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First Words – April 2011
I think I unleashed my inner child a little at last month’s SMex event, what with branded Mr Potato Heads, fashion phones, football action figures and garden gnomes to look at. And not to forget the odd free Pukka Pie.
The show was a step change from usual sports tradeshows at it was, understandably, focused on sports merchandise, and gave people scope to be a little more creative and inventive with their displays and products.
Take Foster Enterprises, which produced bespoke scarves for its stand celebrating the date and location of SMex. Or Rainbow Productions, which manufactures mascots for sports clubs and organisations, and had some very impressive examples on its stand.
While those two may not be the usual fodder for SGB Sports and the retail community, they, and many others exhibiting at SMex, were happy to talk about the opportunities on offer to trade customers to add some value-added products to their stock portfolio and bolster the bottom line a little.
Pattni Imaginations has already stated its intent to work with sports retailers to use its new Match Stars football action figures to support their existing football sales, while Elgate Products made no bones about the value of mascot merchandise sales at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and the business opportunity this will provide to sports retailers ahead of 2012.
Perhaps with the opportunities presented by events such as the 2012 Olympic Games and 2014 Commonwealth Games (see SGB Sports March, p6), coupled with the positivity reported by many on how sports has maintained a healthy position in the national psyche during the recession, there is an opportunity for the retail community to cash in and do some up-selling with merchandise supporting their usual lines of clothes, shoes and equipment.
David Pittman, editor, SGB Sports
E: dpittman@datateam.co.uk | Twitter: @mdavidpittman | Skype: davidpittmanreporter
