Going Deep: New and improved Toronto Blue Jays a hit before first pitch on opening day
The Toronto Blue Jays major off-season acquisitions have yet to step foot on the Rogers Centre turf for regular season action, but the organization is already seeing the kind of results adding all-star players like R.A. Dickey and Jose Reyes can bring off the field.
Their new ace and shortstop have both helped provide a serious boost in merchandise sales.
According to Morgan Campbell’s story in the Toronto Star last week, ‘there has been a very significant, high double-digit increase compared with this point in 2012.’
At first that fact comes as no surprise considering in previous seasons the organization only had a couple of high profile, marketable players to rely on, in relation to jersey sales and now they’re fielding a roster that’s filled with all-star caliber talent including off-season acquisitions R.A. Dickey, Jose Reyes and to a lesser extent, Miguel Cabrera, Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle. Their new ace and shortstop have been two of the top-selling jerseys thus far along with returnees Jose Bautista and Brett Lawrie.
But fans quickly forget that last season the organization made a massive marketing move in going back to the ‘old school’ style uniforms that included a logo on their hat that very closely resembled what the team donned during the early ‘90s.
The decision to go with the idea of ‘what’s old is new again’ went over quite well with the public and that’s in large part why Anthony Partipilo, the Blue Jays’ vice president of marketing and merchandising, and other team officials are surprised with this year’s numbers as they felt it would have been tough, even with the acquisitions to the roster, to increase sales from last season.
While Partipilo wouldn’t give exact dollar figures when it came to the merchandise sales increase, Morgan did get at least some insight into how large the increase in apparel sales has been by looking at the numbers reported by New York-based online retailer Fanatics.com and New Era, the MLB’s hat supplier.
According to the Star piece Fanatics.com is reporting a 70 per cent jump in sales of Jays apparel compared with last off-season, and a 60 per cent increase in March 2013 over March 2012. As for New Era, the company’s winter sales numbers aren’t available yet, but the Jays’ Diamond Era cap – the one with the maple leaf on the front – are up 75 per cent compared with 2012.
One could only assume that if they Jays live up to the hype that’s been surrounding them for months now, merchandise sales will only get a further boost. However should the team falter, well at least the Jays fans who bought new gear will have something fresh to wear when they take a trip down to the Rogers Centre this season.
