Growing up in New York, I not ever thought about merchandising in sports. Everybody there was either a Yankees supporter or a Mets devotee. You always loved one and disliked the other, and so did your whole family. It was more of a tribal loyalty than a decision. The fact that, beyond the sports events, there was another competition going on never occurred to me. I never thought about the truth that the teams weren't only fighting for victory, but also fighting for fans. Til I fell into a sports marketer position, I was pretty much oblivious to how much cash changes hands behind the scenes. Pro athletic merchandising is a multi billion dollar niche, and it is growing each year. Most athletic teams, in point of fact, make more money off of selling athletic clothing than off of tickets!

Finding myself in an athletic merchandising firm was a pretty odd development for me. In a number of ways, I don't fit in there at all. Even though I majored in niche merchandising and advertising, I have not ever been a big sports enthusiast. This placed me at odds with a company filled with athletic fanatics. Nonetheless, I have done my job pretty well. At the start, I was not up to date on the different teams. This made my sports merchandising job tough, since I didn't know the niche! People expect you to be able to talk sports with them if you're going to promote their teams. Even if you are an effectual marketer. If you can not talk shop and socialize with fluidity, it's difficult to keep your position.

Fundamentally, I approached athletic merchandising like I approached school. I sat down and studied for weeks at a time. Soon, I knew more about athletic statistics than many of the most die-hard fans in the corporation. After them, it was simple. Good sports teams sell themselves, so it is just a matter of playing on existing brand faithfulness. As for the lower ranking athletic teams, you can always play off of the underdog factor. There are some people who just love to root for a team that loses year after year. Merchandising athletic to these types of fans is a smaller business, But what they lack in numbers than make up for in brand loyalty. They are the most committed enthusiasts in the trade. The only time when sports merchandising is a tough sell is when a great team starts to slide. Abruptly, no one wants anything to do with them. The rest of the time, however, the job is pretty much a breeze.