After arriving in San Diego first thing Friday morning, I headed to a recently installed 'Soccer Shop' (i.e. a premium soccer destination) at Soccer Fanatic a top Soccer specialty retailer in the San Diego area. Monica Rigali (the Nike US Grassroots mgr), Laurie Peterson (the Nike sales mgr in the SW area) and John Lococo (owner of Soccer Fanatic and President of Lococo Sports, Inc.) met me there.
The San Diego location (at 3755 Murphy Canyon RoadSan Diego, CA 92123) is impressive on many levels. First and foremost, it is immediately evident that John Lococo has invested heavily in the Nike Soccer brand, at the expense of the other competitor brands. This Soccer Fanatic location is not a huge store -- it is located in a strip mall. However, the recently installed Nike Soccer Shop (on display in the photos below), captures 60-70% of the store, while the other brands have clearly been squeezed into the remaining open space. The Shop offers premium displays throughout, and does an excellent job of showcasing the newly released National Team Replica product with the associated SW icons (e.g. N98's).
The center mannequin display is front and center as you walk in the store, and currently captures a quality display of our World Cup'10 Brazil Home product, launched on March 3rd. John mentioned that he had plans to evolve this display to include other NT's in the near-term to help capture the breadth of the Nike offering. The yellow display clearly leaves an impression.
Much of our conversation was focused on the Nike FW wall, clearly highlighting our 4 silos -- CTR360, Mercurial, T90, & Tiempo. John was clearly very pleased with the improved performance of FW sales since the FW wall installation. He estimated a 20-30% bump across silos. It was especially insightful to hear his thoughts on recent Adi sales. In his words, "the Predator is dead", though the Copa is still his top-seller (especially among women), averaging ~5 sales per day. The Pure is also still very strong.
The conversation eventually evolved to the women's game, and the opportunity for the CTR360 to capture the female consumer, given the strong feedback on comfort and classic look. John agreed that it seemed that the female consumer seemed like the ideal consumer for this newly released silo. Monica immediately confirmed with our Sports Marketing team that several players from the Women's NT are currently wearing the CTR. This is definitely an opportunity worth tracking as the CTR silo evolves.
The most impressive part of the Nike merchandising effort at this Soccer Fanatic is the plethora of Apparel offering, and especially the breadth of offering across our core Training items (i.e. tops & shorts). The training short offering provides just about every combination. John confirmed that this inventory holding is partially the result of supporting his large Teamsales business in the area, which requires numerous in-store exchanges.
(Pictured below is a portion of our Training product merchandised under our statement ball offerings)
The photo below displays part of the remaining March 3rd World Cup launch, capturing NT Replica / Sportswear product for Netherlands, US, and Brazil. Lifestyle Sportswear product can also be seen at the bottom right.
In store retail support -- Lightness makes Greatness campaign
Youth Development (no photos)
The middle part of the day was dedicated to interviews w/ some of the more influential coaches / organizers in the SoCal area. These included:
Derek & Mary Armstrong -- Coach & Tournament organizer of the La Jolla Nomads, a top club in the area for many years and part of the newly formed Development Academy
Jim Moorehouse - USSF Youth Team Director
Bruce Arena -- coach of the LA Galaxy (ex-coach of the US NT)
Most of the conversations focused on the newly formed Development Academy and the recent improvement in US youth development. I won't go into the details here, but a decent overview is provided at the link above. As a summary, 77 top youth clubs have been identified nationwide to participate in premium training, games, & tournaments at the U-15/16 & U17/18 levels. Each of these clubs have their own brand sponsor (ie Nike, Adidas, etc.)
Jim & Derek both strongly agreed that the Academy was certainly a step in the right direction (from the previous Olympic Development Program, or ODP, structure), and definitely the future of US soccer. Both also agreed that this was just the beginning and adjustments needed to be made. One common point of agreement -- the Academy structure needs to be extended to the U14 age group (and eventually younger) to provide premium coaching as early as possible in the evolving soccer youth market. The cost to the players is also a major inhibitor, as all clubs are responsible for all of their travel and administrative expenses.
As the Development Academy is sponsored by the US Federation, Nike has selected rights/privileges to key events, and especially to the ultimate tournament in Bradenton, FL. Jim mentioned that he was expecting to see more from Nike in recent years at these events, so this is certainly an opportunity moving forward. From a competitor perspective, Adidas has recently leveraged its MLS relationships to gain further access to the Academy by developing elite MLS-sponsored youth clubs in selected MLS cities. Several points of reference indicate that this has been an Adi focus in the developing US market, partly at the expense of their other youth ventures. This further highlights the need for a clear Nike MLS strategy moving forward (note: Adi has recently re-signed their MLS agreement through 2014)
It was a special honor to have a chance to meet Bruce Arena, and get his views on the US soccer market. He certainly has a presence about him, and commands respect with his demeanor and background. We chatted about the success of Cornell basketball (i.e. he is an alum), the recenlty signed player's agreement, and David Beckham's achilles -- Bruce was clearly not pleased with Capello for driving him to continue playing at AC Milan through the Spring.
Indoor Soccer -- Soccer City
The final stop of the day was at Soccer City, a recently opened indoor facility in Torrace, CA. Having stepped foot in several sub-par indoor facilities which often seem like an after-thought in a closed down factory, this was clearly a huge leap forward for the US indoor market. The focus of the facility is on true futsal (ie a hard court surface w/o walls), which is a change from the usual Nike indoor scene w/ turf and surrounding walls. The Torrance facility has about 7 fields, 5 in front and 1 large field in back, which can be split in two. This facility is the location of the upcoming Nike sponsored City Cup in the SoCal area and has received some strong press recently.
Monica and I engaged in a healthy conversation with the manager, Brad Gomez, who pioneered the vision behind the concept. Brad has plans to open addtional indoor facilities in ~5 other cities where he sees indoor opportunity, either due to lack of playing fields (eg LA) or excessive heat (eg Dallas). This certainly has legs to run....
1st photo of Soccer City
2nd photo of soccer city
Not shown in the photos here is a retail space near the entry of the facility. A Nike Shop will be opening up in the space in the coming weeks, and will offer Nike soccer product exclusively.
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