Advice needed for basketball store owner

[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.