Team Insight

TEAM FOOTBALL strong-selling category for team dealers from Hawaii to Maine. Let's play our own game and see how the sport is doing as the 2024 season wraps up FIRST QUARTER TEAM DEALERS LOVE THE GAME In southern Indiana, football sales are strong for Clarksville-based Kratz Sporting Goods, where, according to sales rep Drew Starck, the best-selling items are uniforms, Schutt helmets, shoulder pads, footballs, socks, training aids and cleats. "Varsity football teams are on a rotation where they are buying new uniforms every two to four years and, of course, many are buying a set of home and away uniforms," says Starck. "With the popularity of tight-fitting jerseys, they are not lasting as long as they tend to rip and tear along the edges of the shoulder pads." Kratz even has a seamstress on staff to stitch and repair any jerseys. Typically, teams buy anywhere from six to 12 footballs a year from Kratz, while some schools upgrade their football purchase and have the dealer decorate it with their team logo. Other product trends: Kratz sells a lot of Wilson GST1003 footballs each year while, since COVID, sales of cleats have been less of a team purchase and more of an individual purchase. Black is still the main color for cleats, unless there's an interest in a cleat in a team color. As a full-line team dealer, Starck says Kratz will deliver anything in football — regardless of its size. It could be as small as a mouthpiece or as big as a set of goal posts. "Personally, I've never sold a set of goal posts, but I can get them," says Starck. For Kratz, the youth football business remains solid. "We have a decent youth football business," Starck continues. "We sell a number of uniform packages and many of our sales are online." Meanwhile, in Kentucky the football business has rebounded from the days of the pandemic. "Our football business is probably as good as it's ever been," reports Shawn Hord, owner of H & W Duke's Sports, headquartered in Campbellsville, KY, with satellite offices in Bowling Green and Elizabethtown. e dealer caters to 50 high school football programs in Kentucky as well as a trio of collegiate football programs. In each case, H & W Duke's Sports sells foot- ball from head-to-toe, including goal posts. "We don't sell too many goal posts, but we do get an order for a set from time to time," says Hord. In the southern section of West Virginia, Capital Varsity Sports sales rep Angie Wolford sells football to 15 high school programs and the only major category that Wolford doesn't sell is cleats: "Since COVID, I don't sell too many football cleats, all the players buy their own." While Wolford will deliver anything that a player or a team needs, the biggest sales items are helmets, shoulder pads and custom uni- forms. Many of Wolford's clients replace their uniforms – both home and away – every five years. In addition, Capital Varsity Sports does its own reconditioning of helmets and shoulder pads in its Oxford, OH, headquarters. In West Virginia, the official football is the Wilson GST and every season high schools purchase between six to 12 of them. In Marietta, OH, which is perched along the Ohio-West Virginia border, you'll find Zide's Sports Shop, a full-line team dealer with years of experience selling football. And as owner Rod Zide looks back on the 2024 football season, he's quick to point out that it was busy and profitable. "Our football business has been very good, our numbers are up and local participation in football is up," reports Zide, who caters to the football needs of middle schools, high schools and one NCAA Division I football program — West Virginia University. "We try to be as vertical as possible," Zide says, selling helmets, shoulder pads and custom uniforms along with mouthguards, first-down chains, scoreboards, blocking sleds and tackling dummies. According to Zide, the one big difference between his high school customers and middle school clients is that high schools tend to buy items with higher price points. "High schools simply have bigger budgets for football," he says, and some schools are even buying special edition jerseys for Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Military Guard Jerseys for any military appreciation games. e one item which Zide's Sports Shop does not sell is the football cleat. "We don't have the retail inventory to back it up," Zide explains. "ere are too many varieties and brands avail- able on the Internet for us to stock and sell." And Zide's Sports Shop is making inroads with its reconditioning service. "More and more team dealers are providing that in-house reconditioning service for the schools that play football," Zide points out. Out in Woodward, OK, the football business is strong and vibrant for Compass Athletics, whose primary clients are high schools and a few local youth football programs. "Our high schools are football helmets, shoulder pads, uniforms, footballs, tackling dummies and blocking sleds," according to co-owner Eric Wheeler, who adds that "youth leagues are purchasing similar items. Our football business is good." SECOND QUARTER PARTICIPATION IS STRONG According to the latest participation figures from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA), overall football participation has been increasing every year since 2020, when the number dropped to 5.054 million. It 2023, overall participation had rebounded by 11.2 percent to 5.62 million and, of those, 44 percent – or 2.5 million – were "core" participants who played 26 or more days a year. As could be expected, of those core par- ticipants, 96.5 percent are male; 34.6 percent come from households whose annual income in more than $100,000; and 22 percent live in 20 • Team Insight ~ November/December 2024 teaminsightmag.com

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