On the heels of their recently-announced deal with Major League Baseball to be the exclusive supplier of non-authentic MLB fleece and T-shirts for the U.S. mass market, as well as Canada and Latin America, VF Imagewear officials revealed in a Thursday conference call that their are in negotiations with the National Basketball Association to be the exclusive supplier of licensed apparel with NBA team logos to the same same channel.
VF Imagewear has been selling licensed apparel, including NBA and MLB to mass merchants, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and Kmart Corp., for some time and appears to have the inside track for the channel as the leagues narrow their licensee base fro each market.
The MLB deal gave exclusive rights to seven companies for different U.S. distribution channels and product categories, as well as assigning exclusive International rights. The NFL has struck similar deals, most notably the exclusive on field deal with Reebok.
The new deal would give VF sole rights to produce T-shirts, sweatshirts and other knit and woven tops and bottoms for men that are sold to mass merchants.
The company said they have completed nearly all negotiations with the NBA, but have not drafted or signed a final agreement.
VF plans to offer mass merchants inventory management and replenishment programs for the NBA business. It already provides those services for its business supplying mass merchants with National Football League and Major League Baseball team logo apparel.
The NBA deal is among several efforts VF executives said they're making to help expand the imagewear business, which makes up about 16% of VF Corp.'s annual sales.
VF said it expects the licensed sports apparel business to continue to gain momentum, given the way licensing agreements have been restructured to balance supply and demand in recent years.
The recent trend to Licensed Apparel as a fashion statement hasn't hurt either…
