Nike Bauer Goes Retro

Nike Bauer Hockey has designed retro skates and sticks for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres as part of a special outdoor game being played January 1 at Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the Buffalo Bills. The skates are replica Bauer skates first introduced in 1968. The equipment will be autographed and auctioned off with proceeds to benefit the NHL Players' Association's Goals & Dreams fund's efforts in the two cities. Launched in 1999, Goals & Dreams has donated complete sets of equipment to over 8,000 underprivileged kids in 17 countries. (Shown, Bauer's 1968-1969 catalog.)

Nike Bauer Blog

Denson, Hainer, Plank Crack Sports Top 50

Nike's Charles Denson ranked 13th on SportsBusiness Journal's 50 Most Influential People In Sports Business for 2007. Adidas's Herb Rainer came in at 17, and Under Armour's Kevin Plank, 42. The rest of the list includes an assortment of team owners, sports league commissioners, sports media tycons, and major sports sponsors, etc.

Accessing the list, CNBC columnist Darren Rovell praised SBJ for putting Denson on the list instead of Phil Knight - a common mistake - since Knight isn't involved in day-to-day stuff. He surmised that Mark Parker didn't make it since the mag only wanted one person per slot. Nonetheless, he argued that for donating $100 million to the University of Oregon, Knight could have earned a spot as a sponsor. Steve & Barry's or Dick's Sporting Goods also merit a spot. "They are huge players in the sports merchandise marketplace."

BelaHockey.com Goes Live

Earlier this month, BelaHockey.com went live, producing the first hockey line just for girls. The site offers polka-dotted sticks, pink-and-purple hockey socks and even a scarf to help players keep the hair out of their faces as they speed around the ice. A partner in the business is Cammi Granato, captain of the U.S. women's hockey teams that won the gold medal at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano and the silver in 2002 in Salt Lake City.

BelaHockey.com

Is a Private Jet Your Definition of Success?

For Ed Stack at Dick's Sporting Goods, it looks like he needs his own terminal...

Dick's is planning to build a 1-million-square-foot office campus next to Pittsburgh International Airport to accommodate a growing workforce. The first phase of construction, including 610,000 square feet of office space, related amenities, and a 60,000-square-foot aircraft terminal.

The campus would sit on 116 acres in the North Field development owned by the Allegheny County Airport Authority, just south of Route 60 at the Flaugherty Run interchange. It would have direct access to a taxiway to accommodate air travel by employees and vendors.

LINK

An Intelligent Football

The new Puma V1. 08 ball, which is being officially launched on January 1, contains a layer of d3o on the inside wall of the ball. By using d3o in the ball, Puma has created what it's calling the world's first ever "intelligent" football—at slow speeds it offers more control, and at high speeds it gives more power and truer flight.

How the heck does that work? Check out this d30 podcast showcasing the new product.

See Any Similarities?

Louis Vuitton and DVS have resolved the matter between them regarding the alleged infringement of Louis Vuitton’s registered trademarks and copyrights for sandals, slip-on shoes, athletic shoes, t-shirts, sweatshirts, caps and graphic kits. DVS has acknowledged Louis Vuitton’s intellectual property rights and has agreed to discontinue all manufacture, exportation, importation, distribution, advertising and marketing of said products.

LINK

Image via.

SGB @ 40

The December issue of SGB acknowledges our 40th anniversary and features interviews with sporting goods industry legends such as Doug Morton, Mitchell Modell, Mickey Newsome, Rusty Saunders, Jack Smith, Pat Galyan, Gib Ford, Ralph Parks, Bob Carr, Jim Chick, Gert Boyle and more.

The issue is out now. Looking for a copy? Email us. Want to subscribe? Click here.

Anyone Need An RV?

The guys from Eesa are currently hawking a used RV on eBay.

"Basically this is a dope RV to rally around, we won't lie to ya, it needs a spit shine and some elbow grease, but it is solid and it will get you from A-to-B rested and relaxed, especially when you sleep in the parking lot of your favorite resort the night of a massive storm and wake up for first chair. Oh yeah."

