Building a Winning Brand: College College Football Fashion and Business Growth
College Football Fashion – Join Nick Constantino on The Marketing MadMen podcast as he sits down with Shena Simmons, CEO of Stewart Simmons. Discover how Shena transitioned from corporate finance to creating stylish, game-day apparel for women. This episode dives into brand growth, market challenges, and the future of women’s sports fashion. 🎧📈🏈
College Football Fashion – Key Takeaways
- The importance of understanding school traditions and cultures in product development.
- Strategies for expanding a niche brand across multiple sports and universities.
- Managing inventory and licensing complexities in the collegiate market.
- The rise of women’s sports and its impact on the apparel industry.
- Balancing work-life priorities while building a successful brand.
Explore how Shena Simmons, CEO of Stewart Simmons, transformed college sports fashion for women. Join The Marketing MadMen podcast to learn about brand growth, licensing complexities, and the future of women’s sports fashion.
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College Football Fashion – Summary
Key Points Covered:
- Introduction and Background:
- Nick introduces Sheena Simmons, who shares her background and passion for college sports, particularly Florida State University. Sheena explains how her experience at Florida State ignited her love for the collegiate community and sports.
- The Magic of College Sports:
- Sheena discusses the unique camaraderie and spirit found in the South’s college sports culture, emphasizing the importance of community and shared experiences.
- The Birth of Stewart Simmons:
- Sheena recounts her journey from corporate finance to launching her own business. Frustrated by the lack of stylish options for women’s college sports apparel, she identified a gap in the market and decided to create her own line of clothing.
- Challenges and Triumphs:
- Sheena highlights the challenges she faced in starting her business, including navigating the world of retail and dealing with the impact of COVID-19. Despite the hurdles, Stewart Simmons has grown and thrived over the past eight years.
- The Stewart Simmons Difference:
- Sheena explains how her brand focuses on creating fashionable, high-quality apparel that allows women to proudly showcase their school spirit. Her goal is to make women feel confident and stylish while supporting their favorite teams.
- Personal Insights and Experiences:
- Sheena and Nick discuss the cultural differences in how sports are celebrated in different regions, highlighting the elaborate tailgating and game-day traditions in the South compared to other parts of the country.
- Retail and E-Commerce Strategy:
- Sheena explains that 85% of their business comes from retail partnerships, while 15% is from e-commerce. She emphasizes the importance of both channels and the brand’s commitment to high-quality photography and models to enhance the online shopping experience.
- Expansion and Licensing:
- Stewart Simmons has expanded to over 400 retail locations and holds licenses for 34 schools, primarily in the SEC and ACC, with recent expansion into the Big Ten. Sheena talks about the annual process of renewing licenses and the challenges of adapting products for different markets and weather conditions.
- Intellectual Property and Collaborations:
- Sheena discusses the complexities of obtaining intellectual property rights from universities and the growing trend of brand collaborations. She shares insights on navigating these challenges and the potential for future growth through collaborations and experiential marketing.
- Company Name and Identity:
- The name “Stewart Simmons” combines Sheena’s maiden name, Stewart, with her married name, Simmons. Sheena wanted a brand name that wasn’t overly gimmicky and reflected a more sophisticated image for game day apparel.
- Brand Recognition and Strategy:
- Sheena explains the strategic decision to let the school logos speak for themselves, avoiding heavy branding with the Stewart Simmons logo. This approach helps the brand remain authentic to its mission while still achieving recognition among consumers.
- Changes in the Apparel and Licensing Space:
- Sheena reflects on the rapid changes in fashion and the increased selectiveness of schools in licensing agreements. She emphasizes the importance of staying adaptable and maintaining strong sales numbers to secure and renew licenses.
- Market Dynamics and Consumer Preferences:
- Nick and Sheena discuss the current anti-corporate sentiment among consumers and the importance of supporting smaller brands. They explore the challenges of setting the right price point, maintaining a niche market, and ensuring convenience for customers through e-commerce.
- Loyalty and Market Share:
- Sheena shares insights on market share and customer loyalty, noting that while Stewart Simmons is well-recognized within its target markets, there is still significant room for growth. Preseason sales are highlighted as a crucial strategy for driving revenue.
- Impact of Team Performance on Sales:
- Sheena notes the importance of team performance in driving sales. The excitement around up-and-coming teams like Tennessee has significantly boosted sales, while the hype for established teams like Georgia can wane over time as fans already have their gear.
- Forecasting and Inventory Management:
- Sheena delves into the challenges of forecasting inventory needs for multiple schools. Using her finance background, she relies on historical sales data and projections to determine inventory levels, although unexpected team losses can impact sales projections.
- Fan Base Loyalty and Market Trends:
- Sheena and Nick discuss the loyalty of various fan bases and how it affects sales. They explore the nuances of different markets, including the importance of preseason sales and the challenges of managing inventory across numerous schools and products.
- The Evolving Nature of Sports Fandom:
- Nick and Sheena reflect on how sports fandom has changed over the years. They touch on the influence of luxury experiences on younger generations and the impact of rising costs on accessibility to sports events and merchandise.
- Grunt Work and Industry Realities:
- Nick and Sheena discuss the behind-the-scenes work that goes into making their respective industries function. They emphasize that, despite the glamorous perceptions, a significant amount of effort and stress is involved in managing logistics, sponsorships, and regulatory compliance.
- Handling Excess Inventory:
- Sheena shares the strategies for managing excess inventory without devaluing the brand. This includes being selective about retail partners and holding inventory until demand increases again, rather than resorting to deep discounts that could harm brand perception.
- Fashion Cycles and Inventory Strategy:
- Sheena explains the importance of understanding fashion cycles and being cautious with inventory orders. The goal is to avoid overstocking while ensuring customers have access to the latest styles, even if it means smaller bulk orders and occasionally selling out of popular items.
- Social Media and Brand Building:
- Social media plays a crucial role in Stewart Simmons’ marketing strategy. Sheena discusses the challenges of standing out in a crowded space where many fashion brands compete for the same audience. She emphasizes the importance of authentic collaborations with influencers to create genuine connections with their target market.
- Regulatory Differences and Market Challenges:
- Nick highlights the differences in regulation between traditional media, like radio, and social media. He points out that while radio stations are subject to strict FCC regulations, social media lacks such oversight, making it easier for misinformation and unethical practices to spread.
- Emotional Response in Advertising:
- The discussion concludes with an exploration of the emotional aspect of brand building. Nick and Sheena agree that creating an emotional connection with consumers is key to long-term success, and data alone cannot achieve this. Memorable advertising often evokes a strong emotional response, rather than just hitting data points.
