Kevin McClary, the sports fan, used to root for the underdog. Times have changed.
As owner of Fan Creations, a Cumming maker of licensed products for colleges and professional sports teams, he now pulls for any squad that will help him sell more of the logo-bearing furniture and wall art his company offers.
"I'm an Auburn grad, but I love Alabama," he says, laughing at the heresy. "They're a great seller."
While football fans across the country follow the on-field action Saturday, some 3,000 collegiate licensees like McClary will focus on the off-field action at campus stores and on websites where they sell merchandise ranging from T-shirts and caps to ceiling fans and bar stools, to magnets and tissue box covers, all bearing school marks.
It's a huge business and the recession hasn't stopped it.
Atlanta-based The Collegiate Licensing Company, which acts as the agent between schools and manufacturers, says the retail marketplace for college licensed merchandise was $4.3 billion in 2010, up from $3.9 billion in 2009 and $4.2 billion in 2008. While sales have been flat overall lately, CLC noted that the industry has "been able to sustain the economic downturn."
So have licensees.
McClary started Fan Creations eight years ago with his brother, building toy boxes with school logos out of his garage. It took a while to attract attention and grow sales, but four years ago it became a full-time job for McClary (he had been a computer systems consultant). Annual sales now top $1 million.
He sells his products, including team logo headboards, coffee tables and chairs, through about 1,000 stores as well as online. He has licensing agreements with 30 colleges and recently added the National Football League.
"Winning is everything [in licensed product sales]," McClary said. That is, the school teams with the most victories and championships generally sell the most merchandise. That means more revenue for the licensees and for the schools: They take a percentage, typically 10 percent, of the wholesale price of an item.
That adds up. The University of Georgia earned gross royalties of $4.8 million from its licensing program in 2010-11. Georgia Tech earned $885,941 in 2010-11. CLC said Georgia ranked sixth in sales among its schools, while Georgia Tech ranked 46th.
Georgia has about 600 licensees. Alan Thomas, associate athletic director at Georgia, said for UGA, "That's probably too many."
Perhaps. According to CLC, "... to better manage their brands and maximize their revenue, many schools are becoming more strategic about their approach with regards to the number of companies they license, and in some product categories, schools are reducing their total number of licensees, and in others they are adding companies."
The industry is populated by big players, but there is room for smaller operators as well.
About a third of the companies that work with CLC produce merchandise for 10 or more schools, while a little more than a third produce merchandise for fewer than 10 schools. The rest are internal campus suppliers.
While the industry might see some paring down, there are plenty of newcomers trying to make their mark, including some in metro Atlanta.
Camron McIntyre came up with a desktop ornament called BIGshooz for his firm, eCompanyStore, an Atlanta promotional products business that was looking for a way to crack the consumer products market. The combination pen/football player figurine was three years in the making. It was rolled out this year and is now sold through about 40 retailers, he said. Georgia, Alabama and Auburn are the three schools in stock, but more are coming.
"It's a fun industry," McIntyre said. "People like to show pride in their teams."
How those teams perform does make a difference, however.
"College fans are diehards," he noted. "But if they lose, not as much."
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