Aug. 9, 2005
On the heels of arguably the most-successful athletic year in school history, 2004-05 also produced a record licensing year for officially-licensed Baylor merchandise according to figures compiled by the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC).
During the recently-completed year, Baylor generated $189,303 in gross royalties on retail merchandise sales which topped $5,000,000. This represented a 35 percent increase over the previous year. The royalty payment received by Baylor was a school record while it also recorded the highest percentage royalty increase in the Big 12 Conference. CLC collected more than $76,000 during the second quarter for Baylor, which was also a school-record amount for one reporting period.
"The strong licensing performances are attributable in large part to the success that Baylor teams experienced this year and the popularity of the new Bear logos among our fans," said Ian McCaw, Director of Athletics. "We have also made good progress in the distribution of Baylor merchandise and strengthening our relationship with Nike."
In 2004-05, Baylor had a total of 198 licensees with 91 percent of them reporting royalties. Apparel products accounted for nearly 60 percent of Baylor's royalties, while non-apparel companies contributed more than 31 percent of the total revenue. The t-shirt category was the largest product category for the Baylor program making up more than half (55 percent) of overall apparel revenues.
Another royalty area which saw significant growth was the team apparel product category, which increased more than 500 percent for the year primarily due to the presence of Nike products in the marketplace. The 2004-05 year marked the first time Nike showed a significant commitment to Baylor at retail and consumers responded in impressive fashion.
Waco's T-Shirts Plus was Baylor's leading licensee a year ago, as it increased 570 percent over the 2003-04 fiscal year, in large part due to the school's tremendous athletic success.
The Lady Bears run to the 2005 NCAA women's basketball championship saw more than $8,500 generated for Baylor by NCAA licensees during the Final Four alone. In addition to the NCAA event revenue, 16 companies produced product and generated royalty revenues totaling nearly $40,000 for the Baylor national champions program. Royalties from Nike, which produced the official locker room cap and t-shirt for the national champions, will not be reported until later this month for sales that were made from April through June. As such, a significant amount of revenue generated from the sale of national championship merchandise will be reported in the third quarter of 2005.
"The increase in royalties during the past year is an excellent step for our licensing program," says Bill Chaves, Baylor's Associate Athletic for External Affairs. "A bulk of the credit certainly needs to go to our successful athletic programs as well as the introduction of our new identity system for logos.
"CLC, as well as Angie McGregor, the University's Licensing Coordinator, should also be credited for their hard work in contributing to our best year ever," he added.
CLC is the nation's leading collegiate licensing and marketing representative. Formed in 1981, CLC assists collegiate licensors in protecting and controlling the use of their logos through trademark licensing. The CLC Consortium consists of more than 180 universities, bowl games, conferences, the NCAA and the Heisman Trophy. Based in Atlanta, CLC provides its member institutions the expertise, resources, and experience necessary to maximize licensing revenue potential through the power of consolidation.
