The Opportunity: The opportunity I believe can be exploited is the need for a Jersey-Rental company. Authentic sports jerseys cost over $100 and often go underused as players get traded, injured, or retire. With the increasing popularity of fantasy football, the world cup, the NBA and March Madness, fans need a way to show their support for their favorite players while spending their money wisely.
The Solution: To solve this issue, I envision a subscription-based program that allows members to rent up to 2 jerseys at a time, and keep them for as long as they want. If they want a new jersey, all they have to do is send one of their current jerseys back. Our service would remove any concerns over players getting traded or injured; their is no purchase-risk with this program. I imagine the service costing anywhere from $10-$20 per month, as the company would be buying the jerseys wholesale from the Professional Leagues, then inventorying them and shipping them as quickly as possible to our members. A Student Plan is a likely addition to attract our younger sports fans who are commonly the most passionate fans about individual players. There could also be different memberships for how often you plan on renting a new jersey, or if you want to be able to rent more than two jerseys at a time. I even think there is potential for a "Buy-Now" price, where members have the option to buy jerseys at a discounted price after having them for a particular amount of time. The leagues should approve of this as it only spreads awareness and popularity for their business as well.
Greg,
ReplyDeleteI think your business idea is very unique and could do quite well for itself. While I've never heard of a clothing subscription service, I think jerseys would have a good market for it as you mention, particularly with younger audiences in college and high school as they wear jerseys a lot. In my opinion, I think you could charge a little more a month since the merchandise you are dealing with is expensive and would likely require a higher price to stay profitable.
Hi Greg,
ReplyDeleteThe idea is really interesting because not being much of a sports fan, I never would have come up with it myself. You did a good job specifying your idea in this post as well. I wonder what you would do to check for damaged or old clothes, since the material of jerseys easily get linty. How would you enforce your policies?
It's a good idea but being put into practice is the real difficulty. You run into the same problem as the "rent an umbrella" service. Once someone has the rental, what's the guarantee they'll give it back? It's a nice product because it's a physical thing. Although it can be damaged lost or even stolen. I think you should address that in further posts. I'm curious to see what you come up with.
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