Apparel for the New AVP
French styling for the sand...
I’ve been meaning to write something for quite a while regarding the apparel worn by athletes on tour and how it’s not helping build a volleyball-based style or brand for the sport to market and sell. Instead, we keep contributing our hard-earned dollars to the surf industry instead of creating our own consumer base.
For example, last week I walked into Dick’s Sporting Goods and noticed floor to ceiling marketing displays of people enjoying the summer, wearing summer clothing, which just so happened to coincide directly with either a guy or girl holding a volleyball. I’m not kidding; every single advertisement lining the walls and stanchions had someone playing volleyball.
How to solve this conundrum? Well, I think the AVP and its stellar new management group should partner with a brand like Vilebrequin for player apparel and require all athletes not already locked into an apparel sponsorship arrangement to wear them. Tough sell, yes. However, if Vilebrequin outfitted every athlete on tour and started developing shorts, tops and bathing suits that are sport specific and we started selling consumer goods that no longer contributed to another sport’s bottom dollar; slowly but surely, I think everyone playing the game might come around.
It doesn’t even necessarily have to be Vilebrequin. In fact, they might be a little expensive for the price point of a typical AVP fan, but I think you get my point. It needs to be a “volleyball-based style” brand that isn’t already contributing additional dollars to the pockets of “Surfing Magazine” through free advertisement of the same gear that is running their billion dollar industry.
The AVP Tour currently has two athletes on the men’s side that have an apparel deal (Phil Dalhausser and Jake Gibb with Speedo). Everyone else is wearing boardshorts for free and has helped turn a company like Quiksilver into an untouchable super giant.
It’s just my opinion but I really think what we’re missing, and have been missing for some time, is consumers. A fan should be like, “What’s Rosie wearing? I’m getting those shorts for sure.” It’ll help drive the marketplace. And Rockstar unfortunately sells toxic energy poison, not apparel.
Note: Rosie, Casey and Aaron are true Rockstars. I love Fuerby and his game to death, but he’s no Rockstar. He’s about the furthest thing you can get from a Rockstar. Fortunately for him, his partner is carrying the slack for both of them. Casey reminds me almost of the old school; showing up to his match for the cross-over with a VIP stamp on his wrist and a look in his eye that screams, “I absolutely killed it last night.” And then he wins…
Okay, back to business, and apparel that we can all wear to help transcend the sport of beach volleyball.
Now, if you have any knowledge of the game in the ’80s and ’90s, your first reaction to this request is of course, we’ve already tried this, and every brand our sport seemed to churn out crashed and burned. And if that is, in fact, what you just said to yourself out-loud, you’d be completely right.
Sideout, Club, Redsand, VB Rags, Mossimo, OP, Jams, Spot Sport, Primitive Prints… they’ve all gone the way of a nice pair of Z. Cavaricci’s. Well, that’s not completely true. Somehow, someway, it looks as though a few of the brands listed above managed to survive the test of time. Click on each hyperlink to check out what they’ve become. Either way, once again, you get my point. We’ve tried it, experienced the trend setting success any true wonder fad can, and watched it all collapse before our eyes. Kind of like the whole tour in the late 90’s; which might have had more to do with the loss of an apparel industry than anyone has ever been willing to admit.
Bottom line: With a little mix of the old, we now have a golden opportunity to start fresh and create something new. A brand like Vilebrequin would actually be very similar to the old style: pastels, florals and optional, smooth elastic waistbands. But it would also include something the beach volleyball world has yet to experience: a distinguished air of class.
The key would obviously be getting every player on tour to understand the greater purpose of this mission in order to prevent a revolution. Most athletes on tour are individualistic well beyond the point of actually being an ‘individual,’ so conformity within one structure of style would be a tough stretch, but if our sport started creating its own market for consumer merchandise, advertising dollars for magazines, television and on-site activation would automatically sky rocket, instantly translating into dollars in our own pockets. We could finally stand alone, on our own two feet, with apparel that speaks solely to our beloved cult-like beach loving community.
The next time I hear a kid say they want to play beach volleyball and look as cool as Sean Rosenthal, I want that kid to follow up with, “No Mom, I don’t want those ridiculous boardshorts, I’m not going surfing. I want a pair of those shorts Rosie has on, a pair of shorts that only volleyball players wear.”
Not done yet? Looking for part 2? Click here.
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Hans,
I could not agree with you more and actually tried to put the gears in motion this spring to create something exactly like this. Killed by the economy when I went for funding for the idea and had more than one money guy tell me that the entire clothing market is on the ropes. Quicksilver, as an example, secured emergency funding ($150M) to keep operating for the year and avoid bankruptcy.
With luck someone will find the funding and get this concept up and running soon.
Thanks for the great Random Thoughts!
Micah
Hans,I think you should do a fashion consult with Adam Roberts to see where he buys those
short-shorts. Please post the link here cause I want to buy a pair of those and look kewl like
he does….ooops…nevermind I just found 3 pairs in the bottom of my closet…I think I’ll wear the neon melon pair tomorrow…lol.
