Talking Baseball

A top-of-the-order lineup of team dealers discusses hardball in 2010 and beyond

According to the 2008-09 NFHS sports participation survey, baseball ranks only behind football, basketball and track and field in terms of participation, and nearly 16,000 high schools have baseball programs. SGMA, meanwhile, predicts that sales of baseball equipment – including bats, gloves and balls – will rise by two percent this year.

Are those stats enough to keep team dealers swinging away in 2010? We surveyed a sampling from around the country to get their opinions on the marketplace.

Team Insight: How was your baseball business this season?

Brent Goetz, family owner of Goetz Sports, Redwood City, CA: The team baseball business was good this year. I did not notice a drop off in my league and school business, and I would say in most cases it was better.

Participation always affects my league business. My feeling is that my softball leagues continued to grow as a whole and I think most of my youth baseball leagues were up in numbers as well. The trend has been more kids playing at the younger ages than in years past.

Mike McCammon, purchasing manager for Kimmel Athletic Supply, Spokane, WA: Our school team business is up slightly over 2009, but down from previous years. Our youth baseball business has increased at a slow rate for the last few years. That business will continue for us through early summer.

Pat Donnelly, owner of Donnelly Sports, Twin Falls, ID: Our business is about the same as last year. That’s a good thing since the state is in the middle of a revenue shortfall.

Are increasingly tight budgets having an impact on your baseball business?

Goetz: Budgets for schools continue to be a hot topic for baseball teams. Most are having to fundraise for essentials such as uniforms, hats, balls and protective equipment. Many are looking to businesses to help sponsor their programs.

McCammon: Budgets are a huge factor, especially for the schools. The players are basically buying all their own equipment, and the schools are only purchasing the necessities such as uniforms, balls and field equipment.

The good news is that participation has remained fairly strong. Youth program budgets seem to be fairly strong, with parents footing the bill. Hopefully the economy will improve by next spring. This will increase consumer confidence and help get things back on track.

Donnelly: School budgets have had the biggest impact this year. We’ve seen reductions from 50 percent to 70 percent. Spring sports were the first hit by the cutbacks.

What drives your team baseball business?

McCammon: I’d say equipment really drives this category. With bats selling for up to $400, it doesn't take many of those sales to add up quickly.

Another area that has grown a great deal in the last few years is upper-end catcher’s gear. You'd think there were five catchers on a team by the amount of gear that is being sold. Even the youth catchers are stepping up on protective gear.

Donnelly: Uniforms and caps are the strongest elements. I guess you could say anything that has to do with cloth. A lot of our business has gone away from purely custom. Vendors are providing good options in stock, which is making modified more popular. It’s a good way for our customers to find some savings. We take a stock jersey, add a third color, and a team gets a personalized look. Turnaround is quicker, and the uniform is more affordable.

Goetz: Uniforms and equipment drive the team sales equally.

Have any new products made an impact in 2010?

Goetz: A few from the SKLZ company, including the TravelTee and Lightning Bolt pitching machine.

McCammon: Nothing really earth shattering. Baseball and softball training aids are a good category for us. If there was a better way to display some more of them, I think it could be huge. Pop-up nets, protective screens and player bags have been good areas.

A style change that is rapidly catching on is the relaxed fit, open bottom baseball/softball pant. Even at the youth level, it seems to be the choice of many. It might be here to stay.

Donnelly: Bats are consistently evolving, but we haven’t seen many real opportunities generated by new products. The biggest change for us in 2010 is the way we do business. We now have the ability to do online sales. We started last fall and went through the basketball season. We’re really hitting our stride now. It has been real positive for us.

Has baseball become a year-round sport?

McCammon: Baseball is definitely a year-around sport. Even in our climate (Pacific-Northwest) it seems we are selling more and more gear in what use to be the off-season — September through January.

Because of our size, we have a hard time giving baseball the attention it needs during these months. We are up to our necks in football, volleyball, basketball and wrestling in the fall and winter. Unfortunately, our limited retail space doesn't allow us to keep baseball and softball products on the floor during the off-season.

Goetz: Yes.

Donnelly: Baseball has been a year-round sport for us for 10 years. That includes Little League, travel teams and high school. We now have a number of teams that play fall ball.

