One of the biggest paths Barstool Sports Founder Dave Portnoy mentions on their road to disruptive sports and lifestyle business success has been merchandise. “We would wear or design a tee-shirt or a sticker or a hat and our fans would ask for them,” he said at last year’s Hashtag Sports event done with NYVC Sports. “We saw pretty quickly if we had fun gear and were able to get it out into the marketplace, our people would not only wear it but share it. It was a great way to build our community.”
Community is also a key part of the success of Overtime, a sports network built around digital natives that started with high school video and continues to expand. Wear that expansion has gone with influencers is not just into other sports, but now into street-wear inspired apparel.
This weekend in New York, the business unveiled “The Pull Up: Overtime Basketball Pop-up” billed as “an interactive celebration designed to capture the excitement and energy of basketball’s youthful culture and make it tangible through breathtaking photos, inspiring videos, music, and clothing that all embody basketball culture.”
One of the key reasons? Overtime has built a line of great merch that has been limited to date, and has found that cost effective and stylish wear, especially tees, is a great way to expand brand from online into a tangible, hands on engagement tool.
The Pop Up store, only open three days, gave Overtime the ability to partner with Casey Neistat’s 368 to create an experience that had some stickiness for a consumer, including a photo exhibit, art, and a variety of guest appearances and giveaways.
And of course there is footwear. “The Pull Up” featured limited edition looks from a collaboration with Japanese brand SUICOKE.
The new styles include a number of limited-edition collaborations as well as “a curated exhibition featuring work from a talented group of photographers who have documented the game, from casual street ball all the way to the NBA. The seven photographers participating in the exhibit –including Cassy Athena, Johnnie Izquierdo, Nicole Sweet, Nia Simone, Cameron Look, Michael Eng and Dontae Putmon– have contributed more than 60 images, ranging from a hoop in the middle of a jungle (Nicole Sweet) and Trey Young at one of his first NBA games (Michael Eng), to Stephen Curry playing with his daughters (Cassy Athena).
There has to be some interactive elements, so “The Pull Up” included a gif and photo station where visitors can share their experience on social media, and a large, 19’x8’ basketball mural by graphic designer and illustrator Braulio Amado.
“We’ve tried to create a different type of company from the beginning. One where content, commerce and live activations are part of our DNA,” Overtime cofounder Dan Porter said this week via email. “The pop up is an extension of all three of these – you can come and meet us in real life, find your favorite Overtime styles, and experience and watch basketball content.”
For those who may scoff at the value of merch, even that sold on a limited edition (which by the way you can always extend once the ‘Limit” runs out, it’s a play on the “Call before Midnight Tonight” that infomercials have always done), we saw it first-hand this summer when Porter’s cofounder Zach Weiner, spoke to our class at Columbia. Weiner was asked more about the cool tee he had on, which was not for sale at the time, and the value of sneakerhead fashion than he was about video. Giving young people the chance to be part of the brand, not just in the digital space but in their lifestyle and apparel, is becoming more and more of a low cost, highly visible form of mass engagement. It shows your friends who might not always be engaged with your choices on your phone, who you are identifying with in the classroom and the gym.
Is the high cost of New York real estate a risk? Well it was only for a limited window and gave Overtime a chance to touch base with thousands at a busy time of year. As a matter of fact one of their investors, former NBA Commissioner David Stern, was once asked about why the NBA would have gone the brick and mortar route with a Fifth Avenue Store at a time when retail for sports was an outlier. His response was simple: the store served as a great and cheaper billboard for all things NBA, and touched thousands casually who might not have thought about the NBA as a consumer brand. It was a marketing tool, much like the smaller scale Overtime pop up was this weekend. A new, albeit conventional, way to grow a disruptive brand and set it apart from the clutter.
You can hear our podcast with Zack from last year here as well, to learn even more about Overtime.
