Across the sports licensing industry, they’re starting to refer to the NBA Eastern Conference champions as the New York Knick$.
That’s what happens when a team from the nation’s largest market progresses to the championship round for the first time in 27 years. Keeping in mind that the Knickerbockers’ last championship was 53 years ago, when google was just a number that seemed infinite. It all harkens back to our favorite licensing aphorism: “There’s no demand like pent-up demand.” That’s always been true. So much so, that we might even believe the often-spurious claims of record sales, should the MSGers win. Industry-types already are.
“With a win, the Knicks would be profound, their fans would go on a feeding frenzy, and it would be the best NBA hot market for us in years, probably ever,” said FOCO CEO/Founder Michael Lewis. “I had six of my employees leave the office this week as soon they heard that the [Eastern Conference] Champion caps [now sold out] were for sale. The Knick fan right now is in an emotional euphoria you don’t see often.
“If Oklahoma City wins, it’s another non-event, but San Antonio brings with it the promise of a lot of Wemby [Victor Wembanyama] product sales and could be a sales tsunami by himself.”
Fanatics is calling this Knicks squad its best-selling NBA conference champion ever, noting that in the two hours after the Eastern Conference title clinching on Monday it sold more Knicks merchandise than the previous-best 2022 Golden State Warriors did over their first five days, post clinch.
Tim Shanahan, New Era’s senior director/licensed products, said the conference championship cap sellout was real and immediate across accounts within a day.
“New blood in any championship is always good,” he said. “We’re going to be a bit tight on championship locker room stuff if they win, but we have a bunch of other options. The Raptors championship [in 2019] was really big, because all of Canada bought in and the early Warriors also. A Knicks championship would challenge those.”
OuterStuff CEO Sol Werdiger said his principal concern now is keeping up with front-end demand for FIFA World Cup apparel. He called the Knicks hot-market prospects “incredibly strong and making us wish we still had a big New York-based retailer, like Modell’s and Herman’s.”
Both Werdiger and Lewis noted that the biggest potential hot market would be if the Canadiens won a Stanley Cup, which they haven’t since 1993. “That would be the largest hot market we’d have for years in any sport,” he said. “Our if-wins [orders] for a Canadiens championship are double what the Knicks are.”
The Canadiens trail the Hurricanes 2-1 in the NHL’s Eastern Conference final, heading into Wednesday night’s fourth game in Montreal.