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Copyright 2012 SportsOneSource, LLC. All rights reserved. The opinions expressed by writers and contributors to TEAM BUSINESS DIGITAL are not necessarily those of the editors or publishers. TEAM BUSINESS DIGITAL is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or artwork. Articles appearing in TEAM BUSINESS DIGITAL may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express permission of the publisher. TEAM BUSINESS DIGITAL is published monthly by SportsOneSource, LLC, 2151 Hawkins Street, Suite 200, Charlotte, NC 28203; 704.987.3450. Send address changes to TEAM BUSINESS DIGITAL , 2151 Hawkins Street, Suite 200, Charlotte, NC 28203; 704.987.3450
August 2012 DIGITAL
ON THE COVERPhoto courtesy of LIDS Team Sports and Nike
NEWS
4 Authentic BrAnds Completes Prince Sports Acquisition 4 Bsn sports Acquires Holiday Sporting Goods; Increases Its Management Team 5 olympics Boost for Adidas, Nike Wins Social Draw 5 physicAl educAtion progrAm Grants for 2012 Announced
DEPARTMENTS
14 cAlendAr
FEATURES
6 sgB 40 under 40 2012 This Year Marked the Fifth Annual Celebration of the 40 Under 40 Awards 8 lids teAm sports outgroWs the competition - In the Team Business, Few Operations Have Grown As Rapidly and Experienced as much Success As LIDS Team Sports over the Past Several Years
Photo courtesy of LIDS Team Sports and Nike
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NEWS
Authentic Brands Group officially acquired the Prince brand name. ABG, which al-ready owns TapouT, Sportcraft and Silver Star Casting Company, said its objective is to maintain Prince Sports' historical reign in the tennis world while expanding into new categories.
At the core of their global strategy are three operating partnerships tasked with managing and expanding the Prince brand. Through its wholly owned affiliate Prince Global Sports, Active Brands Com-pany (ABC) is the exclusive partner for Prince throughout the world with the ex-ception of Asia. Prince Global Sports will primarily be managing the Prince, Ektelon, Viking brands and related businesses out of facilities in New Jersey, London, France and Taiwan. Globeride, Inc., an Asia-based company, becomes ABG's partner to op-erate Prince throughout Japan.
"Prince has a rich history of providing exceptional products to the performance sports market," says Jamie Salter, CEO of ABG. "We are committed to this fantas-tic brand and support our operating part-ners in continuing the tradition so many have come to expect from Prince."
BSN Sports, Inc. announced it acquired the assets of Holiday Sporting Goods, located in New Iberia, LA. Holiday brings 30 years of market experience serving school and team customers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida. The Holiday team will comple-ment BSN’s growing footprint in the southern United States under the direction of Michael Caravati, VP South Division.
“We welcome Danny Faucheaux and his team of talented salespeople to the BSN family", stated Adam Blumenfeld, chairman and CEO of BSN Sports. “Our most valu-able asset at BSN Sports is our people. We are thrilled to welcome Danny and his team to BSN Sports, and look forward to building upon the platform they are creating in the South."
The Holiday transaction marks BSN Sports’ fourth acquisition in the last 12 months. In April, it acquired Ken-Tenn Sports, Inc. of Martin, TN.
The company stated it continues to pursue a number of strategic acquisitions, joint ventures and partnerships to further its reach into the Team sporting goods market. As was previously announced, Tevis Martin and Bob Dickman lead BSN's corporate development efforts and interested parties should contact them if they have an inter-est in joining BSN Sports.
BSN Sports also announced the addition of three new senior managers in strategic locations. Matt D’Orazio, two-time former Arena Football League MVP, will be manag-ing its Columbus Ohio sales operation and expansion. Jim Bistrow was appointed director of sales for the State of Florida. George Jones, based out of Atlanta, joined BSN as Southeastern director of sales support and operations.
“We are focused on attracting high-level management talent as we continue to bol-ster our infrastructure to support scalable growth,” said Blumenfeld. “These three gentlemen, along with our existing staff of highly talented regional and executive sales managers, make up what we believe is the strongest management group in the team sporting-goods industry."
BSN Sports Acquires Holiday Sporting Goods; Increases Its Management Team
Authentic Brands Completes Prince Sports Acquisition
The Bryan Brothers showing off Olympic Gold after winning the Men’s Doubles Cham-pions at the London 2012 Games with their custom Prince Tennis racquet bags.
