Sunday, December 22
Lawrence Business Magazine LLC
Lawrence Business Magazine LLC
2013 Winter - Shop Lawrence

SPORTS RETAIL

By on 277 Comments
SPORTS RETAIL
| 2013 Winter | story by EMILY MULLIGAN | photos by STEVEN HERTZOG |

untitled

It is near impossible to find a retail outlet in Lawrence that doesn’t have some sort of KU memorabilia or sports-related items available for sale. Just as the University is part of the town, so is the KU sports culture part of the retail shopping experience.

KU memorabilia and sports retailers not only depend on the demand for KU-related purchases, but they also feel the effects of the KU athletes’ performances on the field.

“As goes KU, so goes Lawrence. If all those teams do well, it creates excitement and, in turn, a lot of income,” said commercial realtor Doug Brown.

Those wins are especially lucrative for anyone who sells crimson-and-blue items.

“All you have to do is look around town in gas stations, grocery stores, you name it. Everyone wants to put a Jayhawk on something and sell it,” said Ryan Owens, manager of Jock’s Nitch downtown.

When KU basketball teams, in particular, do not have the best seasons, that has a direct effect on retailers.

“If KU loses early, once they lose, the atmosphere of downtown changes,” said John Francis, owner of Francis Sporting Goods. “It takes people awhile to recover – there is not a lot of shopping to do after the end of the season. It’s like turning off a faucet.”

KU Memorabilia

Rarely do visitors come to Lawrence and leave without purchasing some type of KU memento.

“The number-one shopping experience for customers in Lawrence is going to be looking for KU merchandise. Game days are the biggest days, and it’s non-stop people from all over the country coming in,” Owens said.

untitled Although, as Owens says, KU shirts and hats are available in stores throughout the city, many out-of-towners and fans seek out KU specialty shops like Jock’s Nitch for their selection. Aside from the KU Bookstore, Jock’s Nitch is one of the most established KU specialty shops for licensed merchandise in Lawrence, having been in the same downtown location since 1991.

If an item is licensed, that means the design incorporates marks or insignias owned by KU, such as the Jayhawk or the “KU” in Trajan font that is used as a logo. Licensees must pay a royalty fee to KU, usually 10 percent, on the wholesale price of each item. Jock’s Nitch is different than many retailers that sell licensed KU merchandise, because it does not buy exclusively from other vendors.

“We pride ourselves that we’re licensed with KU, so we work with KU to develop our own designs and products that are only available in our store,” Owens said. “The market is always changing, but over the past several years, we’ve stayed consistent.”

For more than a decade, Jock’s Nitch offered shoes and other sporting goods in addition to the KU merchandise, but then space became an issue, and they needed to make a choice.

“Licensed goods have really exploded over the past 10 to 12 years, and our KU stuff started doing better and better, so we got rid of the shoes,” Owens said.

Jock’s Nitch does its printing in Lawrence and owns a print shop at its headquarters in Pittsburg, Kan., so it works to keep local vendors as much as possible.

“It’s important for us to stay local,” Owens said with a smile. “We went to KU, KU students work here, and we have regular customers around here. Everybody who walks in our store is a friend. If they’re wearing something from another Big 12 school, we let them know about it.”

GameDay Super Store on 23rd Street is newer to the KU merchandise scene. The store, which also sells non-KU customizable recreational sports uniforms under the GTM brand name, opened in 2009.

“As far as KU merchandise, we definitely have a big advantage because there are not a bunch of KU stores on 23rd Street. People can have front row parking and pop in quickly,” said Kyra Dreiling, director of retail. “We manufacture our own products, so we cut out the middle man and provide a custom KU collection at a variety of price points that is only available at that location.”

GameDay produces most of its products at its factory in Manhattan, Kan., and also has a “brother” factory in Guatemala for its largest orders.

“We are locally owned and independently operated, and customers appreciate that. We are not a big box store,” Dreiling said. “We hire KU students and graduates.”

KU sportswear designers are continually coming up with new looks for their shirts and hats. Owens and Dreiling highlighted a couple of trends ahead for their customers.

“For quite a few years, it was hoodie, hoodie, hoodie,” Owens said. “Now, it’s much more about ¼ zips and crew sweatshirts. Shirts are going baggier, to be paired with leggings or running tights.

