Billiken Law Posted August 12, 2003 Share Posted August 12, 2003 From the PD today: "Mall matriculation: Don't go to Michigan State or Purdue but want to look like you do? Not to worry. Retail sources say Steve and Barry's University Sportswear, a discount chain of collegiate apparel stores out of Great Neck, N.Y., is bringing its logo sweats and caps for more than 100 schools to a big chunk of empty space at Northwest Plaza, perhaps the old JCPenney store. The store will be the first in Missouri for the chain, which Steve Shore and Barry Prevor started in the mid-1980s on college campuses. It has more than a dozen stores, mainly in the Midwest." My family lives in East Lansing, MI and has a Steve and Barry's in their local mall. They sell gear from every local college team, from UM and MSU to Eastern, Western and Central Michigan to U of Detroit. Everything in the store is under $20 too. There were a few outlets in Madison when I lived there selling about 100 different U of Wisconsin-Madison shirts, caps, etc. If SLU is serious about getting the name out and improving their marketing they need to get in on Steve and Barry's license the SLU name and logo to them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tseugnekillib Posted August 12, 2003 Share Posted August 12, 2003 I keep waiting for a SLU grad or a SLU fan with a marketing/business background, or some other experienced marketing guru, to buy or license the merchandising rights to the Billiken mascot and the school name and then open Billiken shops in all of the metro area malls plus the on-campus spots and the Savvis. This could be a huge win-win for both the university and the entrepreneur. Now it looks like the Steve and Barry folks might beat everyone to punch and the big dollars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted August 12, 2003 Share Posted August 12, 2003 you are assuming the worthless merchandising agreement that apparently ken bothoff got slu in a few years back has expired? i dont know if it has or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted August 12, 2003 Share Posted August 12, 2003 Seriously. That is something I've thought about doing for quite a while. All I need is a little funding from some generous "angel" investors, and you will all be wearing stylish Billiken blue gear in the near future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willie Posted August 12, 2003 Share Posted August 12, 2003 This would be a good job for someone who is retired. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tseugnekillib Posted August 12, 2003 Share Posted August 12, 2003 No good money to be made in merchandising Billiken goods until SLU gets to Marquette's or Gonzaga's recent performance level. Besides, I'm retired and very pleased with my investment in SOI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeSmetBilliken Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 I'm a student at SLU right now and at this time it looks like I will declare as a marketing major when the time comes. Assuming this happens, I think it would be valuble experience to work with the school and try to come up with ideas to market SLU better. The way I see things is that in the Billiken SLU has a mascot that is unique and should be promoted. Now, with that said, more success would be greatly beneficial, but the Billiken is the kind of thing that would make interesting products bearing its resemblance. One idea I thought of lately was shirt with a Billiken on the front and the question "What is a Billiken?" On the back you put the definition of the Billiken like a dictionary entry. I just got back from an enjoyable vacation out to the West Coast that included visits to the California Wine Country, Monterey, and San Francisco. In between the wine country and Monterey we spent a night in San Jose which is pretty close to Palo Alto, California, home of Stanford University. By the way, Stanford has a ridiculously beautiful campus. Anyway, after we walked around Stanford I decided that I wanted to find a keychain of the Stanford tree mascot to put with one of my Billiken key chains to make a combo of unusual mascots. I wanted it to look like the tree costume that is at Stanford games, not the official logo that just has an outline of a tree. I went to the Stanford bookstore and they had nothing of the like. The only thing close was at Pier 39 in San Francisco when I found a small bean bag version of the tree. I didn't end up buying it because I was looking for a keychain. You can find just about anything else that says Stanford in red or white(not like SLU who seems to sell SLU gear in every color except blue and white), but I still felt that there was a flaw in Stanford's marketing similar to SLU. For the record, I also saw numerous UC-Santa Cruz shirts while out in Cali. For those who don't know, their mascot is the Banana Slug. For a school who I don't think is D-1 they sure seem to market themselves reasonably well with a unique name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 They actually did sell "What's a Billiken?" shirts when I was at SLU during the mid- to late-90's! They were kind of cheesy looking though, and mostly girls wore them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBand Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 DeSmet... UC SC got a minor boost in 94 with the release of Pulp Fiction. In it, John Travolta wears a UC Santa Cruz t-shirt. Box... I always like to tell people that the Billiken is the Norse god of death and destruction. I get a lot of quizical looks after that! Here is a link for Steve and Barry's University Sportswear. http://www.steveandbarrys.com/flash.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 Let me just clarify my earlier post for DeSmet; I didn't mean that your idea was cheesy, I actually think it is a good idea. I meant that the design of the shirts they used to sell was cheesy. I think that with the right design, it could look pretty cool. Maybe we could create an evil Billiken alter ego logo, in line with TheBand's definition! I also think we should bring back the "Billiken Football: Undefeated Since 1949" t-shirts that people used to have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 i like the billiken football line! :-) i'd buy that shirt............provided it was billiken blue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SluSignGuy Posted August 14, 2003 Share Posted August 14, 2003 You can make T-Shirts online pretty easily nowadays. You would have to pay for shipping, but if the demand is high enough. I bet we could whip something up. But we would probably have to check with SLU about copyright goodness. Steve (hehe, we could put the new Billikens.com logo on the sleeve) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheA_Bomb Posted August 14, 2003 Share Posted August 14, 2003 DesMet the Stanford Mascot that you see courtside actually changes from year to year. The normal Tree that is used on some of their logos is a Redwood (I think). The mascot you see at games is designed by the person that gets to be the mascot. That is why they had a Palm Tree a few years ago. Do you remember the spinning redwood they had that would just spin round and round? UC SC and UC Irvine both have unique mascots Bannana Slugs and Anteaters respectively. The unique mascot and hat craze has been over for some time now it peaked about 1997. The hats you saw everyone wearing (white with the 3 bars) are made by "The Game" and are called bar caps. SLU could've sold more hats during that time if it pushed the one that had BILLIKENS in large letters across the front instead of the one that read SLU. However, I did run into a guy wearing a BILLIKENS bar cap in SW Oklahoma. Upon questioning he was actually an OK St. grad and bought the hat in Stillwater OK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NashvilleBilliken Posted August 14, 2003 Share Posted August 14, 2003 nm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjray Posted August 14, 2003 Share Posted August 14, 2003 I don't think mall based SLU merchandise stores would be a smart model. SLU stuff is more of a novelty item that is best sold over the web especially with the far flung SLU diaspora. You might even be able to get an apparel manufacturer to agree to create small batches, hold the inventory for you, and drop ship one item at a time to the buyer for each order. Such a model would not require a huge investment. I have experience marketing on the web so if anybody out there gets the bug to run a small business like this, let me know. I'd be willing to help gratis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billiken Law Posted August 14, 2003 Author Share Posted August 14, 2003 the thing with Steve and Barry's is that they carry everyone locally and if someone wants to buy a local team they can do it, even if just for novelty purposes. I can go into the one near my parents's place in East Lansing and buy a U of Detroit, Wayne State or Oakland U t-shirt. 90% of the store there is UM/MSU, with the rest other S&B schools (Duke, UNC, Cincy, etc.) and various local smaller schools. Why should Mizzou and Illinois have all of the market share here in St. Louis at one of these stores? Let's face it, not everyone is willing to come to the bookstore on campus and drop $17 on a SLU t-shirt. Give them a chance to drop $8 locally and guess what, you start seeing more SLU gear on the streets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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