Alyssa Milano (star of TV’s Who’s the Boss? and Charmed) was watching a baseball game in Dodger Stadium several years ago – and was freezing cold.
“It was the beginning of the season, before the poop smell sets in.
I went into the store to get something warm to wear. And I was offended. The only color available in women’s clothing was pink. Their answer for female sports apparel back then was ‘pink it and shrink it.’ It was either that or buy something from the kids’ section. Which I did. I got a kid’s hoodie. In Dodger blue.”
It bothered Milano enough that she decided to do something about it. She wasn't a seasoned entrepreneur – just a woman on a fashion mission…need I say more?
So she paid a fashion designer to mock up something less boxy and certainly not Pepto Bismol pink. Her agent had some connections with the Major League Baseball’s marketing division.
And eventually G-III Apparel agreed to manufacture and distribute her line which she called “Touch.”
You’re probably thinking, “Yeah, right. She’s an actress with connections. Of course she can just start her own business on a whim. She lives a ‘charmed’ life!"
Well, that’s where it gets interesting.
Every single pitch meeting to get some stadium retail space with the major league team buyers bombed. All the execs saw was a cute celebrity trying to play a man’s game. No one took her seriously.
Ironically, what transpired from those rejections earned Milano national credit for being a trailblazer in the professional sports apparel industry.
And when I dug deeper, I found four extremely valuable business lessons any entrepreneur starting a new brand or thinking of expanding a line of products or services should model:
Milano grew up in Brooklyn attending New York Giants games with her dad and brothers. She’s dated several professional athletes. She’s held Dodgers season tickets for the past 10 years. And she wrote a book in 2009 called Safe at Home: Confessions of a Baseball Fanatic.
For years, she’d listened to all the comments of female sports fans trying to deal with over-sized t-shirts that came down to their knees. She knew the wants of her target audience.
They wanted clothing that fit the female shape, had an American Eagle sort of feel, and used teams colors. And nobody had scratched that itch – until Milano stepped up to the plate.
Question for you guys: How many years have you worn your favorite team jersey? 10 years? Probably until your wife convinces you it would make a better cleaning rag than an article of clothing!
Not women – women will buy new stuff every year! Fact of life.
Do your homework before spending tens of thousands putting up a new product that hasn’t been tested in the market.
Every brand needs a killer USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and Milano’s tagline is “Touch: Where the game meets the after party.”
Her plan was to design her clothing that it was comfortable enough to wear at the game but fashionable enough to be worn outside the arena.
It had to appeal to the general public and to the player’s wives and girlfriends. Tall order.
She's hands on...models the clothing herself, runs focus groups to test the waters. She hangs out in the stores and listens to women's reactions as they try on her clothing.
And she continues to actively market her brand several hours a day by attending playoff games and store openings that carry her line.
When she struck out at scoring some retail space at the stadiums, she just went right on to plan B. She was already blogging at mlb.com and so she leveraged the Internet. By the time spring training in 2008 rolled around, her merchandise was featured on mlb.com’s ecommerce shop and her own website.
The woman was smart…she made her line exclusive only to baseball for one year.
And it sold out in five weeks. Exclusivity works, folks. The NBA, NHL, and NFL came knocking on her door, loudly. And some colleges. And Nascar, MLS, and minor league baseball.
Touch is now the only apparel company with licensing agreements for women’s clothes with all the major American sports.
All because she saw an opening in the market that wasn’t being met.
Seize the day!
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