The old-school Jayhawk logos are really popular on everything.”

untitled
Owens said the fabrics themselves were changing as well, going away from cotton and more toward blends that look vintage and feel softer.

“A trend in sportswear and KU merchandise is the sublimated product: instead of printing or embroidering the logo, they are fusing the ink design into the fabric. It lasts longer – it’s not going to crinkle or crackle over time,” Dreiling said.

Owens said the alternative uniforms that Adidas created for college basketball last year will be created again this year, which adidas also creates for fans. Dreiling said that neon pink, orange and yellow-colored KU gear will be back in the spring, as well.

“We have a loyal and enthusiastic fan base; they’re the ones that drive this business,” said Paul Vander Tuig, trademark licensing director for KU Athletics. “The fans keep the licensed product train rolling by asking for what they want – and the retailers work hard to get it.”

Sporting Goods

Not only do KU athletes inspire shoppers to outfit themselves in KU clothing, but they also inspire kids and adults to participate in sports.

“With Rock Chalk Park developing, I see the possibility for even more leagues and better, more organized activities for not only children but adults,” Brown said. “We could become an even more active place than we are.”

Even without Rock Chalk Park, sports activities for kids are rarely relegated to one season.

“More and more families are participating in sporting events all year ‘round. Now, they are doing two sports per season or doing both the school team and the club team. I don’t see that that’s going to be changing anytime soon,” said Dreiling of GameDay.

More participation means more of a need to purchase uniforms, warm-ups, socks and gym bags – all of which are available at local sporting goods stores.

Of course, to the dismay of local sporting goods stores, big-box store Dick’s Sporting Goods is slated to open in 2014 in the former Sears building at 28th and Iowa. So, the sporting goods marketplace will be expanding in line with Rock Chalk Park, as well.

Francis Sporting Goods has been in business in Lawrence since 1947 and has a retail store downtown and a custom team apparel and equipment business.

untitled
“Being in a college town helps us keep up-to-date. Most mom-and-pop stores in our business are smaller and not as progressive as we are,” Francis said. “When you have a town that embraces sports as Lawrence does, that definitely helps us out.”

Francis says that Francis Sporting Goods is going to consolidate its team business, which offices in a warehouse away from downtown, into its downtown location in anticipation of the effects of Dick’s coming to town.

“We’re not naïve; we know it’s going to affect us. We have to be realistic, but we have our niches and our core customers, so hopefully they’ll continue to shop local,” Francis said.

Francis has developed a more interactive web presence in the past two years, and the downtown store staff fulfills those orders, which come from across the U.S.

“We are strong with Adidas,” Francis said.

Francis Sporting Goods used to carry KU merchandise, but decided to fill its space with sporting goods and equipment – exactly the opposite of what Jock’s Nitch has done.

Although GTM Sportswear has been in the sportswear business for more than 20 years, it is a newer addition to the Lawrence sporting goods scene. The store, which also houses KU specialty store, GameDay, specializes in custom embellishment on team uniforms and warm-ups.

“Customers that are shopping at our Lawrence showroom will get to work with a rep who will work with them start to finish choosing products and creating the design, then following up with other options,” Dreiling said.

Dreiling says that because GameDay and GTM share the space, their customers can purchase a KU shirt alongside their team uniform or a set of warm-ups alongside their fan gear.

“Dick’s will be more a competitor for GameDay than GTM. Hopefully enough customers like shopping with the small businesses of the world and will continue to do so,” she said.

GameDay Super Store has a website for those farther-away customers seeking KU gear, but Dreiling said that their focus was on the brick-and-mortar presence in Lawrence and working for repeat customers.

Both Francis and GTM say that their busiest time of year is back-to-school time and the beginning of fall sports. Although they do see a spike in activity around the holidays and at the beginning of the summer, they spend most of the year preparing for August and September.

No matter what the date on the calendar, these retailers are always tuned in during KU basketball season, hoping for wins well into March.

“Business correlates directly with how well KU is doing in basketball. Final Fours and championships make our business for years,” Owens said. ■

Share.

