12/28/2008

Checking the merchandise

The addition of Timber Rattler/Milwaukee Brewer co-branded merchandise has helped the Timber Rattler team store have a good Christmas season.

Makes you wonder what that whole new team name did for merchandise sales in Fort Wayne.
Adam Bohren didn’t know a Tin Cap from the Tin Man – until last week.

That’s when the Fort Wayne native was greeted at home by his parents with a dark green T-shirt emblazoned with the bright red apple logo of Fort Wayne’s minor league baseball team. It was their Christmas gift to him, and Bohren liked the logo so much he bought a team hat to go with the shirt.

“I’m kind of into ridiculous team names,” said Bohren, who now lives in Milwaukee and visits his parents about twice a year. “Because of where I’m from, people (in Milwaukee) can ask about it, and it’s a good little story. It’s something a little quirky.”
A word from the team, please?
“It’s going over very well,” said Brian Schackow, vice president of sales and finance for the Tin Caps, who has been with the organization for six seasons.

Team officials revealed the new logo only a few months ago, but they’ve received three times the Internet orders for merchandise this holiday season than in the four previous holiday seasons combined, Schackow said.

And offseason sales, measured from mid-September to the first of April, have already eclipsed the best Wizards mark from the past four years by 400 percent, according to Schackow.

“Those numbers are tremendously exciting,” Schackow said.
Not just exciting...Tremendously exciting!
Schackow said the struggling economy was a concern for the team, but the initial bashing from fans who took time to express their displeasure with the name was not. In fact, national logo consultants prepped team officials for the ridiculing.

“They spelled out how this was going to go,” Schackow said. “They told us the first week, second week, we’d be the dumbest guys in baseball. When we started selling and selling, it put any doubts to rest.”
Well, I don't know about that....Kidding.

More at the link about how the Fort Wayne Komets merchandise is doing this year.

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