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traveling four states over for a long weekend to enter a highly touted tournament, or ex- periencing their senior son or daughter take a state title, baseball and soball will always be a rite of passage for a large portion of this nation's youth and their families. At PSG (Pasadena Sporting Goods) in Pasadena, TX, baseball continues to be the dealer's largest spring contributor, reports GM Myles Siegel. Soball is also seeing growth due to increased headcount on teams and league expansion. Overall, however, the dealer is up "only slightly" year over year. "On-field equipment has been a growth subcategory for us," says Siegel. "As budgets are tighter, we have been able to provide customers with quality alternative brands to extend budgets. Outside of balls, gloves and bats, generic or less-known brands seem to provide a value not previously accepted. For example, the Crute tee from Champro is a fantastic alternative to the Tanner tee." Schools are also increasingly comfortable purchasing non-shoe brands for uniforms, PSG's biggest category within diamond sports. Says Siegel: "My feel is that most of these coaches and players wear these other products in select and club sports and realize the value is much better than previously perceived." PSG continues to focus its efforts on school and district sales throughout the state of Texas. Many are utilizing online channels and builders to gather information and make a purchase decision. "We have embraced online selling though online stores and a dedicated team to ensure they go off without a hitch," says Siegel. "is brings another challenge as stores open us up to another customer base from the parents and guardians. It is also a huge upsell opportunity." A newer challenge PSG is facing is low- end imported sellers at the league level, but custom gear lead times have normalized aer disruption caused by the pandemic. For PSG, the growth is in travel and select baseball/soball recreational teams. Siegel expects school-level baseball and soball to remain at a "steady state" in terms of participation. "ere are always existing schools to compete for, but there are not a huge number of kids joining those teams year aer year." Sports Plus in Fredericksburg, VA, sees baseball and soball accounting for about half of its business, says Billy Oehm, VP and sales manager. Play is year-round with college teams playing fall ball and practic- ing through the winter in indoor facilities. Says Oehm: "Fast-pitch soball specifically is growing faster than baseball, but they're both growing." Sports Plus' focus is on uniforms and spirit wear. e dealer also does a solid business in facility equipment such as windscreens, fence caps, bases and field paint. It doesn't sell a wide range of bats and the gloves because it doesn't have a retail presence. e big growth opportunity for Sports Plus in recent years has been travel ball. "We are blessed that we are in Fairfax County, a top five affluent county in the country. Loudoun County, right next door, is also in the top five. So we don't feel recessions like somebody else because of the federal government and all the money that drives it. People don't miss paychecks." He admits that travel teams can be a "little more demanding," with high school programs understanding they need to buy early, but travel teams underestimating turnaround time. "It's more of an Amazon mentality." Sports Plus services high schools, middle schools as well as Little League, Babe Ruth and American Legion. e dealer has an online presence because it's become an ex- pectation and has done more social media in recent years, but its sales team still visits schools. "We're still a little bit old school," says Oehm. "We prefer, for the most part, to knock on doors and see people where we can." At Denver Athletic, in Englewood, CO, lacrosse has become "very popular in Colorado" to command a sizeable spring business, but "consistent growth" continues to be found in baseball, according to Eric Taylor, inside and corporate sales manager. "Youth baseball participation in Colorado has always been strong and so has high school baseball." Schools, recreation teams and travel teams are Denver Athletic's primary customers across diamond sports, with many teams offering "strong spirit wear purchases" on top of their team apparel needs. "Apparel is still the strongest category for us and that includes custom hats," says Taylor. "ere continues to be growth with cage jackets. ere is also an opportunity with selling gloves, bats and equipment." A new category is safety, including the arm and toe protectors for batters. Goetz Brothers Sporting Goods, in San Carlos, CA, a suburb of San Francisco, con- tinues to find baseball and soball to be the strongest spring sports it services. although co-owner Brent Goetz feels more kids are leaving the sport for year-round soccer, lacrosse and basketball. "However, the ones that are staying in the sport seem to be playing on multiple teams, so their gear needs make up for some of the players that have le the sport," he adds, al- though its baseball business remains strong with uniforms, practice gear and swag sales. Travel baseball is driving growth in diamond sports. Categories seeing the strongest growth for dealers in baseball include practice gear and apparel, while individual items such as bats and gloves that are increasingly being purchased at retail or online sites are downtrending. 54 • July/August 2024 sportstyle • sportstylemag.com TEAM SPORTS

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