Well spoken, Hans. Doesn’t really matter what the brand is, as long as it makes a quality product that’s comfortable for balling.
How about something made in the good old USofA? Or at least Headquartered and managed in the USA!?!? That may be slim pickings, since it seems most all manufacturing is moving to China and India or some other 3rd-world nation.
perhaps telling of the struggling industry, at the moment their Website site is down: http://www.vilebrequin.com give a Fatal error: Call to undefined function debug() in /homez.232/vilebreq/www/library/init/Start.php on line 25
Dan,
How fitting. They couldn’t have timed that more perfectly. Hopefully it’ll be back up and you can check it out.
And Danny Kinda, keep in mind, it doesn’t have to be a brand exactly like Vilebrequin. I just used them because they already exist and carry a very “volleyball like” range of shorts and shirts. Or at least, that style. If a surf company produced an entire line based on our sport and we all supported it, that would work as well. Or there could be a whole brand new line? Say, Kinda Good Apparel? But that takes significant time to get off the ground and usually it’s not running. We just need to stop contributing to surfing’s bottom dollar. They’re already making enough money as it is and it all stems from the industry; gear, apparel, accessories… (please pick up a surfing magazine if you don’t know what I’m talking about). Essentially, the lifestyle brings in the dough. We always try to claim that we are also all about the lifestyle, but really we’re just borrowing off of others. Our sport is good enough to stand alone. Now we need to prove it. But given the current economy, maybe we can prove it 2010 or 2011…
Hans
Seems to me that there are sufficient volleyball based brands, the problem is that they no longer support volleyball. Where is Redsand? Where is Mausimmo (besides Target)? Where is SideOut? They are all still volleyball based but I don’t see them supporting the AVP players or the grass roots players. Instead we have Barefoot Wine and Rockstar (not knocking either of them, they are great sponsors). Sounds to me like the volleyball brands have left the sport. I guess your point is, how do we get them back again? Maybe a joint sponsorship is the key. If so, instead of getting a new brand on board, the AVP should solicit Maussimo, the biggest existing v-ball based brand.
Great post Hans. Last summer was my first trip to Manhattan Beach and it was a disappointment that there were no VB clothes options anywhere. I do remember the 90s – I wore nothing but Sideout and Redsand. It was great to be wearing what the pros wore. Even had the same visor Sinjin had!!
I heard Plastic sells volleyball apparel.
I support your idea Hans. Back in the day I wore Sideout and FILA. Today I wear Quicksilver and Speedo. I share the following (15 years of marketing experience).
It is more that just about creating the brand, you will need to get in with the retailers. The retailer will have lot to say when you come to them with the idea of a volleyball apparel brand. They do know what their customer will want. If it hits they will want guarantees of new product moving on and off their shelves at least every three months. Concessions will have to be made in the beginning. You also must have a solid, and I mean solid marketing, advertising, and promotional campaigns. They will also expect co-op ad dollars (you help pay for thier local market advertising, not all just some). Exclusives will be needed as well, they all want it first. Those are just a few of the things that will be required in the beginning. So yes you want that kid, but you need the retailer first.
Hans,
First off thanks for writing your blog. It’s nice to be able to read some relevant content about our sport from a legit professional who has an intelligent and truthful way about him.
I read your comments on Jake and Rockstar first then I read your thoughts on the lack of an apparel presence within our sport.
So here’s my idea. Start your solution with what makes people like me or anyone else who has rocked Redsand, Spot Sport and Sideout in the past. We wore it because it was cool. So the way I see it if only Jake and Phil have apparel sponsorships you got a huge list of “cool” guys who would like to make something from an apparel deal. So think of the coolest guys on the tour maybe guys like Ring, Olson, Rosie, Loomis, Scott and yourself. Get these guys together and form an agreement to wear a certain brand of clothing. In exchange you and the other say 5 players would get a share of sales in exchange for pimping out the brand. Get the brand a booth at the AVP events and you 6 make appearances and get people to buy your gear. You 6 then get a percentage of sales for the weekend. Now I’m sure your take would be miniscule at the “San Diego Open” at Harrah’s but if the gear is cool enough and you guys plug it enough you might just gain some traction. I may actually want to buy some volley gear again but definitely not if it is from Speedo, Russell Athletic or Crocs! I mean where’s the “lifestyle” in those brands????? KOOKY! Anyway I’ve got to quit pecking at my iPhone and get back to real life.
[...] wrote the original, Apparel for the New AVP, like I said, in an hour. Maybe less. It was just something I needed to say right then that was on [...]
Hans I love what your doing for the sport. I’m 14 and watch the AVP every weekend and love vollleyball. Ive been trying to make my own volleyball brand, but what we should do is bring SIDEOUT SPORT, SPOT SPORT, MOSSIMO, even maybe CLUB sportswear since club is not really doing any good right no either is Sideout. I would love to wear flipped up visors with SIDEOUT on the bottom. Watching the AVP classics it makes me even more want to wear their clothing.