SPORTSONESOURCE.COM 5
for us to achieve market leadership in the UK by 2015."As reported, on a global level, Adidas Group sales rose 11 percent
on a currency-neutral basis or 16 percent in euro terms to €7.3 billion for the first half of 2012.
As Official Sportswear Partner of London 2012, Adidas outfit-ted more than 80,000 Games Makers and supplied kits for 3,000 athletes competing in 25 out of the 26 Olympic Sports.
Nonetheless, even though Adidas was the sponsor of the Games, Nike topped Socialbakers’ CheerMeter rankings for sporting social engagement during the London Olympics. From July 27 to August 2, Nike’s Facebook fan base grew by 166,718 versus a little over 80,000 new fans for Adidas over the same period. Nike dominated the Twittersphere too, with over 16,020 tweets associating the brand with the word Olympics – 6,725 more than Adidas.
Nike was especially visible around London during the Olympics with its “Find Greatness” campaign that celebrated everyday ath-letes. In what some criticized as “ambush marketing” tactics, Nike created a strategy that focused on everyday athletes in "London" cities all over the world. Nike launched the campaign in 25 countries alongside the 2012 London Olympics. Locations of the campaign included East London, South Africa; London, Ohio and Little London, Jamaica. Nike also bought hundreds of billboards around the city and on the tube featuring the hashtag ‘#findgreatness.’
Olympics Boost for Adidas, Nike Wins Social Draw
The U.S. Department of Education released names for the fis-cal year 2012 Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP) grant recipients, the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA) announced.
The Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP) Bill, one of SGMA’s top legislative priorities, funds a competitive grant pro-gram to give school districts and community-based organizations resources to provide students with high quality and innovative physical education.
According to SGMA, PEP has provided almost $80 million in funding directly to local school districts and community-based or-ganizations such as the YMCA. PEP funds are used to purchase fitness and sports equipment and to train PE teachers in new methods of physical education. The allocation of the grants is a victory for SGMA and its member companies after several years of extensive lobbying and awareness efforts, such as National Health Through Fitness Day.
“When we take our resources and invest in fitness and sports, it will provide solid, tangible returns through healthier students who perform at higher levels in the classroom,” said SGMA chairman Larry Franklin (president, Franklin Sports, Stoughton, MA). “Our industry and our education colleagues need to keep our legisla-tors and policy makers behind this effort. The ongoing, annual message that SGMA, its member companies, and celebrity ath-letes bring to Congress through SGMA’s National Health Through Fitness Day each March continues to resonate.” National Health
Through Fitness Day is SGMA's signature event that promotes policies that will increase participation in sports and fitness activi-ties to improve healthy and active lifestyles.
More than $27 million in new PEP grants will be distributed to 56 school districts and organizations nationwide, with the av-erage new PEP grant approximately $482,000 for training and equipment. About $51 million--the remaining balance--will be used to fund second and third years of PEP grants from 2010 and 2011. Importantly, grant recipients also must offer instruction in nutrition and healthy eating habits.
PEP began in 2001 with $5 million in federal funding. The pro-gram has grown due to its success, realizing funding of $50 million in 2002, $60 million in 2003, $69 million in 2004, $73 million in 2005 through 2007, $75 million in 2008, $78 million in 2009, and $79 million in 2010 through 2012.
More than 1,000 PEP grants have been awarded, providing funds for hundreds of thousands of children to get quality physi-cal education. Funds have gone toward the purchase of every-thing from in-line skates, climbing walls, kayaks, tennis rackets, treadmills, fitness assessment computers and other items.
“The funding from PEP is a tremendous boost to the national movement focused on getting more people active, especially in the school environment,” SGMA board member Jim Baugh said. “As school budgets are squeezed, this PEP funding is a vital element in the ongoing effort of encouraging innovative physical educa-tion programs around the country.”
Physical Education Program Grants for 2012 Announced
Adidas said sales in the UK for the Adidas brand were up 24 percent currency-neutral for the first half of 2012, bolstered by demand for Olympic and Team GB products. Olympic license product sales in the UK were up 250 percent compared to Beijing 2008, Adidas noted.
