http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/28/sports/baseball/28jerseys.html
November 28, 2009
<NYT_HEADLINE version="1.0" type=" ">At a Yankees Shop, Buzz; At a Mets Store, a Hush </NYT_HEADLINE>
<NYT_BYLINE version="1.0" type=" ">By KEN BELSON
</NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>It was a tale of two Black Fridays for New York’s baseball teams.
The [URL="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/baseball/majorleague/newyorkyankees/index.html?inline=nyt-org"]Yankees Clubhouse on 42nd Street[/URL], still basking in the glow of the team’s 27th World Series championship, was flooded with customers elbowing through racks of commemorative T-shirts, hats and jackets. Pedestrians stopped to snap photographs of the storefront.
Two blocks east, the [URL="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/baseball/majorleague/newyorkmets/index.html?inline=nyt-org"]Mets Clubhouse[/URL] hosted a handful of passers-by who gazed at the rows of jerseys and sweatshirts, many 50 percent off. The store seemed to be as quiet as Shea Stadium was after Carlos Beltran looked at Adam Wainwright’s called third strike to end the 2006 season.
The retail foot traffic largely mirrored the team’s on-field performances this year. The Yankees added another piece of armor to their gold-plated reputation as winners. The Mets sank in the standings early before fading into comical irrelevance.
The stores on 42nd Street were yet more evidence that winning sells.
Aoi Niwa, for instance, breezily spent $203 on a World Series hat, T-shirt and sweatshirt at the Yankees Clubhouse. Her father in Japan is a big fan of Hideki Matsui, she said. During their last phone conversation, he asked Niwa to pick up some items to commemorate the team’s championship and Matsui’s World Series Most Valuable Player award.
“It’s a little pricey, but it’s worth it,” said Niwa, who lives in Portland, Ore., and was visiting a friend in New York for Thanksgiving.
Across the street at Modell’s, the front of the store was wall-to-wall Yankees merchandise. Jeter replica jerseys were being sold for $120, Yankee fleece jackets for $60 and sweatshirts for $55. Yankee hats with the World Series logo were $36.
It is hard to gauge the success of an entire shopping season on one day’s foot traffic. But Peter Augustine, the president of New Era Cap, the market leader in baseball caps, said that he expected sales to be unchanged this holiday season compared with last year despite the victory by the Yankees, the No. 1 selling team.
“While the Yankees always outsell the Mets, their win did not provide the kind of bump in sales that we would normally expect,” he said. “We blame that on the recession.”
Of course, that has not stopped teams like the Mets and the Yankees from introducing merchandise. The Mets, for instance, unveiled new retro jerseys Friday, ones similar to those worn by the players on the 1969 championship team wore.
The home uniform tops, which the players will wear next season, include pinstripes against a light cream background, similar to those the team wore starting in 1962, when the Mets set a modern-day record for losses in a season.
There were no signs, however, to announce the arrival of the new uniform tops lined up against the wall at the Mets Clubhouse store. The jerseys, which have embroidered lettering and are made with a finer material, cost $266, nearly three times the cost of other replica jerseys.
The retro jerseys sparked a debate among fans on various Mets-related blogs. Some thought the team should focus more on improving the team and less on marketing. Others thought that the jerseys were an effort to make fans feel good just as they receive their season-ticket renewal notices.
In any case, $266 was too pricey for Ben Testa, a Mets fan who stopped in the store on his way to work. Testa asked an employee how many of the new jerseys he had sold so far. None, he was told, as of midafternoon Friday.
Testa said he might have bought a jersey if it were less expensive, but said he was not in the mood to spend a lot on the Mets anyway. He was annoyed by the team’s performance the past three seasons and planned to give up his season tickets, which he has had since 1985.
The jerseys are “all about marketing,” he said.
“It’s no coincidence that they came out on Black Friday,” Testa said. “They know they’re going to take a hit with ticket renewals.”
November 28, 2009
<NYT_HEADLINE version="1.0" type=" ">At a Yankees Shop, Buzz; At a Mets Store, a Hush </NYT_HEADLINE>
<NYT_BYLINE version="1.0" type=" ">By KEN BELSON
</NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>It was a tale of two Black Fridays for New York’s baseball teams.
The [URL="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/baseball/majorleague/newyorkyankees/index.html?inline=nyt-org"]Yankees Clubhouse on 42nd Street[/URL], still basking in the glow of the team’s 27th World Series championship, was flooded with customers elbowing through racks of commemorative T-shirts, hats and jackets. Pedestrians stopped to snap photographs of the storefront.
Two blocks east, the [URL="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/baseball/majorleague/newyorkmets/index.html?inline=nyt-org"]Mets Clubhouse[/URL] hosted a handful of passers-by who gazed at the rows of jerseys and sweatshirts, many 50 percent off. The store seemed to be as quiet as Shea Stadium was after Carlos Beltran looked at Adam Wainwright’s called third strike to end the 2006 season.
The retail foot traffic largely mirrored the team’s on-field performances this year. The Yankees added another piece of armor to their gold-plated reputation as winners. The Mets sank in the standings early before fading into comical irrelevance.
The stores on 42nd Street were yet more evidence that winning sells.
Aoi Niwa, for instance, breezily spent $203 on a World Series hat, T-shirt and sweatshirt at the Yankees Clubhouse. Her father in Japan is a big fan of Hideki Matsui, she said. During their last phone conversation, he asked Niwa to pick up some items to commemorate the team’s championship and Matsui’s World Series Most Valuable Player award.
“It’s a little pricey, but it’s worth it,” said Niwa, who lives in Portland, Ore., and was visiting a friend in New York for Thanksgiving.
Across the street at Modell’s, the front of the store was wall-to-wall Yankees merchandise. Jeter replica jerseys were being sold for $120, Yankee fleece jackets for $60 and sweatshirts for $55. Yankee hats with the World Series logo were $36.
It is hard to gauge the success of an entire shopping season on one day’s foot traffic. But Peter Augustine, the president of New Era Cap, the market leader in baseball caps, said that he expected sales to be unchanged this holiday season compared with last year despite the victory by the Yankees, the No. 1 selling team.
“While the Yankees always outsell the Mets, their win did not provide the kind of bump in sales that we would normally expect,” he said. “We blame that on the recession.”
Of course, that has not stopped teams like the Mets and the Yankees from introducing merchandise. The Mets, for instance, unveiled new retro jerseys Friday, ones similar to those worn by the players on the 1969 championship team wore.
The home uniform tops, which the players will wear next season, include pinstripes against a light cream background, similar to those the team wore starting in 1962, when the Mets set a modern-day record for losses in a season.
There were no signs, however, to announce the arrival of the new uniform tops lined up against the wall at the Mets Clubhouse store. The jerseys, which have embroidered lettering and are made with a finer material, cost $266, nearly three times the cost of other replica jerseys.
The retro jerseys sparked a debate among fans on various Mets-related blogs. Some thought the team should focus more on improving the team and less on marketing. Others thought that the jerseys were an effort to make fans feel good just as they receive their season-ticket renewal notices.
In any case, $266 was too pricey for Ben Testa, a Mets fan who stopped in the store on his way to work. Testa asked an employee how many of the new jerseys he had sold so far. None, he was told, as of midafternoon Friday.
Testa said he might have bought a jersey if it were less expensive, but said he was not in the mood to spend a lot on the Mets anyway. He was annoyed by the team’s performance the past three seasons and planned to give up his season tickets, which he has had since 1985.
The jerseys are “all about marketing,” he said.
“It’s no coincidence that they came out on Black Friday,” Testa said. “They know they’re going to take a hit with ticket renewals.”