What are the priorities of your baseball customers?

Goetz: Our customers value quality products at affordable prices. They are still willing to spend money on their kids, but they want to get good value out of their purchase. I don’t feel that they are looking for inexpensive, cheap products. Our customers are loyal to us because they can count on getting good information and know that they are buying quality products.

McCammon: Customer service is near the top of the list. Price, availability of product and quality are always key factors as well. But if the customer feels you are truly trying to help them make good decisions, they can become good, loyal customers.

Although it is more difficult than ever to keep up with product updates, product knowledge is something all dealers need to consider very important. With all the information available to the consumer today, salesmen need to feel comfortable with the products they are selling.

Donnelly: Quality and good service are always important, but price has become more of an issue. Buying habits are changing. It used to be that we‘d walk into a baseball coach’s office on November 1. Now they can’t make early commitments. There’s more of an on-demand mentality. That affects delivery and inventory.

What is your biggest concern when it comes to vendors?

Goetz: Having product available to me at all times. Shortages in uniform parts – jerseys, pants and undershirts – are extremely frustrating. I feel like our suppliers have struggled this season with maintaining their inventories. I have had numerous back-orders on staple uniforms at times this year — for example, white or grey button up jerseys. When a vendor has shortages, it complicates my ability to fill an order. I have to scramble to find a substitute or decorate a product that arrives late.

McCammon: Our vendors are not only our suppliers; they are also becoming our competitors. More and more, they are selling online to people that used to be our customers. Even though their selling prices may be higher, there is a certain mystique that consumers have with what they consider buying direct. I really don't see this going away. It is just the way things are done now.

Stocking order qualifying programs are going to be harder and harder to deal with. Even at higher costs, I think more hand-to-mouth buying is going to become the norm. We may have to miss a sale here and there in order to maintain reasonable inventory levels.

Donnelly: Inventory and product availability. I don’t fault vendors, but when there are shortages, loyalty goes out the door. You have to order from whoever has the product.

What trend or development will have an impact on the baseball business in 2011?

Goetz: We have been noticing a couple of trends in baseball over the last year. First is that wood bats or composite/wood bats have been selling strong. I have had many tournaments and even some leagues, mostly travel ball, switching to wood or simulated wood products.

The second is the steady growth of the travel ball market. Most kids that participate in travel ball are still playing at the recreation level, but I have had more that are switching to all travel ball.

The last thing that I will mention is that my Fall ’09 baseball business was as strong as ever. I felt that the amount of kids playing in the fall was more than in years past. I am hoping that this is a signal that baseball remains healthy.

McCammon: One thing that started out as a good thing for the brick and mortar dealers was MAP pricing. I think the concept was good, helping to maintain a price so that dealers weren't contending with price gouging catalogers and Internet sellers.

But being a northern tier dealer, we have a very small selling window when it comes to spring sports. Our product arrives in January and if it isn’t sold by mid March, MAP prices are revised and next year’s products are already on the market. This may work well in the some parts of the country where baseball is played throughout the winter months, but it is a problem in the northern half of the country.

Donnelly: How we buy. We’re changing from volume. We have to be more conservative in the amount of product we book. We’ll rely more on the fill-in capability.

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Bat Men
How will the new NFHS bat regulations affect dealers?

There isn’t a team dealer anywhere that will be caught off guard by the new NFHS regulations pertaining to metal bats. The Batted Ball Coefficient of Restitution (BBCOR) performance standard was passed in June of 2009 and it has already been embraced by just about everyone in the industry.

Mike May, director of communications at the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA), is a vocal member of Don’t Take My Bat Away, a coalition of players, parents, coaches, manufacturers and sport governing bodies devoted to educating the public about bat safety. He agrees with the NFHS that the BBCOR standard is a good thing. May believes that it brings non-wood bat performance more in line with that of wood than current BESR (ball-exit-speed ratio) certification.

“It will generate new sales of bats — for the 2011 college baseball season and 2012 high school baseball season,” May says. “For the young high school baseball prospect, the BBCOR bat may well make the art of hitting a baseball more challenging than it is now.”