New Balance Acquires Vital

“Our acquisition of Vital gives us significant opportunities to accelerate the growth of New Balance apparel,” says Rob DeMartini, CEO at New Balance.

LINK

Kung Fu Fighting: Zoo York In China

SGB mag readers might recall that as part of our China Report in the November issue, Zoo York team manager Seamus Deegan filed a report from the Zoo Crew's two-week trip through Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

Hot off the YouTube presses, you can now check out some video of the Zoo York trip to China:




More on the Zoo over on their blog.

For information on subscribing to SGB magazine, click here.

Burton: Poach For Freedom

Burton is pushing some buttons with the recent launch of its Poach story on Burton.com. (See above video). The snowboard company is encouraging people to send in videos of themselves snowboarding at one of the four major North American ski resorts that still do not allow snowboarding.

Jake Burton points out that "Two of the four resorts operate on federal forest land, which makes this issue even more frustrating since the taxes of many snowboarders help finance these resorts."

adidas CEO says Asics-Nike Rumors are Pure Nonsense

Last week someone felt that rumors about Nike and ASICS teaming up to acquire adidas were worthy to print. Herbert Hainer told Reuters the speculation was "pure nonsense," adding that nobody had approached adidas.

Hurley Recommends ...

Music and athletic branding is nothing new, but Hurley is taking it a step further with the new Hurley recommends program, a collaboration with SoCal lifestyle retail chain Active and Orange County-based record label Science Records.

The program, which involves listening stations in over 20 Hurley and Active retail locations, introduces customers to bands tagged as "Hurley favorites." The program kicks off with four artists: Avenged Sevenfold, The White Stripes, Talib Kweli and Motion City Soundtrack, all of which will be prominently featured on custom CD racks in each of the retail locations.

The “Hurley Recommends” music program also incorporates in-store concerts, free samplers, giveaways and online contests. Other upcoming feature artists include Against Me!, All Time Low, Tegan and Sara, Blessthefall, The Confession, Every Time I Die, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster and Job For a Cowboy.

Also of interest: the Hurley blog.

"This Is Gonna Be Dangerous"

Highly amusing video from Bode Miller:



Via skispace.com

Goose Bumps

The new adidas Europass will be the official match ball for this summer's Euro 2008 soccer tournament. The ball has goose bumps—a new surface structure that improves touch and ball control in all weather conditions.

Business Meeting

Editors extraordinaire Kris and Andy discuss the meaning of life over pickle chips and onion rings at the Penguin Drive-In.

Action Sports Legend's Final Fall

If action sports has anything to do with showmanship, airborne stunts and the threat of broken bones, Evel Knievel clearly paved a path for many of its future stars. He died last week at the age of 69. When he retired in 1980, he told reporters that he was “nothing but scar tissue and surgical steel.”

LINK

Gatorade Inventor Dies

University of Florida professor Robert Cade, the lead inventor of Gatorade back in 1965, died Nov. 27 at the age of 80 of kidney failure. According to legend, the inspiration for Gatorade came from a question from former Florida Gators coach Dwayne Douglas, who asked, “Doctor, why don’t football players wee-wee after a game?”

LINK

Ex-Columbia Execs Launch Inpirational Collection

Beth Brownlee, former apparel sales director for Columbia Sportswear, and Ruth Nichols, also a former Columbia executive, have introduced "Trust Your Journey," an inspirational and eco-friendly apparel line. The brand's name was inspired by Brownlee's battle with breast cancer when a friend told her during chemotherapy to "trust your journey." Said Brownlee, "When I heard those words, it just hit me, 'You can beat this awful cancer, Beth, you just need to believe in this and have the courage to stay positive,' I said to myself. I knew at that point I would heal and one day give this inspiration back."

