A Sea Of Red

I know Jon and Co came out with jersey t-shirts, now Fanatics is coming out with official school jerseys with players name on it and the players are getting paid for it. Got to believe McGhee and Willis jersey's are about to be dropped.


https://www.actionnetwork.com/ncaaf/fan ... ey-program

I've never understood why LU and/or it's B&N can never adequately sell and keep in stock replica football, basketball, baseball, even hockey jerseys. While, I'll give B&N some slack right now because of Beijing Biden's manufactured supply chain disruption, it just makes no sense to me. There's clearly a demand, especially with our current success and being FBS you'd think someone would think it's a good idea to sell them.

LUOrange wrote: ↑February 3rd, 2022, 10:31 pm I've never understood why LU and/or it's B&N can never adequately sell and keep in stock replica football, basketball, baseball, even hockey jerseys. While, I'll give B&N some slack right now because of Beijing Biden's manufactured supply chain disruption, it just makes no sense to me. There's clearly a demand, especially with our current success and being FBS you'd think someone would think it's a good idea to sell them.

Maybe now that we are in mighty CUSA, Nike will elevate us to the Jordan Brand...

Whoever decides what is sold in Barnes and Noble probably don't realize we have left the Big South yet. Very poor job with marketing and apparel selection. Replica jerseys probably would be best selling item there, if they had them. They should have more sport specific stuff, i.e. Liberty Football, Liberty Baseball, Liberty Softball, Liberty Basketball, etc.

You’ve been around long enough to know this is not a new issue

I've heard that Liberty's contract with B&N gives them the exclusive rights to selling apparel on campus, not sure how true that is or how it works cause it appears Hockey sells their own stuff (they should stock replica jerseys too not just the $200 actual jerseys).

Anyhow, I've always though that LU should put a small store in the Mall and/or Candlers Station (since they own them) where they could sell Liberty gear, event tickets, & even have admissions info. I know the Flames Club, the Alumni and/or the Ticket Offices have moved to Candlers Station but I've never been in them and assume they're not selling gear in them. Anyhow just my thoughts.

LUOrange wrote: ↑February 4th, 2022, 1:05 pm I've heard that Liberty's contract with B&N gives them the exclusive rights to selling apparel on campus, not sure how true that is or how it works cause it appears Hockey sells their own stuff

Hockey aint NCAA. It doesn't fall into the same category.

LUOrange wrote: ↑February 3rd, 2022, 10:31 pm There's clearly a demand,

Is there? It depends upon what you mean by "demand." I wanted to buy a Jersey for my son and couldn't do so. There was demand from me. However, it aint like there is demand to sell 500 Jerseys from Liberty.

The local Walmart and Target already have LU sections. Walmart’s is decently-sized, idk if there would be much value in a stand-alone apparel shop. I do like the idea of having a small selection at the ticket office, but so much of that stuff is handled online or on the phone that idk if there’s enough foot traffic to make it worth the trouble.

LUOrange wrote: ↑February 4th, 2022, 1:05 pm I've heard that Liberty's contract with B&N gives them the exclusive rights to selling apparel on campus, not sure how true that is or how it works cause it appears Hockey sells their own stuff (they should stock replica jerseys too not just the $200 actual jerseys).

Anyhow, I've always though that LU should put a small store in the Mall and/or Candlers Station (since they own them) where they could sell Liberty gear, event tickets, & even have admissions info. I know the Flames Club, the Alumni and/or the Ticket Offices have moved to Candlers Station but I've never been in them and assume they're not selling gear in them. Anyhow just my thoughts.

The contract with B&N may prevent LU from opening a retail outlet anywhere else, on or off campus. That could also be why B&N charges such a high price for what they do have.

If that is true, that really sucks.

I will say this, though, I was surprised how well stocked the Liberty section at Wal Mart on Wards was the last time I was in town. Not top-of-the-line stuff, but still pretty good stuff.

Truth be known, Walmart should do a hostile takeover of B&N on campus.

ballcoach15 wrote: ↑February 4th, 2022, 2:44 pm

LUOrange wrote: ↑February 4th, 2022, 1:05 pm I've heard that Liberty's contract with B&N gives them the exclusive rights to selling apparel on campus, not sure how true that is or how it works cause it appears Hockey sells their own stuff (they should stock replica jerseys too not just the $200 actual jerseys).