College Football Fashion – Transcript
Happy Saturday. Welcome to the marketing Mad Men, Lee Constantino here. And today we have a fun conversation about college sports. One of my favorite things most of you know I’m a Yankee. So this has all been pretty new to me to find out how this world works. And I’m unraveling little nooks and crannies of it as we go. So to for the conversation we have. Sheena Simmons, the CEO of Stewart Simmons, which is making. Cool gear for chicks. I mean, is there a better way to say it?
No, that is the best way to say it. Thank you so much for having me. It’s. A pleasure to be here.
So let’s get the hard part out of the way for us. You’re a Florida State fan. You must suck terribly this year, so.
I’m a Florida State fan.
What the hell happened? What fell apart and how long does?
Norvell, have you know I’m not going to answer any of those questions for you, but I will agree that it is a. It’s a tough year for us. And so I’ve been a Florida State fan for many, many years. I’m not going anywhere, but it’s it’s tough in this time and tell us what.
Smart girl.
We’re all Florida State fans in the house, so.
That makes it really hard. All right. So obviously there’s the passion there. So let’s let’s talk a little bit about your upbringing, what going to college, what made you a college football fan? Because if you know, if you’re in Atlanta and most of the Southeast, you understand this, but there’s a lot of people that don’t have a clue how this all works. So talk a little bit about the upbringing, talk about how you got so. Passionate about College Board.
Was in a college football fan until I went to college and I went to Florida State for undergrad and loved everything about being there. And for me it was sports. But it was also just the collegiate community. It was academia that I loved and I very, very quickly fell in love with college football. And that for me is is the food and the fashion and everything surrounding it. And so that became a big part of of. I was while I was there. And who I am now. And you know I love. I love being there. I love being on campus, but I love every aspect of it. I love that I can go for a jog on Saturday and see a Florida Gator fan and. Give them a go, Noles. And a nice little wink. You know, like that to me, is is one of the things that. Makes living in the. South. So beautiful.
Yeah. Yeah. And so it’s funny. There was just an article that came. Loud. It was pretty much saying like, go suck at Harvard because everyone’s going to the South because of the pageantry of college football, and they were mentioning, like, Alabama and they were mentioning schools that like youth start 20 years ago would be like a joke, Alabama. OK. I mean, even Georgia takes then. Now you’re talking these schools are impossible to get into and.
I saw this of course. Yeah.
It’s not the education. I’m sure the education has gotten better. If people moved here, but it has been the camaraderie and the passion and the and the about college sports.
It’s the spirit, it’s the community. And now, like we still make it to Tallahassee, I love to go to new campuses. I love to travel and see new schools and what they’re like, and they’re all different, but the same in so many new ways. And so it’s all special and magical to me.
They are all different and I think that is, you know, most people like what I love about, like college basketball. For example, a team gets in and even if they get to the dance, the amount of people that Google that school the next day, they don’t know where the hell it is and they find out about that school and find out that this is a 3000 person liberal arts college that, you know, Stephen Austin, all these schools that no one’s ever.
Absolutely, yeah.
Part of again it just it. How important now we’re going to skip the NFL conversation because I have a feeling it might just all explode and this might all go to crap real fast because of what’s going on. So let’s skip that so.
- Thank you. OK. But you didn’t skip Florida State for me, so that’s that’s OK, that’s OK. Yes.
Get back right? Cause one could 11 won’t lead to a very long conversation because it just sucks. The other one will go down a rabbit hole that we do not have time or or the effort to go down. So to give you my background very quickly I went to University of Maryland. I was there for a national championship in basketball and I was there. When the team. Was selling 40,000 people Ralph Fridge and the coach. We went to the Orange Bowl 2. In a row, my experience was very different. Just the northeast as a whole. How you treat sports is different. Yeah, the the way the females, the, the, the girls that went to college would go to the game is they pretty much rolled out of bed. What they’re wearing got hammered drunk in the parking lot and then walked into the game. There was no.
Uh-huh.
Pageantry. There was no getting guys done.
So we still do. The same here with the getting hammered drunk, but we look really good.
Two hour setup area.
Do it you know. Exactly.
OK, so that frames it perfectly. So talk about going to a game, talk about the pop in circumstance that goes to getting dressed, showing your team colors, when to do it and talk about this cause you know the rules. I don’t wanna say the rules are different cause it sounds like a sexist wrong thing to say, but the rules are freaking different. The way you go about showing your family is going to be different than a Florida State.
Yeah.
The guy who just like ohh it went to Florence St. yeah. So talk all about it.
And that’s really what we do when we talk about like what makes Stewart Simmons different. We’re not making T-shirts that you’re wearing just around the house on a Tuesday. We are making the clothes that you’re wearing to show off your school colors like you are going there so that people know that you’re. The talk of the tail. Right. And that for us? Yeah, of course. That is all about tailgating. And that’s getting ready for the big game. But that’s also, you know, so many of us, it’s not just going, it’s having parties at home. It’s bringing people together. And, you know, we believe and like, hey, we are, we’re going to spend the time and we’re going to look really good when we go out and and support our team.
Yeah. So talk about some of the gear. So look, you know what? Let’s take a step back. Yeah. How about talk about how you went to go? Why you wanted to start? Company talk about the process and talk. Get yourself set up today because when we come back from the break, I really want to dive into because the story you’re going to tell is the abridged, easy version. And I’m sure there was a lot of hardship in opening your own business and COVID and a lot of things. So talk about why you wanted to start it, what, what the process was. Like and then where you are today, so I’ll give you the.
Version my background in finance, which has nothing to do with that retail. OK, cool, cool. OK, good. So I spent my life in corporate finance.
OK, I’m a finance major as well, so we share. That.
And this like going back to Florida State while I was there, loved college football, had trouble even 1520 years ago, finding what I wanted to wear every Saturday. And I found myself after I graduated and I was working in finance and I still wanted to go to the games and I still wanted to buy stuff every year, and there just weren’t good options for women. And women are more than 50. Percent of the the kids that are at school.
Yes. It’s where a small men’s shirt was pretty much the option. Like go to Marshalls and fine. And so yeah, yeah.
Right.
Exactly what, what, what the Florida? State had on it. There was nothing special about it and. So I thought for sure. Like there had to be something that we could do. Is different. Anyways, Fast forward. I’m working in corporate America. I had my second child, so I was on maternity leave and I just had this time to kind of reflect. And I was like, hey, I had really good corporate job. I didn’t love what I did. I didn’t love where I was going, and I knew I was going in that career. And so I just started thinking like, hey, is there an opportunity? For me to do something about this gap in the market that I know is there and I know has been there since I was a college football fan. So I went in and quit my job and I figure. Out how to make clothes and and here we are 8 years ago. So that’s that’s the really short version, right? I had no idea what.
