Advice needed for basketball store owner

[ref81]

Fellow refs, I just added a Basketball Referees section to my RefereeStore Basketball but since I don't referee it myself (I am only a soccer referee) I feel like I need to get more advice as to what would make the entire basketball complete.

Can anyone land a helpful advice? Please take a look and reply or PM me.

Much appreciated, thanks.

MODs: please remove if this will be considered self-adverstising and let me know if I could pay for it, I really want some advice from fellow referees.

Thank you in advance

[ref81]

Well, I'll be taking class soon, but not really a basketball ref yet..

[referee99]

I'm not going to dig too deep...
You can drop the 'watches' tab. bball officials don't use them.

on the accessories tab you show a coin. again not used.

the photo on the starter kit tab shows a belt. not used, except Connecticut.

i like the site!

[LRZ]

No shoes in your basketball/shoe section; add at least New Balance and Reebok. Add Smitty lanyards.

By the way, here in PA, school soccer officials wear collared, striped shirts, the same style worn by football and lacrosse officials. You might want to cross-link to those shirts on your soccer uniform page.

[ref81]

Originally Posted by LRZ

No shoes in your basketball/shoe section; add at least New Balance and Reebok. Add Smitty lanyards.

By the way, here in PA, school soccer officials wear collared, striped shirts, the same style worn by football and lacrosse officials. You might want to cross-link to those shirts on your soccer uniform page.

LRZ, thanks for the info - are the lanyards we have inadequate? Or are Smitty just your preferred brand?

[Mark Padgett]

You need to add striped jockstraps.

[bob jenkins]

Originally Posted by ref81

Question; should we put in some regular stopwatches with neck lanyard, etc.? Is there always a managed clock, including all amateur levels or are there instances of referees using those stopwatches?

No stopwatches.

Originally Posted by ref81

LRZ, thanks for the info - are the lanyards we have inadequate? Or are Smitty just your preferred brand?

"smitty" is a type of lanyard, as used here (it is also a brand) -- it clips to the loop on the front of the shirt. Another type is a "noose" lanyard that goes around the neck -- and there are different styles of this as well.

[ref81]

Originally Posted by referee99

I'm not going to dig too deep...
You can drop the 'watches' tab. bball officials don't use them.

on the accessories tab you show a coin. again not used.

the photo on the starter kit tab shows a belt. not used, except Connecticut.

i like the site!

Question; should we put in some regular stopwatches with neck lanyard, etc.? Is there always a managed clock, including all amateur levels or are there instances of referees using those stopwatches?

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by referee99

... coin. again not used.

Didn't the NFHS send us a questionnaire back in February that included a question about eliminating the jump ball to start the game? If the NFHS ever eliminates the jump ball (as I pray for every night, shut up Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.), then we only have two choices to start the game: give the ball to the visitors, or have a coin toss.

Originally Posted by referee99

... belt, not used, except Connecticut.

Just my little corner of Connecticut. All the rest of IAABO (thirty-eight states and eleven foreign counties), bans the belt. My local board epitomizes our state nickname, The Land Of Steady Habits.

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by ref81

Fellow refs, I just added a Basketball Referees section to my RefereeStore Basketball but since I don't referee it myself (I am only a soccer referee) I feel like I need to get more advice as to what would make the entire basketball complete.

Can anyone land a helpful advice? Please take a look and reply or PM me.

Much appreciated, thanks.

MODs: please remove if this will be considered self-adverstising and let me know if I could pay for it, I really want some advice from fellow referees.

Thank you in advance

The layout of your site needs some work. Depending on the browser you use, it is not user friendly at all.

IE seems OK.

Chrome is busted. You have to scroll down about 2 pages worth to even see the items. The menu that is on the left in IE is centered in chrome and pushes the main page contents down below the menu.

I didn't check Firefox or Safari but you should.

[Texas Aggie]

I wish officiating retailers would get running shoe companies (Asics, New Balance, Saucony, and Brooks, to name a few) into producing all black running shoes suitable for neutral and support shoe types. Right now, some produce a few black models every now and then, and only Asics has a black and white model that I know of that they make with every new shoe addition. However, that model is a support shoe and not for neutral guys like me.

Some basketball guys are fine in the cross-trainer style but many of us aren't. Use your storefront to start asking OEMs to make more black models.

[grunewar]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

I didn't check Firefox or Safari but you should.

No problems in Firefox for me.

I'll pass on the long-sleeve, compression shirt though.

[ref81]

I know there are uniforms that are state/assn.-specific (most often sublimated with flag and or your assn. logo), but are they more popular than the generic ones? Are refs strictly following that and buying them rather than generic ones?

[jpgc99]

Originally Posted by ref81

I know there are uniforms that are state/assn.-specific (most often sublimated with flag and or your assn. logo), but are they more popular than the generic ones? Are refs strictly following that and buying them rather than generic ones?

I think your site looks pretty good, but I have to ask what motivated you to start this business? No offense intended, but you don't seem to have a great understanding of how the world of amateur basketball officiating works. I wish you the best of luck, but I think you need to know that more and more high school state associations are contracting with specific vendors to provide 100% of the uniform shirts for all high school officials in the state.

The big companies like Honigs, et al, aggressively pursue exclusive contracts with state organizations, then create the customized shirts with flags and state patches sublimated into the shirt.

I'm not sure what your business model is, or how you manage inventory, but I think it is important to understand the nature of the business today, and then try to identify specific areas of opportunity in the industry that you can take advantage of. What will make your store stand out?

[ref81]

Originally Posted by jpgc99

I think your site looks pretty good, but I have to ask what motivated you to start this business? No offense intended, but you don't seem to have a great understanding of how the world of amateur basketball officiating works. I wish you the best of luck, but I think you need to know that more and more high school state associations are contracting with specific vendors to provide 100% of the uniform shirts for all high school officials in the state.

The big companies like Honigs, et al, aggressively pursue exclusive contracts with state organizations, then create the customized shirts with flags and state patches sublimated into the shirt.

I'm not sure what your business model is, or how you manage inventory, but I think it is important to understand the nature of the business today, and then try to identify specific areas of opportunity in the industry that you can take advantage of. What will make your store stand out?

Thanks for the input, I do appreciate and no offense taken whatsoever.

We are until recently specializing in being one of the largest soccer referee stores in USA and beyond.

It is our goal to expand into basketball and football which we recently undertook.

We differentiate ourselves by the fact that we have not only online presence but also a physical store (Referee Store). The store is strictly for referees/officials and not just general sporting goods store with small section reserved for officials.

We also keep stock on 95% of our items as we prefer shipping directly from our store. That allows us to control completely the shopping experience of our customers, rather what most others do, drop-ship from manufacturers.

We do not enter into contracts with specific states, but rather expand on the existing ones that, say, Cliff Keen has with many state associations.

While we didn't yet enter basketball state specific packages/uniforms on our site, we just completed those for Football officials.

In the end it is my belief that with unmatched selection and superb customer service, we can really add a great store for officials like you.

Having said that I am a retired national soccer referee and so I need to learn few things myself from officials like you as to what makes a great store for a basketball referee.

Should you have any more input or ideas, please let me know, I sure listen to all of it.