PonyFans.com

I was in Frisco yesterday and went into Rally House for the first time. Very impressive selection of the major Texas colleges, except SMU. UT, A&M, TT, TCU and OU were all VERY well represented. Then you had little ol' SMU in the corner with a few t shirts??

I started chatting with the manager and I asked him why they have such a vast supply of TCU merchandise and so little for SMU. He said he has no problem moving his SMU stuff, it's just the powers that be at SMU are so conservative when it comes to what distributors they will allow to print/make SMU merchandise. He said they are by far the worst and that in many cases they don't even ask anymore. He said TCU is very easy to work with and that they get it from a marketing standpoint. Without being rude, he basically said SMU doesn't. He also mentioned Baylor as being difficult. It was just depressing to have a major college merchandise retail store only 30 minutes away from our school and to have 1/5 of the store purple with the rest UT, A&M, TT and OU. Then you have to pull out a map to find the few SMU items.

Well, now that the faculty committee has been pushed aside from medling with athletics, we had to leave something for them to do--make sure our T shirts are up to code.

Why don't you e-mail Orsini and see how he responds. I'm sure some gatekeeper on his staff has gotten power hungry or Adidas is the culprit. Or maybe the monopoly rule they had to keep Bob Sharp in business 5 years ago hasn't been taken off the books! Just kidding Bob.

Supply demand nothing more

Mexmustang wrote:Well, now that the faculty committee has been pushed aside from medling with athletics, we had to leave something for them to do--make sure our T shirts are up to code.

Why don't you e-mail Orsini and see how he responds. I'm sure some gatekeeper on his staff has gotten power hungry or Adidas is the culprit. Or maybe the monopoly rule they had to keep Bob Sharp in business 5 years ago hasn't been taken off the books! Just kidding Bob.

Emailing Orsini or Brad Sutton is not a half-bad idea. The Rally House in Allen (actually, I guess technically it is in Fairview) is 5 minutes from my house and while they have a decent selection of SMU gear, it is pitiful in comparison to other schools. If Orsini wants to increase ticket sales and make SMU a major brand in the Metroplex and nationally, he has to actually SELL it. Putting up barriers to getting a presence out there is just dumb. For him to go out and say "we have this great product (which we don't really market) and I don't understand why more people aren't buying it" kind of makes him sound like an idiot. I don't think he is one, I just think he needs to be reminded of the importance of effective use of the tools at his disposal to raise revenue and get the spotlight pointed in the right direction.

One Trick Pony wrote:Supply demand nothing more

not true. As I posted, the manager said moving SMU merchandise wasn't an issue - meaning the demand is there. He wants to carry more but the issue is getting SMU to approve the merchandise, nothing more.

LA_Mustang wrote:

One Trick Pony wrote:Supply demand nothing more

not true. As I posted, the manager said moving SMU merchandise wasn't an issue - meaning the demand is there. He wants to carry more but the issue is getting SMU to approve the merchandise, nothing more.

Demand is not there.

One Trick Pony wrote:Supply demand nothing more

not really. that may be part of the problem, but licensing is an issue. i have a friend who owns a clothing company that designs & sells kids merchandise with collegiate logos/themes. he said SMU is near impossible to work with as a small independent producer.

as a parent with a young child, it's' damn near impossible to find any SMU gear for my son.

One Trick Pony wrote:

LA_Mustang wrote:

One Trick Pony wrote:Supply demand nothing more

not true. As I posted, the manager said moving SMU merchandise wasn't an issue - meaning the demand is there. He wants to carry more but the issue is getting SMU to approve the merchandise, nothing more.

Demand is not there.

I don't think SMU has a clue what their demand really is since they put up so many roadblocks to actually selling their products. You make it difficult for distributors to do business with you, the whole analysis of true demand gets skewed because the supply is shut down from the start.

Been down this road in Orlando with UCF. When more people like your self show up and demand it, buy SMU gear supply will increase to meet the general publics need.

Its trouble to sell one cap a month then have problems on top of that

LA_Mustang wrote:He wants to carry more but the issue is getting SMU to approve the merchandise, nothing more.

I can tell you this is unequivocally untrue. Until a few years ago it may have been true, but I can assure you it is no longer the case. Since I took over approvals a few years back, I have approved 99% of the items that have come through CLC. To that end, we have set royalty records for five straight years and have posted a 63% increase over that span. If you ever get this response from a retailer, feel free to let them know that that is no longer the case. Also, either provide them my contact info or get their contact info and send it to me. We want to move product, which was one of the reasons we got into Wal-Marts (see the new store on NWHY and Skillman) and will continue to move into new outlets.

Thanks to all. Join The Stampede!

Brad Sutton
Associate A.D./Public Relations
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, Texas
214.768.1651

Bradster!!

Drop the hammer Brad.

Great to know, Brad! I'm plugging your contact info into my iphone so I can give it to anyone who says they can't get the product they want.

I need 3x in the book store!!!!
Big guys wear gear too!!

Hilarious comeback - Stlhockeyguy02!!! LOL!!!