I was. I have to imagine, like, you’re talking about more than what it looks like you’re talking about the fit. You’re talking about the material. Like there’s so much more. Find it fascinating that there’s no even men’s brand that, like, came out with, like, a real.
Doing but we figured it all out. Of course, yeah.
Medium like they’re smaller, there’s medium. That’s three sizes for a huge population of people.
There’s companies that have been around for 5000 years that are still figuring out size. They’re still changing every year. Oh, absolutely.
But you know what?
I’m saying like the fact that I have to go and be like, do I want a small or medium or large and? I have to think about this right, like it’s true.
Yeah.
Operating that we haven’t figured out a better model to do this and I have to imagine that it’s even harder for women. To do this and the.
Of course, right, because we’re not, we’re not. I don’t wanna say as basic as you men, but come. On I mean like, why? Yeah, we’re not just.
Ohh, I’m basic you don’t. You can say whatever you want. Send me. You said me.
Doing polos and like how hard should it really be to figure out how to make 6 different sizes of a polo the exact same polo in.
They can’t do that.
Different colors, yeah.
Now, that being said, we’ve gotten much fatter as a society, so we got now we have 6 XL versus 1XL, so we figured that part out, but we haven’t figured out like there’s.
That is true thing for change, that is true. Yes.
A difference between our medium and large.
Also in fashion, clothes are such a small, frankly a small part of the business, right? It’s everything else and it is trying to figure out where we’re going to make them and how are we going to market and how are we going to have fulfillment like all these pieces that I just knew nothing about. And so we’ve kind.
So you’re now in. I read 350 retail locations, OK.
Probably a little over 400. Yeah, with 34 schools. That were partnered with.
You do your own e-commerce. You have the intellectual property rights to these schools, which is a daunting chassis itself, and we’ll talk about that. So are you SE only talk about where the company stretches so.
Absolutely. Uh-huh. Yeah. So we really start, I mean, I know you said we’ll get. Into that.
I didn’t see Marilyn on your list, so.
You stuff of it? Not yet. Not yet. And let me tell you. So last year we had 14 schools. This year we expanded to 34. So we’re really in in this growth mode every year. We’re we’re adding new ones and we started and we begged and pleaded and begged and pleaded 2 schools at the very beginning and it was Florida and Tennessee.
I’m ****** *** about that, but other than. Got it. OK.
I don’t know why they gave us a license still to stay. No idea, but they.
Did when does that expire?
Every year we have to renew it, so every year they’re looking at.
Ourselves and saying.
So hopefully voter stays cheaper this year. That’s a good that’s a good, that’s a good thing.
Well, yeah, I don’t know. I wish. I wish that was the way it worked. But every year they’re reevaluating us and saying, do you deserve to continue selling our stuff. So anyways, we started with this too and then we kind of added we continue the SEC and ACC and then this year was our first year moving into the Big 10 and kind of yeah.
Fan packed. Well, I saw some.
And expanding into those and So what we know and do really, really well is kind of this SEC market and we’re starting to learn about new markets and how we have to change our products to go to.
Yeah.
Wisconsin, Michigan or Michigan State, of course.
Just the freaking.
Weather like you’re talking in September here, you could be 95° on concrete burning and you could be in.
Yeah.
Of course.
Minnesota there can be a snowstorm.
Yeah. And like as you mentioned earlier, like what some people wear, just plain come out of. Yeah. Get out of bed and go is very, very different than other school people wear it. Florida and Florida State, even though they’re relatively close, it’s two very different ballparks.
Yeah. And I think that is actually what I enjoy the most about college campus. Is how you can be a mile away from each other and be such a different place. And for me, like the great example here is Georgia Tech and Georgia State. I mean you are a mile away from other campus. You could not be farther from what the representation of the population is than those two schools. So I think that’s a great point. Alright. So you’re in school, so you you have the e-commerce. Site. So talk a little bit about that so. Talk about you. Go on and I see them all listed out. They’re on models. People can buy it from there. What percentage of your business is that versus retail?
85% of the business done through retailers, 15% through E COM and that’s changed. I like having both, if I’m being honest with you and we need both of them. I really wanted to cry.
Do you like it better that way?
Dates and focus on e-commerce. When I started the brand because I wanted a game day brand and for me there were not. There weren’t any real women’s brands that were doing that. Now if you’re going to go buy, you’re probably going to go to Nike or something along those lines. But for women, they would just walk into a bookstore and grab a shirt. And they had no idea who made it. And so I really wanted to change that. I wanted people to come to Stuart Simmons. And like, even if they’re not coming to our store, to be able to. Walk into a bookstore. And. Say, hey, do you carry it? So it was really important to me that we have e-commerce that we’re connecting with our customers directly that we’re working. I mean what we pay a ton of money in photography and models and you just don’t see other.
Yeah.
Brands doing that in the game based space.
Yeah. And I think that, you know, part of the experience is it’s the experiential part of this is so important, right. And buying something online is in the same experience as going to a store because you going to a school or a store and you’re probably around people that have the same passions and that makes that part of it. Right. So. But at the same time, you want your customers to be have access to what they want, when they want it. So you need the e-commerce as a backing.
You did.
So. You know, and I think as the the brain grows, I’m sure there are other opportunities for pop ups and collaborations and the experiential stuff because you know that’s the other line you see now everything is a collaboration. So you know unfortunately means it’s not going to be cool in two years because we’re going to be behind the curve. But everything is a collaboration, the collaboration all means is going to charge you 60% more money for the exact same article of clothing. And put ex collabo on it. So we’re going to get back, we’re going to talk about a little bit more about just how what the intellectual property navigating is like all these things cause I think there are a lot of people out there think ohh that’d be cool and don’t know the trials and tribulations that went into it. So you listen to the marketing management on extra 106, three and we’ll be right back.
MHM.
Welcome back to the marketing Mad Men on Extra 106 three. Nick Constantino here with Sheena Simmons, the CEO of Stewart Simmons. And let’s just get that out of the bag. Why is?
It called Stewart Simmons. I’m not seeing Simmons. Yeah. So Stewart’s my maiden name. And so a lot of times people ask me who’s Stewart. And I’m like I am both Stewart and Simmons. I hate to disappoint you, but it’s just me.
Ah, OK. We did it. Yeah, that, that.
And.
Makes more sense.
And I will say I I did not want something that was like kitchy and like all game day. And so that’s where Stuart Simmons came from as I didn’t want like. Game day clothes, you know.