"Our presence in and around the Olympic Games was fantas-tic," said Herbert Hainer, CEO of the Adidas, in a statement. "It translates into record Olympic merchandise sales and a record year for the Adidas Group in the UK. This clearly sets the stage
London 2012 Olympics: Is Nike Beating Adidas? Click on play icon to view video
6 2012 TEAM BUSINESS DIGITAL
ndustry leaders, SportsOneSource staff, 40 Under 40 alumni and inductees
gathered in downtown Salt Lake City on Friday, August 3 during the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market tradeshow to induct and celebrate this year’s SGB 40 Under 40 award honorees.
This year marked the fifth annual celebra-tion of the 40 Under 40 Awards and brought a number of past honorees to the event to celebrate with this year’s inductees.
“The event was fantastic, “ said 2012 honoree Jeremiah Mackmiller, general merchandise manager for Sierra Trading Post, Cheyenne, WY. “Being surrounded by so many talented individuals was very humbling.”
For Mackmiller, the best thing about being included in this growing group of young professionals is the recognition gained for his company. “I have had the chance to be associated with and learn
from phenomenal mentors throughout my life. At Sierra Trading Post our management team and employees are second to none. When you have a team of individuals who work toward the same goal and raise each other up, great things happen. There is no way I could have accomplished what I have done without my team.”
Honorees are nominated through a sporting goods industry voting process that takes place through the first part of the year. Leading executives and co-workers nominate those in the industry that, while still under 40 years of age, show exceptional leadership and innovation in the sporting goods world. Nominees span the spectrum from company executives, to marketing leaders, to buyers, designers and leaders of nonprofit groups.
According to SportsOneSource VP of Marketing Gregg Hartley, 2012’s honorees showed exceptional enthusiasm
and excellence, representing a wide range of categories and products. “The selection of the SGB 40 Under 40 honorees shows the strength of the industry and provides young, talented leaders great opportunity to work with their peers to develop their network and leadership skillsets,” he said.
Continued Hartley, “2013 will expand the horizons of the 40 Under 40 program by the introduction of the Leadership Development Weekend. This expanded program will allow 40 Under 40 alumni to share their skills and competencies with others in the industry.”
The first annual 40 Under 40 Awards was presented in 2007 and the event has grown each year. The 2013 awards will be held May 4 in South Beach Miami, Florida, during the first annual SportsOneSource Leadership Development Weekend. (See sidebar on Page 7 for further details.) ■
HONORING THE INDUSTRy'S
BEST & BRIGHTEST
I
2012 Honoree Mark French, president, Basketball Division & Corporate Development for Mission Athletecare and M&A Inventor for Court Grip with his wife, Meghan French
2009 honoree Todd Spaletto, president The North Face Americas, with 2012 honoree Troy Sicotte, brand manager REI & NW showroom director The North Face.
Jennifer Mull, CEO, Backwoods introduces 2012 honoree Rob Morales, Backwoods VP Merchandising. SportsOneSource James Hartford presents the award.
SPORTSONESOURCE.COM 7
The SportsOneSource Group will present its first Industry Leadership Development Weekend on May 2-5, 2013 in South Beach Miami, Florida, welcoming some of the in-dustry's most celebrated young leadership talent for a multi-day development confer-ence coinciding with sixth annual SGB 40 Under 40 Awards.
Based on the annual and highly anticipated SGB 40 Under 40 Awards, the Leadership Development Weekend will capture the skills and talent of the alumni of the SGB 40 Under 40 Awards to create the only leadership conference to speak from inside sports- industry experience.
The weekend will feature a series of SGB 40 Under 40 alumni keynote presentations, SGB 40 Under 40 alumni panels, and facilitated discussions moderated by Richard Luker, Ph.D., founder of the ESPN Sports Poll and author of "Simple Community," focusing on "Leadership Within The Company, Community and World."
Open for the first time to broader industry participation, the weekend will also include the SGB 40 Under 40 Awards on May 4. As in years past, honorees and alumni are all successful entrepreneurs, recognized cor-porate executives, and key decision makers from throughout the industry.
DEVELOPMENT WEEKEND
LEADERSHIP
Note: The Leadership Development Weekend and SGB 40 Under 40 Awards will be held at the Shore Club, a premier location in South Beach Miami. For additional information please contact Gregg Hartley, VP Marketing, SportsOneSource, at 561.543.7789 or [email protected], or look for updates in SGB publications.
