolled out a new display of gear with T-shirts, hats, cups and coozies." Prices for playoff apparel range from a $20 T-shirt to a $70 Nike jacket. Jorgensen said that new gear "will be dropping for sure every round, if not every game." For Pistons-Bucks Game 2 last night, a "new T-shirt that shows Antetokounmpo's signature 'mean mug' look was unveiled." The team also released a "new poster designed by a Chicago artist" that features the matchup against the Pistons (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 4/18).
SEIZING THE MOMENT: In Columbus, Megan Henry notes the Ohio Blue Line store at Nationwide Arena was "buzzing with excitement Tuesday" before the Blue Jackets swept the Lightning in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and now fans are "grabbing T-shirts, jerseys, caps and pucks in stores across town." A store representative said that Ohio Blue Line sales "more than doubled Sunday compared to a regular-season home game." Columbus-based T-shirt retailer Homage also "saw sales of Blue Jackets merchandise pop when the playoffs started." After Tuesday night’s victory, Homage "introduced a special shirt emblazoned with the phrase 'Jackets find a way'" (COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 4/18).