Well, I think kitchy look, when you’re building a brand long term, very few people go with Kitch and there’s a reason because the allure wears off and like you just, you set yourself up for long term failure. So I like the approach. One of the things I noticed just from browsing the e-commerce side, you’re not your own logo having you let the brands speak for themselves, so.
Uh-huh.
I’m curious, was that strategic, is that part of the long term vision? How did that come about? Did you realize it was happening cause what happens a lot of times and let’s use one reserve as a great example, right, they’re? Branded, but that on reserves everywhere they beat you over the head with that vineyard vines. My goodness, if I see a stupid whale on someones shirt gigantically and you’re almost detracting from the point which is the team logo. So what was your thought?
Process there? Yeah, that’s exactly right. Like people are wearing Miami, FL state stuff because they want to support Miami or Florida State. That being said, I feel like we have done. And such a good job of making our brands and our designs recognizable that I we will always get messages from people being like, hey, I was in Vegas for the LSU game, and I saw your stuff everywhere. And so I love the fact that we’ve been able to build the brand and let people know, like, hey, that’s a Stuart Simmons product without putting the logo.
Got it. Without hearing the logo out everywhere.
Everywhere on it. So to me, the.
Yeah, I like that.
Even feels that’s even cooler is that people know, and they recognize that it’s us, even though it’s not listed all over the. Product.
I like it. I think it probably is harder for new customer acquisition and and and loyalty of new people because I think people unfortunately have become very brand centric and I feel like they just want to brag. I mean you know you you don’t, you’re not going to buy and then you’re buying $89.00 shirt because it’s any different than the $20 shirt. You’re buying it because you want to show people that you wear. You’re right.
I love the humble brag, right? Like they’re they’re showing up in a Stewart Simmons shirt that’s still $140.00. And if you know, you know, you know, like people, they are they they know what it is and they know the brand without it saying it all over.
- The humble black. And it’s funny. It’s one of those things you kind of age into also I was when I was young, I was. I don’t care what it looks like now as I’m no, no, no. I want some that will fit right. That won’t fall apart in two days. Like if it happens to be a Peter Moore shirt. So be it. Right. That’s there’s a reason to some extent that things cost more money and I think you find that out and I’d rather have one good. Thing that last for five years than two crappy things that will last for a year and a half. Like that simple math, at some point. Yeah, yeah, love it so.
Absolutely.
You’ve been in business since 2016. So how has the apparel space changed? How has the Collegiate Licensing space changed and what would you? What would you go back and tell yourself now when you were starting in 16? That’s a lot a loaded question with a lot in it. So I’m going to give you some time on this one, but I’m most curious of of how this has all changed because it sounds like it’s been, oh, you know, you’re talking 8-9 years. That’s an eternity. Space.
It. Is especially when you’re talking. Fashion. Right. And So what was cool, and certainly eight years ago was not at all what we’re doing now. I mean, the styles changed absolutely, 100%.
And things cycle faster, but the 80s came back and then in the 90s that wait a second that they talk about a decade. How did it happen in a year and a half?
And and what we really pride ourselves on doing is taking everyday styles that people are wearing out on the streets and making them game day, right. And so we’re trying to make things and and we’re not. We’re not figuring out what’s going to be cool five years from now, but like, what do people want to wear and how can we make that, you know, UG, a specific. And so we’re constantly having to move faster in that space. As far as license. You know, schools have gotten more and more selective with who they want to bring on board, and we’re in a lucky space now. We’ve been doing this for long enough and we have the sales numbers to show it that we don’t have a hard time getting a license anymore. But for people that are new to the business or want to come into a license base, they want to work with fewer and fewer licensing partners. They want to work with.
Yeah.
Fans, or whomever it is and kind of have exclusives with them. And so it is becoming more difficult to get into this game.
Day space SO2 parts have the how I understand this number one. Is the school most? Schools don’t even control their own rights anymore. The handies off to the Learfield IMG’s, the van Wagners, the legends, who we have very close relationships when I know all of them and I know their business models are different because they are bigger companies with a bigger web and more want to deal with bigger national brands that have multiple places and and and some of its logistics just to make it easier. If it’s accounting software, you know you’re paying licensing fees and to streamline it, but at the same time, I think that stags need some of these brands and if you are a smaller tier school. Then the fashion lines you choose to partner with can build popularity for you. If done the right way, right? Georgia Georgia doesn’t need you or anybody else to put that G on there. George G is explains it for itself. That being said. I don’t know. If that was the case 15 years ago, or.
Ten years ago? Yeah, absolutely. And it is just I get it from a brand perspective. Like they want to be protective. The school should be protective of their university and who’s putting stuff out there for me? I see so much value in bringing diversity to the market. I see so much value and being able to go into a sports store and buy from different brands. And so I understand every bit of it, but I am also thankful that they’re still allowing smaller brands to come in and and get their foot.
In the door, think there’s a societal obligation these days? I think that I’ve never seen a more anti corporate tone out there. People don’t want to buy from the big guy right now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think politically, it’s funny. I think politically that the the left and the Liberals and the Democrats were the ones perceived as anti corporate and I think somehow it’s switched a little bit then. Now you watch the Republicans like oh. My God, these corporations destroying the.
Well, this is a fun conversation, and now we. Were getting into politics.
I I didn’t. I didn’t. I didn’t need to be. I just find it. I just find it fascinating that the anti corporate rhetoric has switched sides. Now it’s happened in this country a million times. Yeah, but the point is, I think that people.
That was it because.
Of the debate last night, it’s like still. On your head. Yeah.
Look, they want to buy from the little guy until it gets too cost prohibitive or hard to do so. So set for you. It’s setting a price point. That’s right. A niche market. That’s right. And convenience. That’s right. Which is why I’m sure the e-commerce makes.
A ton of sense does, and for us it’s also like how long are we gonna be the little guy? Like we’ve we’ve really marketed ourselves as, like, we’re a brand that you, you know, us. Right. You know, the people that are in the brand and they know our. Glory and we continue to grow, but we still want to be. We still want to be not Nike, if you will, you know. And so it’s an interesting place as far as how do we position the brand.
Yeah, yeah. I’m curious and please punch me in the face if I’m prying. How big is the market and what would you say your market share is in the license fee? It’s it’s, it’s nearly impossible to know because they don’t send these things out, but.
I have the I had our market share is so small. Yeah. Yeah, we don’t. We don’t know. I will tell you, we’ve gotten to a place where like. If you’re if, if you buy women’s game day apparel in one of these markets, you know who we are, right? And so we’re really proud of that, but. We still have. So much room for growth. Got it? Yeah, yeah.