Related Posts

277 Comments

  3. Gay porn on

    Having read this I thought it was extremely enlightening. I appreciate you finding the time and effort to put this informative article together. I once again find myself personally spending a lot of time both reading and posting comments. But so what, it was still worth it!|

  29. sex video on

    My brother suggested I might like this website. He was once totally right. This submit actually made my day. You can not imagine just how a lot time I had spent for this info! Thank you!|

  40. scam on

    Thanks for some other informative web site. Where else could I get that type of info written in such an ideal manner? I have a undertaking that I am just now operating on, and I have been on the glance out for such info.|

  42. 佐渡金銀山 on

    One factor you’ll want to watch out for should you ever travel to Malta is that should you plan to go to Mdina, you may have to know somebody who lives there and owns a car.

  43. escort services on

    When I initially commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get four emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that service? Many thanks!|

  44. Gay porn on

    Undeniably believe that which you said. Your favorite reason seemed to be on the web the simplest thing to be aware of. I say to you, I definitely get annoyed while people consider worries that they plainly don’t know about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top and defined out the whole thing without having side-effects , people could take a signal. Will probably be back to get more. Thanks|

  48. แทงบอล on

    Terrific work! This is the type of info that should be shared around the internet. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher! Come on over and visit my website . Thanks =)

  61. Converting VHS to Digital on

    Hello! I know this is kinda off topic but I was wondering which blog platform are you using for this website? I’m getting fed up of WordPress because I’ve had problems with hackers and I’m looking at alternatives for another platform. I would be great if you could point me in the direction of a good platform.

  68. Porn Movie on

    Hi, I believe your web site could be having browser compatibility issues. When I look at your site in Safari, it looks fine however when opening in IE, it has some overlapping issues. I merely wanted to provide you with a quick heads up! Besides that, excellent website!|

  95. Chain List on

    I needed to thank you for this fantastic read!! I certainly enjoyed every little bit of it. I have got you saved as a favorite to look at new things you post…

  97. 孤り 独り on

    New alternatives are opening for professionals in several verticals like accommodations, cruise firms, catering companies, occasion administration, and plenty of more.

  98. 同じ仲間同類のこと on

    Philadelphia on the Fly, printed in 2005, and Small Fry: The Lure of the Little, printed in 2009 comprise essays by Ron P. Swegman describing the experience of fly fishing alongside the city Schuylkill River in the twenty first century.

  107. lesbian video on

    I am extremely impressed with your writing skills and also with the layout on your blog. Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself? Anyway keep up the nice quality writing, it’s rare to see a nice blog like this one these days.|

  109. Buy viagra online on

    Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point. You clearly know what youre talking about, why waste your intelligence on just posting videos to your site when you could be giving us something enlightening to read?|

  117. Porn video on

    I have been browsing online more than 3 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It’s pretty worth enough for me. In my opinion, if all webmasters and bloggers made good content as you did, the net will be much more useful than ever before.|

  120. หวยออนไลน์ on

    Do you have a spam issue on this website; I also am a blogger, and I was wanting to know your situation; we have developed some nice practices and we are looking to trade techniques with other folks, why not shoot me an e-mail if interested.

  128. ufabet on

    With havin so much content and articles do you ever run into any problems of plagorism or copyright violation? My blog has a lot of unique content I’ve either written myself or outsourced but it looks like a lot of it is popping it up all over the web without my authorization. Do you know any methods to help reduce content from being ripped off? I’d certainly appreciate it.

  129. Porn video on

    Hi there, I think your blog might be having internet browser compatibility issues. When I take a look at your site in Safari, it looks fine however, when opening in IE, it has some overlapping issues. I merely wanted to provide you with a quick heads up! Apart from that, excellent site!|

  161. เว็บตรง 100 on

    Thanks for your tips about this blog. One particular thing I would like to say is the fact purchasing electronic devices items over the Internet is not something new. In truth, in the past decade alone, the marketplace for online electronic products has grown drastically. Today, you will discover practically any kind of electronic system and tools on the Internet, which include cameras and camcorders to computer spare parts and video games consoles.

  164. セックスビデオ on

    I don’t even know how I finished up here, but I believed this publish was once great. I do not recognize who you are but certainly you’re going to a famous blogger in the event you are not already. Cheers!|

  167. 白い犬を 撫でる 夢 on

    Sunil Chhetri was born on three August 1984 to Indian Gorkha father K. B. Chhetri, an officer within the Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers of the Indian Military, and Nepali mother Sushila Chhetri in Secunderabad, India.