From L to R: 2009 Honorees, Todd Dalhausser, GM Apparel, Saucony and Jason Volk, director of sales, North America at Oregon Scientific with 2012 Honoree, Nicholas Brayton, president Woolrich and guest, Josh Rich.
AUGUST 20, 2012 | SGBWeekly.com 7
From L to R: 2009 Honoree Nathan Pund, Managing Director, Investment Banking, D.A. Davidson, 2012 Honoree Peter Ha, associate D.A. Davidson and Matt Powell, Chief Retail Analyst, SportsOneSource Honoree Mike Olson, Executive VP Retail Johnson Health Tech NA
accepting his award from Gregg Hartley, VP Marketing & Product Development, SportsOneSource
From L to R: 2012 Honoree David Oksman, Head of MarketingLife Is Good, with John Jacobs CEO Life Is Good and guest
From L to R: 2012 Honorees, MC Neville, SIA Associate Director Marketing & Communications, Sally Grimes, Former Executive Director Outdoor Industries Women's Coalition, Petra Hilleberg, President, Hilleberg, Inc., and Ann Vernon Malik, COO & CFO, Fuelbelt
From L to R: Jim Zwiers, SVP Wolverine Worldwide, 2012 Honoree Charlie Bruder, VP Global Retail Merchandising Wolverine Worldwide and James Hartford, president & CEO SportsOneSource
In the team business, few operations have grown as rapidly and experienced as much success as LIDS Team Sports over the past several years. TEAM Business spoke with Matt Geske, executive VP of LIDS
Team Sports, to find out the reasons behind the team dealer’s sustained success.By Fernando J. Delgado
LIDS TEAM SPORTSOUTGROWS THE COMPETITION
SPORTSONESOURCE.COM 9
LIDS Team Sports (LTS) is a division of the LIDS Sports Group, which operates within Genesco, Inc. subsidiary Hat World, Inc. Founded in 2009 and based in Indianapolis, IN, LIDS Team Sports began as a 10-state sales territory, but has since exploded to cover
all 50 states. LTS functions as a full-service team dealer and sporting goods operator, also offering custom screen printing, twill, transfer and embroidery.
Matt Geske, executive vice president of LTS, has extensive experi-ence running successful team dealer operations, both as a founder of his own company and as the leader responsible for LIDS Team Sports’ continued growth. Geske, who was recently named an hon-oree of SGB’s 2012 40 Under 40 Award, started his journey in the team business in 2002 when he co-founded Brand Athletics, Inc., a regional team dealer based in Tigard, OR. The LIDS Sports Group acquired the dealer in 2010, making Geske director of operations, Western Region, for the company. “It was an extremely difficult decision, quite frankly,” said Geske on his life-changing move to LIDS in 2010. “It was exciting to think about our company joining such a robust and energized working environ-ment at LIDS. But there was also some nervousness. Are the cultures going to fit? Are people going to adapt quickly enough? How well does this business scale? Those were some of the concerns.”
After the acquisition, Brand Athletics operated as a subsidiary of Hat World from 2010 until July 2011, at which point Brand Athletics changed its name to LIDS Team Sports.
In addition to Brand Athletics, LTS also includes NY-based sporting goods dealer Anaconda Sports, acquired in 2010 by the LIDS Sports Group, and the former Impact Sports, a Madison, WI-based team dealer that was bought in 2009. The LIDS Sports Group’s countless relationships with vendors, professional sports leagues, and universities have allowed the company to carry officially licensed apparel and accessories, in-creasing the scope of inventory available to LTS.
LTS continues to expand through team dealer acquisitions, and Geske’s personal experience with the decision to join LIDS, as well as the ensuing integration process, reveals the complexity of such a tran-sition. “Although there were certainly some bumps and bruises along the way, we came out better on the other side. We learned a lot about ourselves - about the environment at LIDS, about the team business, and how we approach our customers and how we service them. Although the decision was tough, the decision to sell was also one of the best things we’ve ever done, for our employees and for our customers.”