The good thing and and Women’s Day game Day apparel is not even a a market that people would even think. Exists so, but it’s so big. Again, I spend much days. I will be in in Athens at ten 9:00 AM on Saturday getting our tailgate ready to be in the middle of that. So I’ve seen it from the early through I’ve seen.
Yeah.
How people set up, I mean, people up there at 6:00 in the morning building their cities in the, in the tailgates and everything. And it’s when the team is good or bad. I mean right, like.
Yeah. But there are more of them when the team. That’s good for sure.
Well, look, Auburn sucks. Auburn sucked for a long time, OK, so the Auburn fans coming up there are. There’s no more or less them that are going. Up there to Jordan.
But you know, we have found that every fan base is different and and truthfully some of them are more loyal than others.
Ah, now we’re now. We’re getting to the.
I know.
Fun comments. So talk about loyalty. Talk about loyalty. So how about?
I I I shouldn’t. I should have poked my finger in it. I. Shouldn’t. Yeah.
That you throw out some markets or places and I guess which one does?
No, I’m not playing this game with you. That’s I will tell you one thing. We very, very strongly believe in preseason sales. OK, that that we we launched a collection August 1st and we do everything we can to sell the heck out of that collection.
Before game starts, they’re undefeated.
The soonest teams as soon. As exactly as soon as teams start to lose. I mean it it. Becomes really difficult for us.
And I think that’s getting harder and I think this is part of the problem. When money comes into this right, Florida State was number six in the country because Florida is a big state and if they build hype there, more people will watch. And I think I don’t care what they say. I don’t care if Condoleezza Rice is still picking this. They’re picking where the money is. Yeah, right. That’s why you don’t see North Dakota State ever ranked anything one because they’re never gonna be good at anything. Just, unfortunately. But it’s because there’s no people there to build hype around. That is why you see Notre Dame fail year after year after year, because the fan base is so big. That is why you think.
Yeah.
At college Football, 1 of Texas to stay bad, there is no one on Earth that is going to try to tell me that this has not been some master plan play and come after me for all it’s worth. Well, I’m not even touching an IL. So you owe me one college. Football talk about some fan bases that have surprised you that you would never expect them to be fan bases that are pre selling or that are doing really well. And sometimes the opposite.
Well, here’s what I will say. I I one of the things that we have learned over the years that up and coming teams, right? So like Georgia has been huge for us for years, but at some point like they’ve been after year 3 or 4, everybody kind of has. All their stuff, right?
Yeah, for sure.
And so, like Tennessee, is a good example like 5 or 6 years ago, we couldn’t get rid of Tennessee inventory. But for the past two years, there’s so much excitement like that is the sweet spot that it’s the hide phase that like, yes.
Washerman. Yeah, that’s the high. That’s the high machine. That’s usually a coach in his third or fourth year who has high schools, got his, he’s got his been. They’ve won one or two big games. They got a couple big name guns, guys come out. But I I have to imagine, right? I mean even.
Yeah. Uh-huh.
Going into a three peat last year for Georgia, the the hype wasn’t it wasn’t the same. Amount of hype.
Yeah. So it’s us getting like finding the schools when they’re just hot and there’s that hype phase. Yeah. Listen for us because we have to buy inventory so far before the season starts this.
Yeah.
Stuff is so. Important for us, like understanding what’s going on in the team and trying to project how much inventory we’re going to buy across 34 schools and 700.
I believe it. I believe it. Yeah. So we’re going to get real nerdy what kind of CRM systems are you using? Are you using AI to predetermine are are we, are we, are we bringing this stuff in, who’s going into wishing you purchasing?
Yeah. No, we’re you we’re using. Me in Excel, that’s what we use and luckily that finance background, like one of my favorite things to do is to is to sit down and run numbers.
Yeah. Oh man. Ah. I can’t tell you. I I was a finance reason for. No, actually, I was a finance major because I was gonna take what was called decision information systems. I took a math 116 class. I walked in and three minutes later I walked out and changed my major just.
Yeah.
It was not that that was not a thing that was in my level.
Yeah. Of audio want to do it? That’s one of the things I still hold on to and really love to do. Honestly, just sit down and just start to project like, what do we think is gonna happen for the year? How much inventory should be buying across all these schools? And we’ve been doing this enough of the schools for so long that we’ve got sales data.
I love yourself.
Right. Like we have a good feel for. How much to bring in every year, but then you know, you lose a game or two. And all that’s out the.
Window. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have to imagine. Like, Florida’s got to be one of those tricky ones. I mean, that’s school, you know. And. And look, I see the other side of college sports, right. Like Florida. For what it’s worth. And I know the public perception is, my God, the football. They have the $5 billion research budget. If you look at U.S. news and World Report, they are a top public institution year after year. What do they care about the football? I know I get it and I know that you have to put on these airs. It’s yes, it’s so important. Florida. But what does UNC Chapel Hill care about the the sports teams? What does Michigan? Michigan is one of the most prominent institutions in the world. What do they care?
Yeah.
Like Georgia Tech, for what it’s worth, when we were with them all the time, I love those guys, but there’s so much more for them to hold. Their hat on the prominence of the institute.
Yeah.
So I think I think it’s going to get messier I think, and I is going to change a lot of this. What about what about things that have come up that you would never thought when you were starting your business career? Again, we’ll go back to that advice. You would give yourself back in two.
1016 oh man, you know I I think it’s very intimidating to intimidating to think about. Building a brand right? Intimidating to think about starting a clothing company. I will say this like you don’t need $50 million to start selling clothes. I started with hardly any money. I started with a HELOC on my mortgage, right? And you can? Yeah. And all we’ve done is simply invested everything that we have back into the business.
Good for you.
I feel like when I started this I thought of fashion as being you think it’s glamorous, right? Even we’re talking you picture tailgates and it’s runways and all the things fashion retail is. A lot of grunt. Work. I mean, it’s a lot of figuring out logistics and spending time doing forecasts and all the things, but man, there is nothing to me. So I love.
Yeah.
College sports. I love college football. There is nothing to me that is better than going to Athens on a Saturday and see. Being. 1/3 of the girls walk by wearing stuff that we designed. I mean, it doesn’t matter how much work it is, it pays it all pays.
Well.
Pays. I love it because now I get to be more aware of it and I get to see it in real time because it was not there anything that was ever brought to my attention. So my my wife is just, it’s just not her. Thing just she. Wasn’t born in the US, it’s just. And she she was a she became a college basketball fan because she spent a semester at Duke. OK. And it’s, like, contagious at somewhere like Duke.
So football.