LINK

Adidas Digs Chinese Art

Adidas is sponsoring an art exhibition "Gong Zhen: Sport in Art" as its preps for the upcoming Beijing Olympics. The show features 70 artists from around the world, including contemporary darlings of China's art market, Wang Guangyi and Yue Minjun. Currently at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai, the exhibition moves to Guangzhou, Nanjing, Shenyang and Chengdu before heading to Beijing.

LINK

Cycling Takes Another Hit

Following adidas's lead last month, T-Mobile pulled out of its sponsorship of the Germany cycling team after cyclist Patrik Sinkewitz's admission that he used performance enhancing drugs. Said CEO Hamid Akhavan, "We have decided to take this step to distance ourselves and the brand T-Mobile from the latest doping confessions in sport and more particularly cycling."

LINK

Meet The Mascots

Inspired by local Aboriginal mythological creatures and influenced by modern animation styles, the mascots for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games look adorably awesome to me.

Miga is a snowboarding sea bear inspired by the legends of the Pacific Northwest First Nations; Quatchi is a Sasquatch (!) and Sumi is "an animal spirit who wears the hat of the orca whale, flies with the wings of the mighty thunderbird and runs on the furry legs of the black bear."

More info: Vancouver2010.com

Dick's Sporting Goods to Acquire Chick's Sporting Goods

Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. has entered into a definitive stock purchase agreement to acquire Chick's Sporting Goods. Under the terms of the agreement, Dick's has agreed to pay approximately $40 million in cash for the outstanding equity of Chick's. Including the assumption of approximately $31 million of indebtedness, the transaction values Chick's at approximately $71 million...

LINK

Cyber Monday Discounts

The National Retail Federation reports that nearly one-third of online retailers are having special one-day sales for Cyber Monday. And the number of online retailers planning some type of special promotion for the Monday after Thanksgiving surged to 72 percent of those polled, up from 42 percent just two years ago. Another NRF survey of online shoppers revealed that more than half of adults plan to shop at work.

Via AP.

Gil TV

Adidas launched GilTv.com today, a micro site that showcases NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas' quirky persona and promotes his signature Adidas footwear line.

Here's one of the videos on the site. It's called "black president."



Arenas also writes a pretty amusing blog on NBA.com.

Update: Looks like Arenas just found out he's out for three months with a knee injury. Ouch. Bad timing.

Quote of the Week

"We do cater to a higher end customer, to better products than Academy does. But there is an overlap there. Academy is a very well-run operation, and they will be the toughest competition we have had to face."

- Ed Stack, Dick's Sporting Goods' chairman & CEO

Virtual Tour: House of Hoops

House of Hoops, the new Nike and Foot Locker retail concept, opened the doors on its first store today. Located on 125th Street in Harlem, House of Hoops is situated in the middle of an urban fashion retail hub. We were inside the store getting a preview on Sunday.

Look for expanded coverage in the December issue of SGB, but for now, here's a sneak peek—a video tour of the House of Hoops:



Near the end of that video is Nike's Archie McEachran showing us the limited edition Zoom Lebron 5 China colorway.

The store has a t-shirt bar where customers can customize their own shirts. There are separate merch areas showcasing highlighted players. There is a hoop in the front of the store and in the back of the store is a "chill zone" with several big screens, a video game area and leather lounging chairs.

Previously: Under Armour Store, Virtual Tour

More Doping Ahead...

According to the BBC, Peter Sönksen claims the test for human growth hormone (HGH) is useless and will only catch "a stupid athlete".

"The test we have is imperfect and it's probable that an awful lot of people who appear to be negative are in fact doping," the professor told BBC Sport. "Until we have a more effective test, you can't believe what you're seeing."

LINK

Does This Look Like Furniture To You?

Last month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Long Beach, CA, uncovered a smuggling scheme and seized 64,664 pairs of counterfeit "Nike" footwear and 6,144 fake "North Face" jackets worth more than $2 million. The counterfeit goods were packed in sea container shipments with manifests that indicated the shipments were supposed to be furniture from China.

Via

Sneakerhead Buzz Item

Starks Laces. These guys are doing some cool stuff.

