Would You Like A Chance To Kill My Dreams?

[Canucks_Fantasy]

Yeah, I had a couple posts go "missing" yesterday as well. I thought maybe I just forgot to click submit.

[FFisLife]

First of all...thanks to everyone so far for their honest answers. Please keep them coming. I'm starting to get a little worried that maybe I am the only one out there that thinks this is a good idea?

In response to

I'm a little weirded out that you would preface this with something like ".... in order to save my marriage and possibly my family's bank account."

Those are two pretty heavy things to hinge on this little venture. Then to follow that up with a comment that you'd let us, essentially strangers, kill this idea........

Sounds like you have bigger fish to fry right now than to worry about this apparel idea.

Let me clarify: What I was meaning by the saving the marriage and the family's bank account statement was that I didn't want to think about what might happen if my venture failed. I would disappoint my wife who is supportive and then she might lose faith in me moving forward. I didn't mean she would divorce me over it (at least I hope not ). As for saving the family's bank account I was just referring to borrowing money from family members that maybe wouldn't be able to be paid back for a long time, which would obviously be awkward for both sides.

I must admit that some of you have raised some good points that I hadn't thought of before and I thank you for that. Although the response so far isn't what I was hoping for, I am appreciative of your help and am better equipped to make an educated decision on moving forward.

I'll keep checking in to see your responses periodically. Thanks again!

[joelamosobadiah]

As for saving the family's bank account I was just referring to borrowing money from family members that maybe wouldn't be able to be paid back for a long time, which would obviously be awkward for both sides.

Don't do it. Nothing good comes from borrowing from family members no matter the intentions, how nice the family members are or anything else. Just a touchy situation that should be avoided unless absolutely necessary IMO.

[sportsaddict]

I have to side with everyone else.

A fantasy sports clothing line just wouldn't work. Here's why:

Wearing a St. Louis Rams t-shirt is socially acceptable. Nobody is embarrassed that they like a pro football team.

A person who wears a fantasy sports t-shirt is just asking to be teased. It would just be weird, and I think most people would be embarrassed to wear fantasy sports apparel, even if they love fantasy sports.

You can even see, this website has the biggest fantasy sports fans on the planet and there's not much excitement over fantasy sports apparel.

It's great that you thought outside of the box, and it's great that you came up with a creative idea. But this idea just wouldn't work.

[spodog]

A person who wears a fantasy sports t-shirt is just asking to be teased. It would just be weird, and I think most people would be embarrassed to wear fantasy sports apparel, even if they love fantasy sports.

Sounds like you guys all need to come out of the closet. Fantasy Football is now definitely mainstream. It is talked about on sports talk radio, it is in mainstream newspapers, celebrities admit they play, it gets mentioned in Sitcoms, NFL players admit they play (see Chris Cooley's blog). Now, 6 or 7 years ago, none of that would have been true.

Now having said that, I must point out that there is a big difference between just starting a brand for the purpose of selling clothing and the examples that you've given.

All those companies that have become icons in their specific areas make a product Granted, their brand may be bigger than their product line now, but they built and extended their brand AFTER they got their product into the marketplace.

What is your product?

If you owned kffl or one of the mags or fanball, maybe you could try this, but I've got to agree with the feedback you've received here, the brand has to represent something other than just the concept of fantasy sports in general.

[knapplc]

As for saving the family's bank account I was just referring to borrowing money from family members that maybe wouldn't be able to be paid back for a long time, which would obviously be awkward for both sides.

Don't do it. Nothing good comes from borrowing from family members no matter the intentions, how nice the family members are or anything else. Just a touchy situation that should be avoided unless absolutely necessary IMO.

Meh. Most every company that gets funding from venture capital firms starts out with an initial round from acquaintances, typically called the "friends and family round." It's almost like a proving ground - if you can't convince those who love you most, why should "we" invest in your idea? A lot of times after F&F the next round is Angel investors, or wealthy and (typically) unrelated single-party or small-group investors who have spare cash and are willing to risk a portion for a slice of the future profits. Then after those rounds have been sold, venture capital firms typically come in to play.