Completing the transition from an independent dealer to an LTS part-ner, and attaining success post-takeover, can be complicated. Geske emphasized the importance of connecting with customers and the ne-cessity of establishing strong personal relationships to building a suc-cessful operation. “The first thing is that, no matter how large-scale we get at LIDS and LIDS Team Sports, this is still a relationship and service business,” he said. “That’s one fact we can never lose sight of. Whether it’s acquiring a company or communicating internally, I think that’s the biggest thing that we’ll continue to challenge ourselves not to adjust.”
Advantages such as extensive sales programs and discounts, access to vendors, massive inventory levels, a 300,000-square-foot production facility in Indianapolis, IN, and the ability to employ a sizeable labor force, are some of the tools at the disposal of LTS that are simply unavailable to most team dealers. According to Geske, July, August, and September is a significant crunch time, but LTS avoids problems because of its unique capacity to add as many workers as needed in that time to ensure that orders are serviced appropriately. LIDS Team Sports also has the abil-ity to offer its employees quality benefits such as better health care and 401K.
Executive VP, LIDS Team Sports, Matt Geske
LIDS Teams Sports offers a wide variety of uni-forms, apparel, equipment and other sportswear items for student-athletes and coaches alike.
10 2012 TEAM BUSINESS DIGITAL
A SOLUTION TO THE BUDGET CRUNCHAnother reason for the success of LTS is the company’s response to athletic budget crunches across the country. “As education and athletic budgets continue to get squeezed across the U.S., the more that we can be the solution provider, and not just someone coming in and asking for a school’s money, the better position that continues to put ourselves in,” explained Geske. “We have programs that, because of our scale, allow us to provide great cost value.” Product lines such as the LIDS Private Label brand all the way up to Nike, the preeminent brand in the business, allow LTS to provide more options for schools.
LTS also offers better raw cost value through priority discounts and free sales promotion product, helping customers stretch their buying power. “We can give people more bang for their buck than most of our competitors,” Geske continued. “We can get right down to price sensi-tivity and talking value quickly because we do have scale. I think that’s important, because as we partner with our manufacturing and vendor field – specifically Nike and Schutt – we can provide some leverage to our customers from a budget standpoint.”
As school budgets continue to shrink, the cost of athletic equip-ment and apparel is passed on to student-athletes, their parents, and booster clubs. LTS has adopted an approach to fundraising using customized and school-specific websites. “Probably the most significant thing that’s changed in the climate economically is our ability to fundraise for our customers - to be able to provide them with the cash to buy the helmets, the uniforms, the bats and the balls,” said Geske. “Schools may not have the budgets for these items anymore. So it’s been pushed onto the booster clubs, and these booster clubs are constantly looking for the next way to make some money, whether it’s selling candy bars or cookie dough or Christmas trees.”
LTS developed a web solution that allows schools and booster clubs to leverage their alums, parents and student-athletes from an apparel and branding standpoint. “We’re really treating it like licensing houses do at the collegiate level. We’re doing that with high schools now, and giving them the ability to raise some significant funds by putting sweat-shirts, t-shirts and hats on their fans,” he added.
The women’s microfiber jacket and woven pant (left) are part of LTS’ Sideline Exclusives offerings. Polo shirts (right) are the most highly-demanded item by coaches, according to LIDS Team Sports reps.
SPORTSONESOURCE.COM 11
Anyone associated with a particular high school can access a website via a unique link to order a range of spirit gear, hats, shirts and other apparel, and orders are shipped directly to the purchaser, with a portion of proceeds on every item going back to the school, athletic team, or booster club. “We’ve removed the need for door-to-door fundrais-ing. We can get to their entire fan base over e-mail,” said Geske. “It’s one of our key initiatives, and it really is a response to our customer base feeling these budget crunches. They’re coming to us and say-ing, ‘I love these uniforms, I love these football helmets, but quite frankly, we’re trying to keep teachers and we’re trying to keep textbooks.’ We had to come up with a way to provide dollars for our customer base so that the athletes can be in the best-performing and safest products available.”
A VALUABLE PARTNERSHIP WITH NIKELIDS Team Sports’ most high-profile partnership is its relationship with Nike. As an authorized Nike Team dealer, LTS has more ability to service customers and vendors alike. “We can provide a tremendous amount of volume to our vendor partners that they wouldn’t have otherwise, and the advantages that are even more important are the partnership, the communication, and the planning pieces,” said Geske. “Dealers are being pushed to book more inventory, while vendors may be out of product, which can lead to missed sales. We plan around those issues.”