Good Soles

Pictured above at the Sole Technology warehouse in Lake Forest, CA last week, CEO Pierre Andre Senizergues and his employees joined together in sending off a gift-in-kind donation of 1,000 pairs of shoes and 500 pieces of apparel to aid Southern California wildfire victims. The wearable contribution went to victims who lost their homes, and was channeled through the United Way. More information on how to help can be found by visiting unitedwayoc.org.

Mad Money's UA Rant

Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's Mad Money, put Under Armour on his "sell block" last week in one of his patented rants. You can watch the video here.

You Make The Call

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Touché

Earlier this week, British Airways implemented regulations banning large sports equipment from its flights. Causing the most ruckus was the news that surfboards would no longer be allowed as checked luggage. Also among the banned items: canoes, kayaks and hang gliders. In a cheeky move, competitor Virgin Atlantic announced the very next day that it would not only continue to allow all of the above items, but would allow them to be checked for free. Read the Virgin Atlantic news release here.

The China Issue

In mailboxes this week.

London's $1 Billion Olympic Stadium

According to the BBC, the new £496 million Olympic Stadium will hold over 80,000 people and "does not compromise on sustainability."

(Yes, £496 million equals $1 billion now, the £ hit $2.10 for the first time in 26 years yesterday)

Here's a video created by the London Olympic Committee (done in a very British fashion) that shows some of the key features...

LINK

Matt Lauer At The Arctic Circle: Does The Logo On That Beanie Look Familiar?

Viewers who tuned in to the Today Show on NBC on Monday caught a glimpse of Matt Lauer sporting a familiar logo on his beanie. The Under Armour beanie on Lauer's head gave the brand some excellent exposure, and according to this article in the Baltimore Sun, it was not a case of product placement, Lauer chose to wear it on his own.

Images via nbc.com.

View From The Inside

Just a few shots from the New York City Marathon Health and Fitness Expo at the Jacob Javits Convention Center this past weekend. All of the running industry's big guns were there selling product and engaging with consumers. Admission to the expo was free, and it was open to the public.

(click images to enlarge)









That last photo above is from the New Balance booth, where a few cooking demonstrations took place, featuring various New York City chefs. The crowds were lined up plenty deep to watch the cooking demos and sample the results.

In the Cards

We picked up these playing cards at the pre-NYC Marathon party Brooks threw at Providence on 57th Street this past Saturday. The bash was in honor of the Hanson brothers. No, not the dorky hockey brothers from the Slap Shot movie or the Hanson kids who came up with the "MMMBop" hit. But the two brothers who started the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project, an elite running group sponsored by Brooks. Thirteen members of the team competed in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in NYC on Saturday and nine finished in the top 30, including Brian Sell, who finished third to earn a spot on the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team.

More "sights and scenes" from Marathon Weekend coming soon...

Virtual Tour: Under Armour Store

Under Armour made its entry into branded retail today, with the official opening of its first-ever retail store. Located in the Westfield Mall in Annapolis, MD, the store occupies 4,500 square feet of retail space.

SGB was on location at the store on October 31, getting a sneak peek the day before the official opening. Look for expanded coverage in the December issue of SGB.

For now, here's a teaser—an exclusive video tour of the new Under Armour store, shot on location by the SGB staff.

Reebok Nation

New England area sports fans aren't the only ones thrilled to have their teams winning at, oh... just about everything this Fall. Check out this commercial:

The Lost Wave

This documentary picked up a few film fest awards last year and is being released on DVD this week. The film documents a journey by noted surf historian Sam George and several surfers to the island nation of Sao Tome, and it aims to prove that surfing is an indigenous African sport. The sport has flourished on the impoverished island for generations, with villagers riding the waves on finless wooden boards.

More info and a trailer at thelostwave.com.

Nike to Acquire Umbro

At least one British analyst didn't see any real problems arising from Nike's offer.

"This is a knock out bid. The offer price is pretty plump," said WH Ireland analyst John Cummins.