Wow. Yeah, of course.
So, but she and she, I’ve taken her to games. And Sanford, she fell asleep in Sanford’s like I I we we’ve gone. I’ve tried. She went to Georgia State. I’ve let’s go to Georgia State game. I I we said we said courtside for Georgia State versus southern. She loved that but it’s more.
Ohh no.
Yeah. Give me a box and I can’t say.
No, you know, it’s more. It’s more like now you bring up a fun point because I wonder what’s gonna happen. Like my daughter is 7. She’s only sat four seats. Courtside. Luxury sweetheart. She’s never seen anything else. So I don’t know what kind of fan she’s going to be.
I know.
Yeah.
But you know, I think it it the nature of of of how we interact with sports has changed so much. I remember. And it’s funny. I was watching the documentary about Greg Maddox and like, they showed these pictures of got old, old, fat white men at the Wrigley Field with no shirts on, just sitting in the outfield in the 80s. And like, that’s the experience that was there. Like, when you would pay. You know a buck and a half to get into a game now, and I know I was going to further contribute to this like the schools are gonna want so much money. It’s gonna be such that you’re gonna leave.
Right.
So many people, out of the experience.
Yeah.
And does that extend to fashion? We’re yet we’re yet to see.
Yeah, I don’t know. Because for us and I’ve said like, hey, we’re we’re making game day apparel for you to wear at home and celebrate or whatever it may be. But really from the Stuart Simmons perspective, our stuff is the, the glitz and the glam, right, like we’re really selling stuff for people that are showing up to show off on game day and so.
Right. But you could shop in your house. You’re right to watch the game, yeah.
Like.
You, you. You.
Can, but like it’s the people that are investing them. The type of money. This our S there. There are a lot of times there in Athens at the game.
Yeah, I think you know, you brought up a good funny point about grunt work. So like we are my business especially 680 the fan when we doing the sports side is very similar, right? Everyone sees the we’re broadcasting live from the World Series. Everyone sees my World Series where that the Braves gave me. No one knows the grunt work that went into making that stuff happen and the sponsorships and making sure the radio station stays on. There was a hurricane. Here we this radio station goes off. We are broken like 15 different FCC laws. So I think it’s true most industries and I think you know fashion just seems to be the one because we have the eyes on vogue and in these magazines that it’s just. This is just what it is.
It’s all glitz and glamour and we you brought up COVID earlier and I I forgot to speak to it. But like we were doing fashion during COVID in which we didn’t know what football games were going to happen. We had factories that were closed or not closed like that’s the amount of.
At least we were in the Northeast when that was all happening. I mean, this freaking stadium. They said it was going to be closed for the year. One day later, like Nope. 45% two.
Yeah. Yes.
Like 50% three days like, you know, it’s gross. Just let.
Everybody in who cares? Well, we’re trying to figure out what’s gonna happen five months ahead of time, right? Because we’re trying to buy inventory for games that are happening in in office. It was. And then there, those things are closing and the.
It’s amazing and it was all stuff overseas and then. You see one V4 and just. And then all of a sudden, they come in and you’re in dated with with inventory?
Factories are open.
And you can’t get rid of.
Yeah. And so it’s the amount of work, but just the damn amount of stress that goes in like we get even this like to this day we get products that show up at our warehouse every year. And I feel like I just want to do a happy dance. Like the amount of work to get it here into our hands. Is is so much?
Yeah. And so one of the things I look, I’m not going to pretend to be any fashion expert, but just anecdotally from watching like Nautica, Tommy Hilfiger polo, they all went to crap when they started showing up in Marshalls and they discounted their own prices. Yeah. And they discounted their own brands. And it is very hard to recover from that. And their their simple response was oh, that’s this. That’s chaps by Ralph Lauren. It’s not the same brand, but that’s not how things work. So talk about how you protect. The brand integrity when you’re stuck with all this extra merchandise, it’s got to be.
A fine line to walk 100%. I have found that so much of protecting the brand is choosing who you partner with, so retail is a huge piece of it and we’re very protective over who we sell our products to and we’ve had some similar Marshalls, not Marshalls, but similar.
Passion and they are actually one of the most the TJ Maxx Corporation is one of the most successful institution because the way they they curate every store better than Macy’s these.
Yeah. No, no, no.
Right. Yeah. Yes.
These it looks like Macy’s. They took a bomb, they threw in the middle of Macy’s. They let. It go off and.
It’s a mess. It’s a mess.
That’s where the stuff lands. If you go into good Marshalls or good, it is very well curated with the things that people want. It’s not a criticism, but back in the 90s when I was growing up, they took brands that were these prominent, prestigious brands that all men immediately they just devalued them by throwing them there.
You you can’t be all things to all people, right? We know that. And I think that’s oftentimes what what brands try to do. And so for us. We in order for us to stay a premium brand, we can only work with select retailers. We know that and we have ones that come to us and we’ve considered that while we stick a new name on it, but we can’t do that. We can’t sell to Marshalls and this is not we sell to cancel to Marshalls and even Marcus, right, you cannot do that. And so you have to be really careful about this that you you either discount it to your current retailers you’re working with, are you sit on it.
So what do you do with it? What? Do with inventory. That’s what Ingram.
Because I guarantee you Florida State may not turn it around this year, but we’re going to at some point and we had stuff I talked about four or five years ago, we couldn’t get rid of Tennessee.
Reason back.
Save our lives, but it’s all gone now, right? It comes back and says sometimes it’s just a matter of being patient and holding it until the team comes. Back.
And one of the things that I love is the jeans and T-shirt will always be in style. There’s some things that we get so over infatuated like guys hold on a second. OK. Since the 1890s, a pair of Levi jeans with a T-shirt was in fashion in the 1000 years. If you come back here, that will be in fashion. OK. There are some things that don’t change. And, you know, I think the.
MHM.
How big logos are in shirts and graphic keys and stuff that goes in and out of style very quickly, right? You know, I tend to be a just dark, like just colors. Like there’s no logos on anything I have because like, I don’t get to go out often, right. If I go out 1215 * a year, I have like 100 shirts. So sitting there. So I just. But I think there are some things. And if you if you’re smart enough to know. And not false victim of buying the trendy things all the time. I think you can avoid a lot of that trap. That being said, that’s not what Instagram teaches you. It teaches you fast fashion and look at the boots this girl is wearing. She’s popular. Let’s. Go this route.
And I think a lot of that too. I’ve talked about projections and and being careful about ordering inventory, I don’t order 5000 of anything that we bring in, right. We would much rather sell out of something than continue to sit on it of course. Yeah. But it also trains our customers. Hey, if I want this Stewart Simmons product, I got to buy it when they launch because if I come back on.
