Good morning Mets fans,
Since black uniforms popped up on Mets Blog yesterday, and little is going on in the Metsiverse as I write this Tuesday evening, I thought it might make sense to revisit this post from April.
Brian had a conversation with a Mets marketing executive and wrote up his account of the conversation.
Since this was originally published, the Mets have had me over to dinner and we talked about the article. In the original article I deleted the executives name and replaced the name with “Casey.” A Mets staffer used the name of the person to me, so I more than ever believe that Brian’s account of the conversation is accurate.
With all things Mets Police, I remind you this isn’t news – just a fat guy in a basement trying to tie things together. I leave it to you to decide if the site is reliable or not. And with that…here’s what Brian said the executive said..(from April 2010, and note that the formatting in the original article has gotten funky – a cleaner version is below)
Immediately, I started in on the black uniforms. (Casey) told me that I may be surprised, but those who don’t like the black uniforms are overwhelmingly in the minority. According to (Casey), they received a lot of positive feedback on the black uniforms in the May uniform survey. (Casey) did say that those who like the black are less enthusiastic about it, meaning: “Yeah, I like ’em” rather than those opposed, who REALLY hate them.
(Casey) did say that it is their number 1 selling jersey and the reason why they axed the black road uni last year was it created some customer confusion (which I took to mean: people come in, see two black uniforms and go, “they’re the same, but one says Mets. I want the one that says Mets.”) (Casey) did go on to say the black New York road alt constantly got overstocked because people who bought the black bought the home alt, so they decided to kill the road version. (Casey) also mentioned one of the reasons black is used is it acts as a “third color” for outerwear and other merchandising.
Based on (Casey’s) comments about the black, essentially saying it sells well, but it doesn’t seem to be because of their overwhelming loyalty to the black color, I asked if (Casey) thought a blue alternate jersey may be a good avenue to explore? (Casey’s) response was a resounding no. (Casey) referenced the poor sales of the blue batting practice jersey. I immediately reminded (Casey) how low the visibility is for batting practice items probably suppresses sales especially since the Mets have taken to wearing their snow whites during home spring training games during the last 3 seasons and (Casey) agreed that it might be a factor, but insisted the market wasn’t there for a blue alternate top. I found that fairly surprising, but (Casey) said they had done extensive research on a blue alternate top and the interest just isn’t there.
My opinion on this matter is all of baseball should go back to basics. It is more profitable to sell many of a few choices. Look at the Yankees. Two uniforms period! The METS should wear Pinstripes only (with no names) at home, Road Grays with Block NEW YORK (not script) and as an alternate BLACK with Block NEW YORK. As far as marketing Batting Practice Jerseys Go with the Black METS with names or not.
“This sells, so we put the team in it. That doesn’t, so we’ll drop it.” Talk about the tail wagging the dog.
Geesh. Sell whatever you want to whomever wants to buy it, but don’t dress you team based up what sells the most and least. I guess if the women’s fashion jerseys ever have an especially good year, we’ll see the team in pink jerseys and caps?
I agree with BocaColonel. Most people feel the bottom line is that their image is diluted with too many ‘alternate’ looks, which doubles as a manifestation of the underlying cultural malaise.
I think the problem with the Mets PR rep’s statement is it does not address the core issue which, if he was listening, he’d get a sense for. Casual fans want a more casual look. They want the real team gear, and they want something a little more casual than a wash of strips, pinstripes, outlines, dropshadows, and clashing colors. The ardent historic-conscious fan wants most of all for the franchise to respect itself, and not, pardon the term, whore itself out. So, having a home uni, an away uni, and a third uni, is about as much as hard core fans will approve of, and it’s enough to appease the casual fans too. (This isn’t hard to understand is it?) The people generally want some consistency. Home uni w home hat, ditto for away, ditto for alt uni.
If you look in a lids store there are 900 Yankee hats of various colors. The Yankees wear just the one. I don’t begin to understand how to drive sales on merchandise, thats not my gig. So if you want to sell a black jersey to a teenage kid go for it. But my eyes shouldn’t have to hurt seeing it on the field. I have never understood the need to have so many jerseys and quite frankly when I see it on the field I die a little inside. Pinstripes and blue hats at home greys and blue hats on the road thats all it should be. I know there are those who believe i’m an ol’ foaggie with that belief but it always seemed to me that they are running away from there own identity. Lastly I will say this. If the Mets are so concerned with driving up merchandise sales then perhaps they should turn there attention to putting a winning product on the field instead of dressing them like a 30 and over softball team. I find it hard to believe they were having trouble selling hats and jerseys in the 80’s.
Dom, I asked a question at a Sports memorabilia place on why are there so many different Yankees hats? Mind you I live in Port St. Lucie, FL (retired down here due to my love of the Mets). He stated that it was due to basic economics, supply and demand, countrywide. I understand that teams do not uniform their teams simply for team aesthetics; it’s all about selling these items in a large market. Mets win, and then the front-runners will appear flooding the market with requests of Mets uniform items! If the Mets depended on ticket sales to pay for this team, they would be broke. I would like to see the two uniform rule, but continue with keeping the names on the back. We are not the Yankees, and frankly I could care less about their tradition and organizational idiosyncrasies. I could do without the black jerseys, but hey it could be worse, they could go back to those loud orange batting jerseys – ugh!