BusinessReport.com

While New Orleans Saints fans were glued to their televisions on Jan. 24 during the NFC Championship Game against the Minnesota Vikings, employees at the Silk Screen Shop were intently awaiting the outcome of the playoff game for a different reason: If the Saints won, the workers would be pulling an all-nighter, churning out 15,000 official Saints NFC Champions locker-room T-shirts that had to be delivered to stores by morning.

“We had everyone standing by,” says Rich Peabody, who runs the 42-year-old family business near South Choctaw Drive. “It was pretty wild.”

Seconds after Garrett Hartley’s 40-yard field goal cleared the posts, work crews cranked up the presses and began printing the youth-size shirts, which the company was contracted to produce for the NFL. By 7:30 a.m. Monday, the shirts were on their way to retailers throughout south Louisiana, the Mississippi Gulf Coast and Florida. For Peabody, the boost in business brought by the Saints’ 31-28 overtime victory could not have come at a better time.

“This is usually a slow time of year, especially coming off such a bad season for LSU,” says Peabody, who also produces licensed LSU merchandise. “So this has really been a good hit for us.”

It’s been a good hit for a lot of local businesses, namely retailers that sell Saints paraphernalia and anything, for that matter, that can be painted black and gold or emblazoned with a fleur-de-lis. For the vendors and manufacturers that produce such wares it has been a boon as well. January is traditionally their slow season. This year, thanks to the Saints, first-quarter sales will be up—way up.

“It’s like having another holiday season again—right after Christmas,” says Celia Muhl, manager at the Royal Standard.

The situation is not unique to Baton Rouge. At stores in New Orleans, on the Northshore and in the River Parishes, Saints-related merchandise is flying off the shelves faster than merchants can stock it. What’s different about the retail experience here is that it’s unprecedented. The city that spares no expense on purple-and-gold fan gear has never had much use for similar items in black and gold. The Saints have traditionally inspired little passion here in these outer banks of the Who Dat Nation, which is why even seasoned retailers have been caught off guard by the sudden and insatiable demand for Saints merchandise.

“Historically, I’ve been laughed at for even carrying Saints stuff because we’re really an LSU store,” says Pat Randazza, who owns the Purple and Gold Shop. “I usually keep my Saints merchandise on the racks all the way in the back of the store.”

They’re not laughing at Randazza anymore. The Saints jerseys, T-shirts, memorabilia and other official merchandise she is licensed to sell have been promoted to a prime spot in the front of her two local outlets. The biggest sellers have been the official NFC championship shirt and the Drew Brees Foundation T-shirt, the latter of which raises money for the quarterback’s charitable causes. So brisk is business, Randazza says, sales are double what they would normally be in January.

“Typically, we’d be in slow mode till football season rolls around,” she says. “Now we have reason to celebrate.”

Even retailers who don’t sell official Saints merchandise are cashing in on the demand for fleur-de-lis jewelry, stemware, wall hangings, scarves and hand towels of every size, shape and shade of gold imaginable.

“We got 24 of these in [the previous day],” says Bethdales co-owner Ronny Daley of some mustard yellow, waffle-weave kitchen towels with black-and-gold “who dat” embroidered on them. “Today we have just four left.”

Twenty towels in less than 24 hours isn’t bad, especially as they retail for $12.95 each. But the demand is there, and retailers say the biggest challenge for them has been keeping up with it. For instance, Daley had already presold six of the 12 fleur-de-lis drop flags he ordered the day after the playoff win. He ordered two more cases immediately but wasn’t sure they’d arrive in time for Super Bowl Sunday.

“You really don’t know how much to order,” he says. “It’s just sort of a roll of the dice. But I’m betting on the Saints because I’m a big fan.”

Merchants are also cashing in on value-added sales or services that have resulted from the Saints mania. At Cajun Tigers by Pierre Crawdeaux in Towne Center at Cedar Lodge, a regular customer recently brought in an old, felt card table cover and requested a fleur-de-lis monogram for it. It’s a somewhat unusual request, but these are unusual times. Until this year, the Saints had never reached the Super Bowl.

“I’d say our sales are probably 20% up over last year at this time,” owner Ray Bourgeois says. “And our Saints-related merchandise only accounts for about 10% of our total inventory.”

Local businesses were expecting the boom to continue through Super Bowl Sunday and even after, regardless of the game’s outcome.

The Silk Screen Shop preprinted 6,500 shirts that would be in stores the day after the game if the Saints defeat the Indianapolis Colts. On Super Bowl Sunday, work crews were on standby with 13,500 more shirts in the presses ready to go as soon as the game ended.

Best sellers

The top-10 NFL teams in merchandise sales from April 1-Nov. 30, 2009:

1. Pittsburgh Steelers

2. Dallas Cowboys

3. Minnesota Vikings

4. New York Giants

5. Chicago Bears

6. New England Patriots

7. Philadelphia Eagles

8. Denver Broncos

9. Indianapolis Colts

10. New Orleans Saints

The top-10 NFL players in merchandise sales from April 1-Nov. 30, 2009:

1. Brett Favre QB Minnesota Vikings

2. Troy Polamalu FS Pittsburgh Steelers

3. Adrian Peterson RB Minnesota Vikings

4. Tom Brady QB New England Patriots

5. Peyton Manning QB Indianapolis Colts

6. Jay Cutler QB Chicago Bears

7. Ben Roethlisberger QB Pittsburgh Steelers

8. Eli Manning QB New York Giants

9. Tony Romo QB Dallas Cowboys

10. Mark Sanchez QB New York Jets

SOURCE: nflshop.com