Athletics in a Down Economic Market

I have been asked more and more this year, particularly in the last several weeks, if the lousy economy and all of the depressing financial news has affected our business. As the President of a company that manufactures athletic uniforms you would think that like most other businesses the answer would be a resounding yes. That is not really the case however. Our business is stable and even up in many areas.

As I consider this phenomenon it has occurred to me just exactly howimportant athletics of all kinds have become in our society. I guess that sports is the great distraction and especially in difficult times like these; people need all of the distractions that they can find. I am told that the average citizen is cutting back in many areas such as travel, entertainment and even food but we have seen no decrease whatsoever in the passion with which our customers approach outfitting their teams. Kim Cristofoli indirectly backs up this theory in her blog post Youth Sports: How Much is TOO Much where she provides several scenarios where her family might decide to cut back on sports, but does not include financial considerations.

While it is true that some school systems have cut their athletic budgets, and sponsors of independent teams have become harder to find, teams DO have to wear uniforms. It has become clear that sports are a priority for many, many people and not playing due to funding problems is not an option to them.

We see many instances where parents of a player or players on a high school team or in a college program will step forward and fund new uniforms for the team when the school cannot afford to. The feeling seems to be that the players will only get this opportunity for several years of their life and Mom and Dad do not want them to be deprived just because they had the bad fortune to play during a down economy.

The bottom line is that sports have become a very important part of many people’s lives and even during difficult times it is not something that they are willing to sacrifice. I guess through sheer dumb luck we have picked an industry that is somewhat immune to the roller coaster ride that our economy sometimes becomes.