May also stresses that the BBCOR standard was not adopted because of safety or injury concerns. “We can’t pass any rules that will keep injuries from happening,” he says. “Even if you play with a plastic ball and bat, there’s going to be an injury somewhere along the way. The object of the game is to hit a hard ball hard — always has been, always will be.”

What is unknown is how the NFHS regulations will affect the team baseball business. The NCAA will require all teams and players to use compliant bats starting on January 1, 2011. For the NFHS, the measure will officially go into effect on January 1, 2012.

Team dealers nationwide are trying to anticipate how their business will be impacted. Pat Donnelly, owner of Donnelly Sports in Twin Falls, ID, has already seen some changes. “We’ve probably missed some sales because of it,” he says. “Some customers have asked if they can bypass the new regulations. It could have a negative impact from the players’ view.”

Mike McCammon, purchasing manager for Kimmel Athletic Supply in Spokane, WA, is keeping an eye on the 2011 season. “With the new bat rule changes for 2012 in the high schools, next year is going to be critical,” he says “I suspect dealers will be very conservative with their 2011 spring purchases of baseball bats. In our case, we have a lot more 2010 bats than we need at this point in the selling season. We'll need to move some of those next year.”

Brent Goetz, one of the owners of Goetz Sports in Redwood City, CA, is taking a similar approach. “The metal bat regulations have not affected our business, yet,” he says. “I think next year will be the year that we will have to be careful. This year we have had many people asking about whether aluminum and/or composite bats are going to be outlawed. We have had to warn college players of the change to the college rule this season and next season.”

Goetz also knows that he and his fellow team dealers in California may find themselves in an even trickier position. In May, Sacramento politicians introduced a law placing a two-year ban on the use of metal bats in high schools. The state Senate Education Committee consequently listened to arguments about extending the moratorium to three years.

“I am going to take a cautious approach to our bat purchases for next season,” Goetz says. “It will be a fine line between being short of product and getting stuck with ‘illegal’ bats if regulations do change swiftly. I have not met with sales reps for next year yet, but I am hoping to see a willingness to trade out product if regulations do change and I am stuck with dead product.”

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CAPS PREVIEW 2010-11

Pacific Keeps on Truckin’
The Trucker Mesh contrasting universal fit cap from Pacific Headwear utilizes a universal fitted back and contrasting front panels and visors for a hot look in a cool cap.

UrGear Is In the Pocket
UrGear has created a program that creates a team branded custom pocket hat for teams and fundraisers. Each hat contains a patented pocket in the front panel that players, fans and coaches can utilize to keep money, credit cards or licenses. The hats have also been used as fundraisers for athletic department and booster club sales and can be customized for a school or event.

Third Generation from The Game
The Game’s third generation of performance headwear features its G10 performance material, a two-layer performance fabric with memory that provides glove fitting comfort, advanced moisture wicking, breathability and a performance sweatband. The new G10 caps are 100 percent customizable and available in true fitted, five-size stretch fit, one-size stretch fit, and adjustable.

OC Sports Goes Bamboo
The TGS1935X cap from OC Sports is a six-panel, 100 percent polyester with bamboo charcoal nanotechnology. It is a structured, Pro Style Mid Profile with Q3 fabric and sweatband, contrasting inserts on the visor and contrasting button and eyelets along with a rounded flat pre-curved visor with sandwich eco3 printed seam taping.


Three From Richardson
• The #322 (top left) is a heavyweight chino twill with garment washing and relaxed contoured crown shape with contrasting colored trims.
• The #172 Pulse (top right) offers performance
fabric front panels and visor with new improved SportMesh fabric side and back panels, two-seam piping, contrasting colored crown and visor stitching, low-profile crown shape, buckram-fused front panels with ProStitching, sandwich visor insert, and pre-curved PE visor with eight rows of stitching.
• The PTS48 (bottom) features evolved polyester micro-mesh fabric with moisture-wicking functionality, advanced color blocked ProCrown shape with curved inserts, StayDri performance R-Flex sweatband, ProVisor shape, anti-glare charcoal-color undervisor and trim.

Pukka Goes Custom
Pukka offers high school baseball teams custom options and combinations that include sandwich visors with woven labels highlighting a team name imprinted in the label.

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