Adidas JR Apparel: Coming in February

We just caught a glimpse of a few samples of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s new signature apparel line at the Adidas showroom on Houston Street in New York. The JR apparel line, which will feature a JR logo as well as an Adidas logo, includes lifestyle pieces with performance touches. The items we saw were pretty straightforward - a baseball jersey and a women's raglan cut-off sweatshirt.

It will be interesting to see this line evolve. Will NASCAR-related apparel and merchandise finally find a larger niche at sporting goods retail?

The Adidas JR line will launch in February. Footwear is in the works, too. Adidas is also designing Earnhardt's racing suit.

DC Shoes + Spotted Pig: Double Label

DC Shoes has a new limited edition shoe out that is a collaboration with hip New York City pub the Spotted Pig. DC originally made a shoe exclusively for the restaurant’s staff, meaning you had to steal them off a waiter’s feet if you wanted a pair. Staff members were being offered hundreds of dollars for their work sneakers, leaving some waiters walking home barefoot with fat pockets. Due to demand and buzz, the DC Spotted Pig shoes are now available in limited numbers at boutiques worldwide.

One More Jab...

Dick's Sporting Goods was named title sponsor for the BolderBoulder 10K race on Thursday.

Normally this wouldn't be noteworthy, but it sure seems like the marketing team at Dick's is spending an inordinate amount of money on sponsorships in the Denver area.

Could this have anything to do with TSA's headquarters being located in Denver?

Umbro Receives Take Over Bid

SGB UPDATE is reporting that Umbro has received a take-over bid from an unspecified source. Rumors and now Reuters is reporting that sources say the bid came from Nike, Inc. Should Nike acquire Umbro, it will likely also pick up the sponsorship for England's national football (soccer) team kits (uniforms).

The move by Nike would be one more salvo in a fight with adidas that seemed to have petered out several months ago after Nike was unsuccesful in its attempt to sign the German national squad to a sponsorship deal for their kits.

Got $5,000 to Spare?

Check out this eBay listing for a sample pair of the Osiris/Consolidated collaboration—The Drunk. The "anti-Nike" skate shoe will not be released until March, 2008, but Osiris chief creative officer Brian Reid is hawking his own sample pair of size 10s to raise the profile of the Don't Do It campaign.

1HUND(RED)

Sneak peek. Converse 1HUND(RED) Artists project. Dropping in 2008.

Too Little Too Late?

It looks like Heelys is expanding their line to include a "non-wheeled" shoe line dubbed "the Gamer by Heelys." After seeing their sell-through drop and inventories at retail climb, will this be enough to resurrect the brand? Will retailers buy it while there are still loads of Heelys on their shelves?

The "Other" Croc

From the Spring 2008 Lacoste tennis footwear collection.

Pros and Cons of Pro Cheerleaders

An opinion piece at onmilwaukee.com analyzes the recent NFL edict prohibiting home teams from having their cheerleaders warm up outside the visiting team's locker room.

The league thinks that watching nubile young women dressed in workout clothes stretching their lithe bodies into all kinds of shapes might distract players from taking their steroids and pain pills and thinking about the game plan.

Most of the players who were contacted after the edict said they never even noticed that the cheerleaders were around. But then you have Jesse Palmer, who played backup quarterback for the NFL for several years, mainly with the Giants. He talked about a game against the Dallas Cowboys.

"We started several drives inside our own 20-yard line, with each drive following a TV timeout," he said. "With my back to the end zone in the huddle, I was frustrated because I couldn't make eye contact with any of my teammates as I was trying to call our plays. They were all staring right at the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders who were performing in the end zone.

"The best line came from our tight end, Visanthe Shiancoe, who interrupted me in the middle of a play call and said, 'Jesse, you really need to turn around and see this.'"

more ...

Binding Fashion

These Balenciaga open toe sandals got a shout-out from Kanye West on his blog. Apparently they retail for more than $4,000.

Must be high-end bindings.

Fila Flashback

Nelly wearing the Fila Original Tennis and Fila White Line leather jacket at the VH1 Hip Hop Honors awards. Images via VH1.com.