CSNbbs

Fellow Rockets:

I found a vendor that offered some nice items and inquired if they would be interested in producing some Toledo logo'ed merchandise. I was particularly interested in offering a Toledo version of the beverage tub below. Unfortunately, I once again hit the brick wall that separates the "haves" from the "have nots". I'm sick of the lame merchandise that we have to settle for. This really frustates me!!!

"Sorry we are not licensed for the University of Toledo. Please let me know if you have any further questions."

And so I persisted:

"We would not be interested at this time. The reasons are twofold. One is that we are launching all our new products now. Two is the cost to do so. Not the licensing fee , but the development costs. We can easily have $2000-3,000 in development costs for a single school on our line. This is because it is pewter not screened on or decaled. I appreciate that you like our line, but we would choose to not proceed at this time."



Features 5.60 gallon tub L 21.75-inch; W 14-inch: H 7.5-inch Galvanized steel tub with watertight handles Pewter team graphic with team-colored enamel colorfill displayed on the front Can be used to plant flowers or chill beverages Can hold 18-24 cans or bottles Decorated in the team colors. Officially licensed. Made in USA. (SORRY, NOT AVAILABLE FOR THE TOLEDO ROCKETS)

It’s a shame, but that seems to be the way it is. At least you seem to be making some major strides with some other merchandise. Mid-Major schools have an uphill battle with everything, money, recruits and merchandise. Sooner or later people will take notice of ToledoRocketsfuel.com and will want to promote their products on it. The rich just get richer in the world of college athletics.

I have a few model replica stadiums that I have received over the years from Danbury mint. I have all of the professional Cleveland Stadiums and they have unbelievable detail. Imagine if we could own one of the Glass Bowl.

Marshall was the only mac school to have a replica of its stadium

This company makes all kinds of sweet college merchandise, but its only the big schools, something needs to change
:(


<a href='http://www.danburymintsports.com/xq/asp/sport.College/filter.Stadium+Replicas/s.0/p.1/qx/sport.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.danburymintsports.com/xq/asp/sp....1/qx/sport.htm</a>

How many West Virginians even have $75 to spend on a Marshall Stadium replica???? Really.

Marshall has some really nice merchandise, by far the best in the MAC. We need to get there.

those stadiums are really really nice!

Those stadiums are sweet! My guess would be that they would not be interested in doing a Toledo one b/c of the license.
This question might of been posed B4 but is there anyway we can get the license?

Mud-Duck Wrote:How many West Virginians even have $75 to spend on a Marshall Stadium replica???? Really.

Marshall really has a nice fan base that buy Marshall merchandise all the time. There is a reason that they were the only MAC school that has so many different types of merchandise available for sale, and that reason is that their fans are willing to buy the merchandise. Even though we have some great fans, we have too many bandwagon/fair weather fans that don't buy UT merchandise. Those of us on the message boards are the exception.

Someone recently posted a link to a great article about how Boise State has become a merchandising leader. It's possible for mid-majors, but we're not there yet.

Things are improving, though. Some of the online merchants I work with are actually carrying some stuff from MAC schools. When I started this job three years ago, that wasn't the case.

If it weren't for the licensing nonsense, I could see a lot of folks use Cafe Press to create a ton of cool shirts, mugs, etc.

Toledo62 Wrote:Those stadiums are sweet! My guess would be that they would not be interested in doing a Toledo one b/c of the license.
This question might of been posed B4 but is there anyway we can get the license?

It really isn't a licensing issue as the vendor points out in my original post to start this thread. If they are already licensed to do other stadiums, adding a license to produce a Toledo Glass Bowl mini stadium would be easy.

Rather, it is the up front development costs that vendors are reluctant to invest in. For a mini stadium they would have to first do the design (no doubt a trip to Toledo to get pictures, measurements, etc.).

Then the time for an artist, or some kind of 3D rendering machine, to make the initial prototype. That would then have to get approved and tweaked as necessay. Then a master mold would have to be made.

Once a final design has been approved the vendor would then probably have to order a quantity of 1000 (or more) to make the price per piece affordable in relation to the up front investment. No doubt these would be made offshore (e.g., China).

Then the vendor would have to hope that a retailer (like the bookstore) would actually order them in sufficient quantity.

It has been my experience that the vendor won't do this for a "small" school like Toledo where the market is unproven (as opposed to an Ohio State or Michigan). In most cases the vendor wants a "pre-sales" order/commitment and deposit from a retailer before they will even consider doing anything. Essentially they want their up front development costs covered to minimize their risk.

The foamheads are a good example, and the steps required are very similar to the mini stadiums. The vendor wants a up front commitment for 1000 foamheads at their wholesale cost in order to do the design, get UT/CLC approval/license, mold, and make the initial production run.

If we really want some of these kinds of things we are almost going to have to form some kind of informal "shareholder" type arrangement, i.e., we decide as a group on a particular product that we want, and then pool financial resources get the product developed. Getting everyone to agree on a particular product, and then making the fiscal commitment is the challenge.

I personally would like to see a Toledo Rocket foamhead as an initial effort. Doing so would require about $12,000 in up front investment costs to get the first 1000 made. I really think the foamheads would sell well if they became a reality. I'd be willing to work with anyone who would like to become a "shareholder" in such an endeavor. We would have to come up with some kind of profit sharing arrangement based on the amount of investment.

BGSUalum1987 Wrote:Someone recently posted a link to a great article about how Boise State has become a merchandising leader. It's possible for mid-majors, but we're not there yet.

Things are improving, though. Some of the online merchants I work with are actually carrying some stuff from MAC schools. When I started this job three years ago, that wasn't the case.

If it weren't for the licensing nonsense, I could see a lot of folks use Cafe Press to create a ton of cool shirts, mugs, etc.

The article says Boise State has become a merchandising leader, but where I live (in the San Francisco Bay Area, one of the country's largest markets), I have yet to see any BSU merchandise. Not to sound pompous (BSU is our rival afterall), but I see as much Fresno State gear as Cal and more so than Stanford, UCLA, and USC; ten years ago, Fresno State was virtually non-existent in the Bay Area market.

According to these links, Fresno State and Marshall are among the most prevalent mid-major names in terms of merchandise (and incidentally, Fresno St and Marshall have the most players playing in the NFL of mid-majors, if that has any bearing):

Lids: <a href='http://www.lids.com/index.html' target='_blank'>http://www.lids.com/index.html</a>

Champs (the same store that's supposed to be carry all this Boise merchandise):

<a href='http://www.champssports.com/catalog/supercat_fangear.cfm?TID=5555-35120508582035080236614-0&supercat=fangear' target='_blank'>http://www.champssports.com/catalog/superc...upercat=fangear</a>

ESPN (the ESPN store is the same as Champs):

<a href='http://www.espnshop.com/catalog/supercat_fangear.cfm?TID=9062-31120509133531090292874-0' target='_blank'>http://www.espnshop.com/catalog/supercat_f...3531090292874-0</a>

Thread about this on Fresno State board:

<a href='http://mb3.scout.com/ffresnostatefrm1.showMessage?topicID=11232.topic' target='_blank'>http://mb3.scout.com/ffresnostatefrm1.show...cID=11232.topic</a>

Thread about this on Boise St board:

<a href='http://www.goal-posts.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=1974' target='_blank'>http://www.goal-posts.com/modules.php?name...iewtopic&t=1974</a>

Sorry to inundate your board with Fresno State and Boise St stuff, but I just couldn't help responding...