Geske pointed to a recent meeting with Nike to illustrate some of the advantages of the partner-ship, as his team and Nike were able to look ahead a full year to the fall 2013 season. “We’re just kick-ing off 2012, while we’re also developing fall 2013 in lockstep with Nike,” he recounted. “We can take better and more educated inventory positions. We can hone in on product demands well ahead of the curve, instead of always trying to react. We can work on things together - from materials planning, graph-ics packages, and sales programs, all those things - so far in advance of the marketplace that, more often than not, we get to lead with that.” LTS started talking with fall sports coaches in early August, much earlier than purchase orders are made, in order to work on logistics such as improving delivery times, determining fundraising goals, and contemplating colors, styles and units numbers for uniforms. “The largest benefit of our vendor relationships is the plan-ning and resource-sharing that we do so far in ad-vance of the business,” Geske said.
Advantages of LTS’ relationship with Nike are seen in increased demand for certain products. Nike’s football, baseball, and basketball uniforms are in high demand due to their durability and lifes-pan, as well as their sleek, streamlined designs. Specialized fabrics such as Cordura and Dri-Fit and ventilation technology used in Nike’s Hyper-cool apparel are some of the high-performing fea-
tures appealing to athletes. “These uniforms are lasting and schools are able to pass them down to their freshman and JV programs,” noted Geske. “They’re better performing, they’re better technol-ogy, but they’re also leading-edge from a durability standpoint. Customers are looking for value, but they’re not necessarily looking for cheap.”
In hardgoods, Schutt’s TPU technology, found in the 7990 XP Hybrid Youth Football Helmet (MSRP $66) and the 78900 Air XP Adult Foot-ball Helmet (MSRP $175), among others, is in high demand. When it comes to protective gear, Geske says schools and athletes seek durabil-ity and protection at a reasonable cost. “People have seen how TPU foam performs, and they’re demanding the latest and greatest technologies that can protect student-athletes better than ever before,” he said. “We’re providing that at multiple price points and values.”
Another fast-growing product line for LTS is the recently re-branded and re-launched LIDS line of apparel. “It is a very rapid riser for us because we’re providing a different price point than our Nike products, but it’s still high quality and features moisture management materials, inserts, and a sleek fit,” said Geske, adding that the company has seen widespread demand for the private la-bel, with Division I schools purchasing the line to a greater extent than high schools and little leagues.
THE KEYS TO SUCCESSLIDS Team Sports’ expansion and success in the team marketplace is rooted in its acquisition model. “We’ve acquired everything from a three-rep group to some of the largest team dealers in the business in Anaconda, Impact Sports, and Brand Athletics,” shared Geske. “We have a great fit with all of those dealers because of the strength of the relationships and service they’ve been able to provide.”
“Our model is to vet the relationships, vet the experience, and vet that they have a desire to be a part of LIDS,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of suc-cesses, but we’ve also had a couple of mistakes. The mistakes have occurred when we’ve force-fed it, when a dealer doesn’t understand the vision, doesn’t grasp the culture, or whatever the case may be.” Geske believes the keys to success re-main rooted in a group’s ability to provide quality customer service. Conditions such as timing, profit-ability, employees, and distribution contracts are just some of the many considerations for LTS and pro-spective partners to take into account, making each potential partnership situation unique.
Geske sees two common factors in all suc-cessful dealers and groups that LTS has acquired: great representatives, and the ability to adapt. “First and foremost, they’ve got to have great reps,” he said. “They have to have reps that un-derstand this is a service and relationship driven TB1206
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The reasons Williams offers for Anaconda’s effective assimi-lation into LIDS Team Sports harken back to Geske’s acqui-sition model and corresponding keys to success. “I think Anaconda was moving in the same direction LIDS was moving,” stated Williams, citing the development of online team stores as a common priority between the two team dealers before the merger. “We also have a lot of reps with decades of experience who have been with us since day one, and that made us appealing. I think the knowledge that we have at Anaconda is what LIDS saw in us.”
