Fakes dominate IPL merchandise mart

Teams seem to have underestimated consumer appetite for jerseys

MUMBAI: Twenty a day! That is how many Rs 100 fake Indian Premier League (IPL) jerseys street vendor Amit Pandey is selling in Mumbai’s Fashion Street, even though the tournament has ended.

Strangely, it is not the local team Mumbai Indians or the champions Rajasthan Royals whose jerseys are topping his sales charts. It is Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders gold and black that seems to have struck err… gold.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If that is the case, the popularity of fake IPL jerseys on the streets of Mumbai should make team-owners break into a jig. But the first season seems to have been an opportunity missed for IPL merchandise as teams underestimated the demand. This meant that the supply didn’t match the demand and fakes flourished.

No amount of raids and policing by authorities and organised brands such as Reebok can kill this illegal competition. Try asking for a Chennai Super Kings jersey at any stall in South Mumbai’s Colaba Causeway and a dozen will pop out of nowhere.

 “Just tell us what you want and we’ll get it. We have to hide the stock or else we’ll be in trouble,” said one of the vendors.

The manager of a Reebok store in South Mumbai admitted that the Rajasthan Royals jersey had entered its shelves towards the end of the tournament. “Chennai Super Kings came on the day of the final. But we had people asking for merchandise throughout the tournament,” added the manager.

The mismatch didn’t prevent a Reebok outlet in suburban Mumbai from earning a cool Rs 15 lakh from IPL merchandise, mainly jerseys and t-shirts priced between Rs 999 and Rs 1,500.

Rebook has been retailing kits of teams such as Kolkata, Rajasthan, Chennai and Bangalore.

According to Kolkata Knight Riders’ team director Joy Bhattacharya, the team’s superstar owner Shahrukh Khan is behind the success of its merchandise. “People in Kolkata might have bought the merchandise for the team. But for those outside Bengal, the big draw was Shahrukh,” he said.

Bhattacharya felt that the team’s merchandise was directly associated with King Khan and so, fans lapped it up. His solution to the piracy problem is affordability of the genuine merchandise.

Other sports brands such as Adidas too were caught unawares by the demand.
Adidas India director of marketing Hartwin Feddersen said the sales of IPL merchandise significantly surpassed the company’s expectations. “During the next 10 months, new merchandise will be made available,” he added. Adidas has under its belt Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils.

However, the IPL bug hasn’t bitten every sports retailer. Some feel that taking this concept to the European football levels will take some time. Planet Sports chief executive Ravdeep Singh said the company’s outlet neither store IPL merchandise nor plan to. “I think merchandising business is at least two seasons away. It will take that long for people to bond with a team and become die-hard loyalists,” he added. Planet Sports claims to have sold an average of 3,000 jerseys a team for the upcoming Euro 2008, which kicks off June 7.

His views are shared by sales staff in a Nike store. According to them, even though India loves cricket, it’s European football team jerseys that sell faster. The sales of Nike Indian cricket team kits pale against those of football clubs like Manchester United, a hot favourite among urban youth.

Experts add that there are other challenges in tapping the mass market. The high price of the original merchandise is one and consumer behaviour is another. Sample this exchange between college-goers, overheard in an upmarket Reebok store —“Arre, Woh Knight Riders jersey mein toh Nokia likha hai. Woh toh unka sponsor hai. Hame thodi paisa deta hai. (They have written Nokia on the Knight Riders kit. They are their sponsors. They’re not paying us).” 
s_tanvi@dnaindia.net
j_nirmal@dnaindia.net