But that hurts margins because you’re not buying as much bulk, so it’s not, it’s.
October 1st. It’s not going to be there. And so I would rather have that. I would rather have them pull. Going and asking for more than us, just trying to stuff product down there.
Throats. Yeah, and that was near impossible 10 years ago, 15 years ago to run business that way. And and you can see one of the things that I’m curious, we have 3 more minutes in this segment. So one of the things I’ve found about fashion. So I think social media is a great advertising platform for e-commerce and fashion. Because you can track a sale. All the way to beginning to end. You learn the data on the audience, but I have found that once people realize that every fashion company just bombards social media with the same messaging and they’re just beating the crap. Of each other. For the same audience, the same people. What has your experience been with social media, with advertising, with e-commerce? How have you built the brand? Is it been organically because that would be a good segue into the last segment, we’ll get a little bit?
More nitty gritty and talk a bit about the future media is so important for us and we, you know, people are getting our products either through our website or through. Our retailers, we’re not, we’re not a little. We’re sitting there kind of getting to talk to folks and so we use it as a way to get people to know us. But I talked about how important it is as a brand who you align yourself with from a retailer perspective. But I also think it’s equally important who you align yourself with when you’re talking about other brands and influencers. And so we, we spend a lot of time. I’m going through social media and trying to figure out, well, hey, who are who is like one of our target markets that went to Tennessee or or or whatever it may be and working with those people to create authentic experiences for their followers. And you know, and align them with Stuart Simmons. God.
Every person in every marketing room in the world is saying those exact words. It is not easy. It is not easy to do and I think one of the biggest problems is, is that all of a sudden the word influencer has become trendy. So now there’s this whole industry behind influencers and it is so easy to fake social media followings. It is so easy to buy your way. Into these mechanisms. And the, you know, one of the. Things most people don’t know, but for a radio station operate, we have an FCC license. We have affidavits, we have E requirements. We are government mandate, there are audits, there’s so much that goes into it. You can put anything you want on social media with any claim. There is not a level of regulation. There’s nowhere to be found. It’s not a criticism because Zuckerberg said it best. He’s told Congress do something about it. They’re just too old. Stagnant to do anything about it, but. How is the brand? How have you built the brand? Because what I know about social media, it’s that ROI. It’s that quick instantaneous. I want you to think about when we talk about it from the come back from the break, we’re going to talk about that brand building because I think it’s been a lost art in marketing these days. Everyone wants data and. You know you cannot create an emotional response with data. You cannot. The best ads in your head were not Oh my God, they really hit those data points. For me, it was an emotional in your. That created like. That’s cool. I want that.
It’s the publicity that made you cry, you know, it happens to me every time.
And every year you expect it to come, and now you want to be out cried. You want to be out cried. I mean, if anyone’s mastered the art of that, it’s Disney. I mean, I watched inside out, too. I’m like, there’s no way I’m gonna cry like the first one, you know, an hour. And I’m like, oh, my God, it’s even more because my daughter’s older now and it’s fit me perfectly. OK. So we went off talking. Luckily, this this segment is about to end, and we’ll come back and we’ll finish the conversation. You listen to the marketing man on extra 106.3.
I do and then it comes and. I’m still crying.
Oh.
Something like a baby.
We’ll be right back. We’ll come back to the marketing madman on Extra 106 three. Nick Constantino here. And we’re sitting here finishing up our conversation with Sheena Simmons, the CEO of Stuart Simmons, and we’ve we’ve covered a lot as we usually do. What I’m most curious about is what is the intention with the brand you have now cultivated for 8 going on 9 years this brand? Passion that you have for it and seeing people in it is clear. There. What do you do to protect this brand? What do you do to grow this brand? Let’s take it doesn’t have to just be a marketing conversation, but I have to imagine your life is so intertwined with this brand. Now you feel like you are the ambassador. Talk about what you do.
To protect and grow this brand. Well, I’ll start with the growth perspective. I told you that we went from 14 to 34 schools this year. We want to take what we’re doing at those 34 schools and bring it to more universities. And so that’s super important to. Us.
Maryland University of Maryland Terrapins. The turtles really cool.
And bring some turtles on board. You have to teach me. A little bit honestly, I love going to new. Schools. So I get to learn like. I don’t know what all these mascots.
It’s a turn.
Are what all the sayings are.
And there’s a big testudo it’s a it’s a. It’s a kind of turtle, Terrapin, and you rub his nose in the middle of the mall for good luck before every.
- Yeah, this is.
Game. Everyone has to go rub the turtle nose. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
This is news to me, right? And so learning all these things is is a whole heck of a lot of fun. But hey, when we’re making products like we want to know that we want to know what the sayings are. We want to know what the colors are, that they really wear, not what’s on their catalog, that type of thing.
Yeah.
But we also we have been very, very football base and that’s that’s where my true love is. That’s what I’ve always been a big fan of. But we’re starting to expand outside of just doing football clothes and we’ve started working with schools that are more basketball oriented or baseball oriented. And so we’re starting to bring in this year is the first year that will will launch our first winter collection. And so we’re starting to bring stuff that’s more basketball oriented. So that we’re not really putting all of our eggs in one basket when it comes to football, but we’ve got these. Other sports that we’re marketing towards as well.
And you have the expansion proliferation. Of of women’s sport.
Of course, which is so exciting. Yeah, and we’re all women brand, right?
It’s just, it’s just it’s. Just it’s just insane and I. So I feel like the the public demand is is very inauthentic. I feel like it was triggered. I feel like it. Look, Kevin Clark. That’s it, right? This whole wave has started, but there are lots of good players. But I feel like the the biggest problem you have is that they want everyone wants to have all this money and all this stuff invested. But you.
Ah.
Are putting the supply. 1st and the demand has to be first and yes, there’s demand there when she shows up, but the rest of the games there’s only 6000 people at the arena and the rest of the times there’s you. You don’t see WNBA shirts going for sale at store. So the demand needs to build up. We’re trying to push it on the supply side, which never ends well. So I just think that instead of trying to force this down peoples and throw to let the free market dictate what happens. So I think that’s a good thing for you because I don’t test you as someone who’s going to go on and try to rig the system and Riggs apply. But I think as women. Become more involved in this. Anything that that’s the case will help the the help the business.
Yeah, I will tell you I’m intrigued by it and and I I’m willing to go out there and say let’s, let’s make some product for it and let’s see what happens, right. Like, that’s how that’s how excited I am just about the the growth of women’s sports in general. And so I guess we’ll.