Reps rely on a variety of resources to service customers, and Williams vali-dates Geske’s philosophy that strong reps are the backbone of a great team dealer operation. Having uniform sam-ples on-hand, for example, is essential for helping the customer. “They want to know what they’re getting before they get it,” said Williams, noting the most-requested samples by customers are Dri-Fit apparel, warmups, training gear, and uniforms for athletes, with polos being the most demanded item by coaches.
Reps are responsible for assisting every step of the way, from finding the right uniform to placing the final order. When a school or individual customer wants customized uniforms, Williams will frequently help them navigate Nik-eTeam.com, Nike’s uniform-building tool. Personal, face-to-face interaction is still vital for team dealers and their rep forces, even if more and more custom-ers are placing orders online. “If it’s in my territory, I usually travel out there and show them the uniforms first hand, be-cause we have samples from LIDS and Nike,” he said. “If they want a stock uniform, I have that with me as well, so they can actually see it and touch it.” Williams agrees with Geske that mak-ing face-to-face contact with coaches and athletic directors, coupled with extensive product knowledge, are the most important factors that make a team dealer rep successful. Being ac-cessible and responsive is also crucial.
It’s safe to say LIDS Team Sports isn’t done expanding, with news of a fresh ac-quisition or an agreement with a big-time athletic department seemingly every
other month. However, no matter how large the company gets, it remains committed to its core business values and dedication to customer service. With leaders such as Geske guiding the company, and reps such as Williams using their experience and knowledge to fulfill the needs of customers, it’s clear that LTS has forged a path to further prosperity and promising possibilities. “It still comes down to that local service aspect, which we’re never going to get away from,” said Geske. “You can’t lose sight of what’s truly important, and that’s the customer.” ■
business. They’ve got to have reps that understand products, are product experts, and can speak to the technology. The field reps are the key to our success. We stop the conversation with someone that wants to sell if we don’t think they’ve got Class A reps.”
“The second key to success is the ability to adapt and change,” Geske continued. “And not change for change’s sake, but change to try and make our service levels better and provide more value. We look for a world-class rep force with great customer relationships, and the ability to adapt. And really all the other stuff comes in a distant third.”
While the team business is “still a relatively old-school business,” new LTS reps are provided with a laptop, smartphone and portal access. Anyone that struggles in such an environment, re-gardless of how successful they were with their previous meth-ods of conducting business, will likely not be a match for LTS, ac-cording to Geske.
Keith Williams, a LTS sales representative for the Utica, NY division, offered the unique perspective of someone who worked as an Anaconda Sports rep at the time it was taken over by LTS. He’s a working example of Geske’s belief that strong reps are the key to success in the team business. “The tran-sition has been really smooth,” said Williams, who started with Anaconda two and a half years ago and has been a LTS rep since Anaconda was acquired in 2010. “The nice thing about LIDS is that they have goals. LIDS’ goal of get-ting everyone into a Nike uniform, for example, was something we had never heard of before. It was a great move by Bill Stote, the owner of Anaconda, to team up with LIDS.”
For large team dealers who have entered agreements to join the LIDS Team Sports division, the advantages of teaming with LTS are numerous. “LIDS’ account with Nike has been the biggest change. It’s given us more op-tions to pursue high schools and colleges with the support that we receive from Nike,” Williams said, adding that LTS has also helped make the Anaconda Sports brand - which focuses largely on memorabilia - more acces-sible, profitable and larger in scope.
Since the acquisition, Anaconda has also maintained its individual team sports equipment catalogs, including football, baseball, soccer and basketball, with its overall equipment catalog receiving a boost post-takeover. “With both our return customers and new customers, they’re able to get our catalog in the mail, and all of our catalogs have our LIDS Team Sports logo on them now, which is great. It gives us a bigger name,” Williams stated. “It’s been a great partnership.”
LIDS Team Sports outfits football programs from head to toe with Nike uniforms (left) and gear, while Nike volleyball uniforms (right) are just one of many women’s sports categories offered. LTS can customize team uniform needs with screen printing, embroidery or tackle twill.
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28-31 Worldwide Fall Show Reno, NV
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3-4 NBS Fall Athletic Market Indianapolis, IN
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13-14 A.D.A. Fall Show Las Vegas, NV
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3-5 OIA Rendezvous Boston, MA
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3-4 Sports Inc. Footwear & Apparel St. Charles, MO
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AKEEM AYERSlinebackerTennessee Titans
