Impressions - Sports Fan Retailer - June 2015 - 10

STARTERS

Wilson Acquires Louisville Slugger

ilson Sporting Goods,
Chicago, recently acquired
the brand, sales and innovation rights to Louisville Slugger, Louisville,
Ky., from the bat manufacturer's parent
company, Hillerich & Bradsby (H&B).
"The decision to sell the Louisville Slugger brand was a difficult and serious one
to make," says John A. Hillerich IV, CEO
of H&B. "The Hillerich family, and those
closest to the brand, firmly believes that a
new business model is necessary to realize the enormous potential of this brand
in the future."
H&B now will become Wilson's exclusive partner for wooden bats, and will
continue to manufacture products at
H&B's downtown Louisville factory.

Wilson intends to grow the Louisville
Slugger brand abroad and domestically
using its marketing infrastructure and
global resources of parent company Amer
Sports Corp.'s R&D, sourcing and distribution departments.
"We are excited to welcome Louisville Slugger into the Wilson family,"
says Mike Dowse, president of Wilson
Sporting Goods, Co. "We believe Louisville Slugger will enrich our company
significantly, enhance our baseball and
softball product offering at all levels of
the game, and ensure we are delivering
only the best performance products to
athletes of every age."
For more information on the sale,
visit wilson.com. - J.B.

Louisville Slugger's iconic museum and
factory now will be run by Wilson Sporting Goods.

HanesBrands Acquires Knights Apparel

anesBrands, Winston-Salem,
N.C., has purchased Spartanburg, S.C.-based Knights Apparel, a seller of collegiate logo apparel.
Knights Apparel sells T-shirts, sweatshirts and other apparel representing 400
of the largest U.S. colleges and universities, and now will be coupled with Hanes'
Gear for Sports division, which currently
supplies licensed collegiate apparel.

"This is an exciting acquisition opportunity to leverage our existing Gear for
Sports licensed collegiate apparel business,
our expertise and size in the mass retail
channel, and our low-cost global supply
chain," says HanesBrands Chairman and
CEO Richard A. Noll. "Combining the two

companies is a great way to create value."
Knights Apparel, which will be sold to
Hanes by affiliates of Merit Capital Partners, is valued on an enterprise-value basis
at $200 million, and is expected to have
$180 million in sales in 2015. Hanes expects to reach $450 million in combined
annual sales.
For more information on the sale,
visit hanes.com. - J.B.

OYO Sports Releases Mini-Figures of Recent NFL Draftees
OYO Sports, Acton, Mass., which creates licensed, collectible building-block mini-ﬁgures of athletes, has launched ﬁgures of several recent NFL draftees such as Jameis Winston, Sammie Coates, Amari Cooper, Todd Gurley and more.
OYO currently is licensed with 48 Collegiate Licensing Co. (CLC) institutions and bowls, though it also
produces NFL, MLB, and NHL player mini-ﬁgures. The NFL player group rights are managed through OYO's
license with NFL Players Inc. (NFLPI), the licensing and marketing division of the NFL Players Association.
At the 2015 NFL Draft, OYO worked with the NFL to get pro team OYOs in the players' hands as they
walked off stage after being selected by NFL teams.
"OYO Sports recognizes the fan appeal of the NFL Draft," says Shari Fabiani, senior vice president
of product and marketing, OYO Sportstoys Inc. "We capitalize on the hot trends in the toy and sport
OYO Sports launched industries, making our newest release of Campus Legend mini-ﬁgures not only highly sought after,
building-block minibut also fun and entertaining for our fans."
ﬁgures of several reFor more information, visit oyosports.com. - J.B.
cent NFL draft picks.

10 June 2015

SportsFan Retailer

http://www.wilson.com http://www.hanes.com http://www.oyosports.com

Impressions - Sports Fan Retailer - June 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Impressions - Sports Fan Retailer - June 2015