Anyhow, I've always though that LU should put a small store in the Mall and/or Candlers Station (since they own them) where they could sell Liberty gear, event tickets, & even have admissions info. I know the Flames Club, the Alumni and/or the Ticket Offices have moved to Candlers Station but I've never been in them and assume they're not selling gear in them. Anyhow just my thoughts.

The contract with B&N may prevent LU from opening a retail outlet anywhere else, on or off campus. That could also be why B&N charges such a high price for what they do have.

I'd hope LU wouldn't sign something like that, but I'm sure not having to deal with the retails hassles is a big part of why they haven't opened a store and why they contracted with B&N in the mid to late 90's.

Unfortunately, every campus bookstore is expensive that along with the brand name clothing their using vs the 80's/90's brands that are now relegated to Walmart. Which is where I've gotten most of my Liberty gear at the Wards Rd. Walmart.

I do also wish that Walmart and B&N both would learn how to reorder the items that they sell fairly quickly.

Trust me you do NOT want to know the specifics of the B and N contract. And it’s better than it used to be

The crazy part is that Barnes & Noble still exists at all.

How much longer is it in place?

What is interesting to me about our Bookstore: When it opened, it was actually too small (but MUCH larger than what we previously had) for the textbook portion of the business. I was there a few weeks ago and the basement has significantly SHRUNK the space allocated for textbooks. Tells me that 1) students are more actively getting books online and 2) an increasing amount of textbooks are digital.

B&N was created as a college textbook store and grew to include what most people know as "Barnes & Noble." The businesses split, then rejoined. It is my understanding that the original. contract was with the College Bookstore division, which then merged back with the retail portion of the business.

I have a love / hate relationship with B&N. The prices are often too high, but I still like the idea of a brick and mortar bookstore. I shamefully take my boys there to look at books. I scan the titles with my Amazon app. If the price is close, I buy it there. If not, I buy it from Amazon and get the book two days later.

One would still think that their manager over the apparel would say, "You know, those replica football and baseball jerseys we had sold out considerably fast 2-3 times. The basketball ones did pretty good as well. Maybe I should re-order some more." Just a thought.

B&N is historically bad. At every university I've worked at its been a terrible deal. Kudos to them for fleecing universities and their fans but man is it bad. At the current P5 I'm at we field a plethora of complaints about the selection (and its still the best one i've seen of any place I've worked). They don't work well with athletic departments and their customer service is historically terrible. They make the majority of their money fleecing students with ridiculous textbook costs. They don't care about fans or what the demand is from fans on gear. its truly amazing to me that they have managed to last this long without most universities telling them to get lost. There has to be some cut back to the schools for them to hang around, or the schools just don't want to deal with the textbook business themselves.

On top of all that trying to get a big manufacturer like Nike, adidas, under armor to play nice with B&N takes what equates to an act of congress. There's a reason polo's cost almost 75$ retail now. and its not even the supply chain problem. Which speaking of is also affecting what teams are doing right now. Vietnam being shut down from October 2021 to july 2021 has been the biggest headache known to man.

Textbooks and polo shirts/caps should be separated . There is really no connection.

flamesfilmguy wrote: ↑February 8th, 2022, 12:00 pm On top of all that trying to get a big manufacturer like Nike, adidas, under armor to play nice with B&N takes what equates to an act of congress. There's a reason polo's cost almost 75$ retail now. and its not even the supply chain problem. Which speaking of is also affecting what teams are doing right now. Vietnam being shut down from October 2021 to july 2021 has been the biggest headache known to man.

On campus Niketown when B&N contract expires....

flamesfilmguy wrote: ↑February 8th, 2022, 12:00 pm Vietnam being shut down from October 2021 to july 2021 has been the biggest headache known to man.

That’s an impressive feat!

JK37 wrote:

flamesfilmguy wrote: ↑February 8th, 2022, 12:00 pm Vietnam being shut down from October 2021 to july 2021 has been the biggest headache known to man.

You knew what I meant July---> October. basically anything produced in Vietnam Mainly Cleats have been impossible to get even for big schools.
That’s an impressive feat!

... or more precisely, unimpressive feet.