I learned a lot during the Dot-Com boom of the 90s.

[FFisLife]

Sounds like you guys all need to come out of the closet. Fantasy Football is now definitely mainstream. It is talked about on sports talk radio, it is in mainstream newspapers, celebrities admit they play, it gets mentioned in Sitcoms, NFL players admit they play (see Chris Cooley's blog). Now, 6 or 7 years ago, none of that would have been true.

Now having said that, I must point out that there is a big difference between just starting a brand for the purpose of selling clothing and the examples that you've given.

All those companies that have become icons in their specific areas make a product Granted, their brand may be bigger than their product line now, but they built and extended their brand AFTER they got their product into the marketplace.

What is your product?

If you owned kffl or one of the mags or fanball, maybe you could try this, but I've got to agree with the feedback you've received here, the brand has to represent something other than just the concept of fantasy sports in general.

Very helpful post spodog...Thank you. I actually did notice that all of the brands that I mentioned started out with a product first. However...I have seen a few other brands that started as a t-shirt / decal company and are doing well. For example in Hunting there is a brand you may or may not be familiar with called Sneekee. It has caught on pretty well due to it's great logo (a mule deer skull). Having said that...I do have to admit that a lot of their success is probably due to getting placed in Sportsman's Warehouse stores (for those that aren't familiar...SW is a hunting and fishing supply store).

Your point is well taken though and is something that I have considered when thinking about this idea. I think ultimately... building a brand around a product is probably the easier route, and the more traditional route, but it has been done the other way too. Thank you again for the helpful post though, and I will definitely take this into account.

[jake_twothousandfive]

I'm going to have to go with everyone else. I just don't see this taking off.

Fantasy sports have become really personalized over the years. A lot of what makes fantasy sporting fun for me are the inside jokes and rivalries within leagues or a group of players. I don't see how you could capture that with a single logo/image. It'd be nearly impossible to customize a clothing line enough to satisfy the entire fantasy community. And, like others have said, I don't think there are many people out there who'd be willing to wear this type of clothing in public even if they could relate to it.

You said you'd have to risk a fair amount (i.e. borrowing money) to get this idea off the ground. I can't think of a great argument that would justify you taking a risk like that.

[RiffRaff]

Never, I repeat, "NEVER", borrow money from family. Unless they are very rich and will not hold it against you. Plus; if you ever did make it big you would never hear the end of it. Frankly, no matter what happens you will never hear the end of it.

Conclusion. Never borrow money from family.

[beanoX3]

What you have to do to get fantasy football gear from being a dud is to tap into the geek crowd. Geek is chic now, from intentionally wearing thick glasses with tape on it to wearing a t-shirt with the Nintendo Contra cheat on it. Fantasy football clothes probably wouldn't sell to the average beer chugging sports fan, but the geeks who play fantasy football might. As spodog pointed out, fantasy is very much mainstream now, as every single sports media outlet has some sort of fantasy stuff available.

I'd suggest going to a fantasy football convention. I don't know where you live and if its possible without a lot of travel, but Chicago has one every year sponsored by ESPN. Go and check out the crowd, as I'd think the more dedicated fantasy managers would be the ones who attend. If you've got samples, ask around for others' opinions. Despite what others in this thread think, if there's ever a time to start making fantasy football gear, it's right now.

I don't see people being mocked for wearing a t-shirt with something like "Shanahanigans killed my fantasy season". I've seen what people are wearing, and there's a whole lot of weird stuff people put on t-shirts. Some people even put a wall of text on a t-shirt and I doubt other people even read it. Basically, as long as your t-shirts look fine, people will buy it.

Take a look at the Woot t-shirt site here. Maybe start small, and if people buy your shirt, expand.