Yeah. Yeah, I think that again, I don’t want to get an IL conversation, but I. Think a lot of the.
You said that and I feel like you maybe do. Want to?
Well, well, look, look. It’s gonna destroy small. It’s the amount of money everybody’s got their hands out. Is the problem. Every time you have a modern form of marketing is one of the big problems digital marketing. Everybody’s got their hands at. Everyone wants a card. By the time it gets to the players, who does it really help? Does it really go to the female athletes that deserve it the most or is? It the hot chicks with the most Instagram followers and we know what’s happening. So that’s why I said I don’t want to cover it because it’s I don’t have a very positive outlook right now. And and look, it’s another new emerging industry. It will self rationalize it will normal out, it will normalize out. I just get really worried that. All of a sudden, to pay the players to pay the schools to pay the the IHG’s of the world to pay IMG’s of the world to pay everybody the ticket prices have to go up and the experience have to go up and then the trade marking has to go up and the licenses have to go up. And then the ability to watch it costs are going to go up. And if all those costs go up, are you separating yourself from the audience who built you with what you are?
Yeah, that’s fair.
That’s my big concern. So, OK. Well, we went Debbie Downers. Let’s go back to Patty positive. Let’s go back to Paddy. Positive. So one of the things here it says is that work life balance is really important. I imagine that’s for your people how many employees?
You guys have now we’re only four, so still a small team full full time and then we’ve outsourced a lot of stuff. Yeah, yeah.
Good for you. Good for you. Good for you. So that work life balance is important though. You got to make sure you have time to go play and and be out and see these. It’s gotta be a product.
That you use also, right? Oh, yeah, absolutely. And we’re all, I mean, everybody on the team, it’s all the four of us are women. And so we’re all, you know, juggling all the different things. But listen, like work, life balance. For the first six years was not a thing for me, right? You don’t go into this expecting to build a brand and be able to be there for every moment. And so frankly, I’m just now at the point where I’m starting to really reap the benefits of that. And once you start to taste it and you realize that you actually can grow a brand and.
Good for you.
Be very involved with everything else. Yeah, you could kind of excited by.
Yeah. And I think what you do is you remove barriers to entry for somebody to come and take your lunch behind you, and that’s what the work goes towards, right? Right. Like Nike was was on top of the world until all the sudden lemon. And on and hoco started creeping up the back and they didn’t. They didn’t try to build Roman in a day. They they came up the backside, they did the things their own way. And then all of a sudden.
Yeah. Yes. Yeah.
It blatantly look like Nike knee jerk to try to start defensive mode when you’re in defensive mode, you’re screwed. So talk about some of your favorite products, talk about the ones that people should buy and and tell people how to find you and what to. Look for because again, I think that there’s probably more to it than we’ve even put. Out from this from the show.
Yeah, I mean, listen, if you want, if you want statement pieces to wear on game day, wear your brand. So if you want sequins or or big glitter scripts or oversized everything, then come to Stewart Simmons and we’ve got a lot of fun stuff coming out for for 2025 and and and fun matching sets and, you know, big fringe. Everything. And so it’s a lot of new stuff coming out, but yeah, we’re. We’re here for the fans that really want to go and show off their fandom.
Yeah, so, T-shirts. Headbands. I mean, again. I’m. I’m. I’m not a girly guy, so I don’t know the answer. This. I’m getting better with my daughter. But, like headbands, T-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, sweatpants. What kind of stuff? We’re talking everything.
We’re all closed, just closed just apparel. And so we’re not, we’re not doing accessory and it was interesting with licensing like you need permission to do anything new. If I want to make tank tops. And I was just doing shirts. You have to get their sign off with every single school. And so we’re doing apparel and just game day apparel women and children.
Yeah, yeah. How’s the children market going you.
Know it’s great and we don’t have across all of our schools. We love to do Mommy and me pieces. So what you’ll see is a lot of a lot of matching. It’s just it’s fun. Frankly, we do make a lot of money off of it. No, there’s just not the margin there.
Yeah.
Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s fun watching my daughter when she goes. Daddy, can we wear matching shirts? So when we go to bed tonight, like that is just like a melt in your heart. Cause it’s not gonna happen for very long. She’s not matching me. You know, she’s 7 now and I think she tell that she’s 10. Maybe she’s gonna say Daddy, can we match?
Yeah.
So like I see the appeal of it, but at the same time they grow even faster and like they.
They do, and people don’t like to spend a ton of money on it, but frankly, it costs me just as much to make a kid’s shirt as it does a women’s shirt, right? And so that it’s kind of hard financially, but I told you I love walking around games and seeing women wear products. I really love walking around games and seeing the little ones wear our stuff.
That’s what. That’s what really melts my heart. Let’s pretend that there’s no one on Earth. Gonna be a competitor to you. What advice do you have? People that are trying to start their own business trying to get into these kind of spaces?
What tips would you have for them? Yeah, know your market. I mean that’s always going to be the first thing like we we know who our customer is and every year we create a. Brand new stinking collection and it is looking like last year’s collection. But we know exactly who our customer is and what it is that. We need to create for them.
Now that’s more intuition than data you said, and there’s not a huge data set. This is just you. No, no.
Yeah. It it just doesn’t know. It and frankly that. Is so much work for us, but it’s so much market research that’s going to these games. But seeing what people are wearing, it’s talking to our retailers and seeing what they’re looking for. And so that is a big piece of what we do.
Yeah. Yeah. And again, I think that’s the problem is a lot of people rely on a set of data and they’re trying to make inferences and deduct things, and you’ll never be able to deduct the same thing as you would go into a game and seeing what the tailgate experience is like in the pregame experience is like.
100% and like I said, that’s different. At every school. And so we can’t just go to a game at George and say this is what we need to do for everybody.
If you have never been to the iron ball, Auburn versus Alabama, you don’t know anything because if those two teams were the worst teams in America, they would come to kill each other in that game and there would be more pageantry than anything on Earth. Like, I think Georgia, Georgia Tech used to have that. I know it’s still. There, but it’s not the same. It’s just not the same. Their communities have so much. One of the things about London, there’s so much to do, right. You’re in the middle of Alabama between Tuscaloosa. And Auburn, what are you gonna do? They got.
They got. Yeah, that’s it. Uh-huh.
Football. They got football. Well, this has been a great conversation. Tell everybody where to find you.
Tell the social handles and everything. Go to stewartsimmons.com hashtag Stewart under score Simmons across.
5th. Sure.
And then go to check out Extra 106 three, check out the marketing name and listen to the previous episodes. Check out. We got a lot of content just like this. You can listen to the marketing amendment on extra 106 three and we will catch you next week.
