sportstyle

T h e summer of 2021 is a time of rebirth and re-opening for America and, thankfully, for the team sports business as well. As more state and local governments and agencies give the go-ahead for a full reopening, the team market is enthusiastically ramping back up to full strength. While this is certainly good news, the progres- sion to "normalcy" is not uniform throughout the country due to a hodge-podge of state and local mandates. While states such as Florida and Texas have been fully opened for months, others such as California and Washington are just beginning to emerge from restrictions. Meanwhile, everybody – from vendors to dealers – in the team market is still grappling with supply chain issues that are expected to continue through the end of this year and perhaps linger into early 2022. Add to that the concern in many locales over how to handle changing school, club and league buying demands resulting from the pandemic-induced shortened and cancelled seasons and it is obvious this re-opening will not be painless. But following the unprecedented challenges of last summer – remember all those uncertain schedules, late and limited ordering, cancelled/ postponed seasons – overall as more teams swing into action, the mood among dealers is decidedly upbeat and hopeful. A trip across the country highlights the challenges, successes and nuances of resuming regular business after so many false starts in the past 18 months. Let's call it Back to Business 2.0. A Mixed Bag in the East "We're getting there and people are ready to get back to sports. Coaches are committing and schools have budgets and want to use them," reports Jarred Treiber, VP–strategic develop- ment at Medford, NJ-based Sports Paradise. The dealer has three locations – one each in Medford and Delran, NJ, and one in Harrisburg, NY – that service New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York. "Orders are up. People didn't place orders during COVID and now they want to use their budgets and get new uniforms that they've waited two years to obtain." He believes business is rebounding: "We're at least getting back to a new normal, but there will still be some apprehension." Treiber notes that product availability remains an issue. "Vendors and dealers can't keep up with demand and it's tough to get some custom- ers to understand the supply chain issues," he says. "People who've tried to buy appliances or building materials in past months get it, but others who haven't really been exposed to the delays don't comprehend the extent of the problem. "We're just now starting to get products back into inventory, but there will be some lag in catching up," he adds. "We'll still have to scramble, but things should be mostly back to normal in the fall, which is when inventory will hit warehouses." While the pandemic put a lid on most in-per- son meetings, which prompted dealers to rely more on remote ordering, Treiber believes that the market was headed in this direction anyway. "A lot of business is remote, which is not necessarily all due to COVID," he says. "For uniforms, we still meet with coaches and ath- letic directors in-person if they want to see us. But they're most interested in price and availability — they know the brands already. Treiber's key strategy for getting back to business is to be able to pivot quickly by finding alternate resources and getting customers what they need, as opposed to what they think they need. "We don't want to disappoint customers," he says. "We've always been about service and now it's a priority." Challenges in Massachusetts Meanwhile, at Holyoke Sporting Goods in Holyoke, MA, owner Betsy Frey laments that business is still slow even as the region opens up. "In baseball this year, we only did 40 percent of what we used to do pre-pandemic," she says, pointing out that there are lots of schools that still have unused product and many students weren't even in school until late-May since the state of emergency in her state didn't get lifted until June 15. While sports have since commenced, Frey thinks there may still be cutbacks. "We'll have soccer and football, but they won't be as robust as they used to be," she projects. In addition, schools are still sitting on lots of unused product and some leagues never opened up or got shut down early so they never wore out their equipment. Shipping and inventory issues are only adding to Frey's frustration. "Shipping has been very slow, taking about 20 to 30 days to get product in — if the items are even in stock. Normally, shipping takes about a week," she says. "There was also pressure from vendors to place orders early, but we weren't open then so we didn't place orders. And anyway, shipping departments couldn't ship orders right away." Frey is now trying to complete her ordering for next year's baseball season in the hopes of avoiding further supply chain issues. As for in-person meetings, Frey relates that it's hard to get past the front door of schools, especially to make deliveries: "Most business is now done via phone and email, plus a lot of athletic directors come to see us." Her strategy is to be proactive by "reaching out to customers and letting them know that we're open and here for them." She adds: "COVID taught all of us a big lesson because we used to think that sports were recession-proof. The pandemic shut everyone down for months and I learned that you always have to watch your inventory and finances, and most importantly, plan ahead." Rocky Mountain High In Colorado, the team market is getting back to normal, much to the relief and delight of Todd Garretson, owner of Garretson's Sports Center in Greely. "We were fortunate because even though team is a majority of our business, we did a lot of retail during the pandemic and now we're ready to rock and roll for 2022," he says. "I'm very optimistic. Pent-up demand will help things rebound. Things will be as good or better than in 2019 and we'll see kids and parents going full steam ahead." However, Garretson admits that things are "a little spooky" for fall due to the uncertainty of product availability. "Inventory is the number one thing because factories are waiting for containers to get unloaded and turned around and prices will go up on everything," he says. "Eventually, BY JUDY LEAND WITH PANDEMIC RESTRICTIONS EASING, TEAM DEALERS ARE GETTING BACK UP TO SPEED.

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