Impressions - Team & Spirit Apparel - Spring 2016 - 8

* The digi-camo
pattern on this
baseball shirt was
roller-printed on rollgoods, which is why
it can be decorated
(either by screen
printing or heat
applied graphics),
helping to alleviate
the dye-migration
you get when trying
to decorate a garment that has a sublimated pattern on
it. Image courtesy of
Augusta Sportswear.

FINDING THE BUSINESS
I still believe the No. 1 way to break into
the team/league business is by either owning or working for a local screen-printing
or embroidery business. When their kids
get involved in local sports, these workers and business owners fi nd that they
spend a large percentage of their time
at the park anyway, so why not combine
the two? However, all the other ways of
fi nding the business have undergone a
transition during that time. My boss and
I often discuss that our kids most likely,
and our grandkids most defi nitely, will
not purchase things in the same way as
we did. The same is true in how you will
fi nd the business if it is not through your
kids' participation.
Technology and social media defi nitely
have changed how we fi nd things. Th is
was evidenced by somethign that happened when I began writing this article.
My wife interrupted me to ask where her
daughter should enroll our 4-year-old
granddaughter in T-ball. I quickly went
to Google, typed in "T-ball in Pleasant
Ridge" and in seconds told her the website
to go to for the information.
I was actually surprised that she even
came to us for this information, as I'm
sure her siblings would likely have put
out a quick message on one of the social
media websites (Facebook or Twitter come
to mind) and would have gotten back with
her with multiple options just as quickly.
8 * Spring 2016

CHANGES TO THE
BUSINESS ITSELF
The team/league business itself has
undergone a dramatic transformation
since 2008. While there have been "select"
(aka "travel") athletic programs for elite
athletes all the way back to the 1970s, and
probably even further back, for the past several years there has been a major exodus of
kids from the local recreational leagues as
they moved into "select" sports programs.
The allure of playing select sports has led
many parents with the financial resources
to do so to start their own select teams,
especially if their children were unable to
successfully make one of the traditional
teams.
I still play baseball (yes, baseball, not
softball). There often are select teams
playing on the fields behind us, and my
teammates and I often discuss just how
watered down the competition has become.
This change has impacted the business in
multiple ways:
1. As more kids exit recreational leagues
to participate in select programs, the level
of play, and in some cases the number of
participants, has diminished to the point
that many leagues are finding it tough to
continue to exist. It takes a certain level of
finances and volunteer personnel (coaches,
administrators etc.) for a league to be successful, so if those means are drastically cut
it makes it tough for the league to survive.
2. When I grew up and even when I

coached our kids 20-25 years ago, good
athletes played a minimum of two-three
sports, with many of them playing in even
more. In the world of select sports, kids are
asked at an early age - often by the time
a kid is 10-12 years old - to pick the sport
they want to participate in at this elite level.
This includes dropping all other sports to
concentrate on their elite-level sport yearround. This strategy had a negative impact
on the business side of sports. Every time
a kid drops a sport to concentrate on a different one, there is one less kid playing that
dropped sport. Multiply that by all the kids
participating in select programs in all the
communities across the country, and now
you have fewer kids participating in each
sport. There is little crossover these days.
3. In 2008, I discussed how select sports
and recreational sports were two completely different businesses. The select side
is more about the look and the recreational
side is more about the costs (lower being
better). While that is still somewhat true,
recreational leagues have found themselves needing to offer nicer uniforms just
to keep kids interested and slow the exodus
to select programs.

UNIFORM CHANGES
Gone are the days where the league
comes to you (or you go to them) and they say
they want that same jersey and hat that they
have been purchasing from you for the past
five to 10 years. I can remember when almost
Impressions - Team & Spirit Apparel - Spring 2016

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