  170. nec ネッツエスアイ株価 on

    On this photobook which can show a variety of wealthy emotions and visual enjoyable with Jung Kook’s thought, we get to see about eighty pages of images of highly effective, by no means-earlier than-seen facets of Jung Kook beautifully portrayed in colours purple, grey and black.

  174. オンラインデート on

    Have you ever thought about adding a little bit more than just your articles? I mean, what you say is valuable and everything. But think about if you added some great photos or videos to give your posts more, “pop”! Your content is excellent but with images and video clips, this blog could definitely be one of the greatest in its field. Great blog!|

  181. Sex video on

    I used to be suggested this blog by my cousin. I am not positive whether this submit is written by way of him as nobody else know such distinct approximately my trouble. You are incredible! Thank you!|

  184. dsfsdiuf678sdfbjsdf67 on

    Terrific article! This is the type of information that are meant to be shared around the net. Disgrace on the search engines for not positioning this submit higher! Come on over and discuss with my web site . Thank you =)|

  193. ufabet on

    I just like the helpful info you provide in your articles. I will bookmark your weblog and take a look at once more here regularly. I am reasonably certain I?ll be informed lots of new stuff right here! Good luck for the next!

  214. 文系男なんj on

    There have been instances when we must always have ripped out certain components of the Unreal Tournament code and started from scratch (AI, pathfinding, and sound propagation, for instance).

  219. 破傷風トキソイド 3回目 保険 on

    Horrified at the chaos he sees throughout him, he has concocted a plan to end the key conflict and restore order to the world – at his signal, you and your fellow augmented brokers, will emerge to cripple or destroy each of the historic and secret societies, in flip, clearing the way for a savior (Adam, after all) to take his rightful place as chief of all of the societies.

  221. ufabet on

    I have come across that nowadays, more and more people will be attracted to video cameras and the discipline of picture taking. However, being photographer, you should first spend so much time deciding the model of digicam to buy and also moving store to store just so you could potentially buy the cheapest camera of the trademark you have decided to pick. But it does not end there. You also have to contemplate whether you should buy a digital digital camera extended warranty. Thx for the good ideas I accumulated from your blog.

  229. nccm ファンド on

    The NAU training camp was named as one in every of the top five training camps within the NFL by Sports Illustrated, citing the cooler temperature, scenic space, and the likelihood for fans to get close to athletes as key points.

  244. chocolate chip cookie on

    Thanks for your posting. Another thing is that just being a photographer requires not only problem in capturing award-winning photographs but additionally hardships in establishing the best digital camera suited to your requirements and most especially issues in maintaining the caliber of your camera. It is very true and clear for those photographers that are into capturing a nature’s engaging scenes – the mountains, the actual forests, the wild and the seas. Going to these adventurous places surely requires a video camera that can surpass the wild’s tough conditions.

  247. how do you save half of an avocado on

    I do like the manner in which you have presented this specific challenge and it really does present me a lot of fodder for thought. However, from what precisely I have experienced, I just simply hope when the actual remarks pile on that men and women keep on point and not embark on a tirade of some other news du jour. Still, thank you for this superb piece and while I can not go along with it in totality, I value the perspective.

  255. /idgod.dev on

    Undeniably believe that that you stated. Your favourite reason appeared to be on the web the simplest factor to remember of. I say to you, I definitely get irked at the same time as other people consider concerns that they plainly don’t recognise about. You controlled to hit the nail upon the top and outlined out the whole thing without having side effect , folks can take a signal. Will likely be back to get more. Thank you|

  263. ストレス点数表 on

    Though often considered as a villainous “enforcer” of such power, Darth Vader has additionally been thought to be a tragic determine, a study in the corruption of a hero who loses sight of the better good and falls from grace out of fear and desperation.

  268. 信用金庫 投資 on

    The active downtown enterprise association sponsors an annual Iris Festival & Art Present in early Might, an annual Street Truthful in mid- to late May, and an annual Cranberry Festival in early October.

Leave A Reply

Contact to Listing Owner

Captcha Code