Why is it that App State’s online merchandise is so much better than ours? Ours is terrible.
Take a look and judge for yourself. We need a upgrade in that field.
http://shop.appstatesports.com/COLLEGE_Appalachian_State_Mountaineers
https://www.nmnathletics.com/sellnew/SellHome.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=23200&DB_OEM_ID=23200
They also have $30 hoodies, something I personally have never seen at the bookstore or our online store.
Some of the other college teams at Fanatics Retail Group
- Clemson, Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Georgia.
Our site is mom and pop.
What marketing department?
In all seriousness though, it’s coincidental that you started this thread because something has been on my mind recently. I have noticed our official athletics social media accounts, across all platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat etc.) are starting to use “UNC Charlotte” more and more. Not to refer to scores or game stories or anything like that, but just in random (or not so random) instances where as they used to NEVER use “UNC Charlotte” to refer to anything in the past. Couple that with the “UNCC 49ERS” vintage T-shirt giveaways on campus and it almost feels like we’re slowly moving in reverse which is very discouraging to me.
Just be on the lookout for it over the next few weeks and I guarantee you’ll start to notice it.
That almost looks like a fanatics portal, where ours links to the online book store.
[quote=“ninerqb, post:3, topic:29378”]Some of the other college teams at Fanatics Retail Group
- Clemson, Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Georgia.
Our site is mom and pop.[/quote]
We have some items on fanatics, but the selection is very slim when compared to most other schools of our size. It is getting a little better, but has a long way to go.
[quote=“ninerqb, post:1, topic:29378”]Why is it that App State’s online merchandise is so much better than ours? Ours is terrible.
Take a look and judge for yourself. We need a upgrade in that field.
http://shop.appstatesports.com/COLLEGE_Appalachian_State_Mountaineers
https://www.nmnathletics.com/sellnew/SellHome.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=23200&DB_OEM_ID=23200[/quote]
I completely agree! Most universities have a much better selection and cheaper prices than we do! IMO the link to shop for “Official Athletic Apparel” through Charlotte49ers.com should take everyone to the bookstores website (uncc.bncollege.com) instead of that BS site that they currently use. The bookstore’s website has a much better selection and is usually kept up to date. The website through Charlotte49ers.com is freaking embarrassing and looks like it is from the 2002…
Either way, someone at the university needs to start looking for new ideas to provide a better selection. All it would take is looking at four of five other universities websites.
who calls the shots on the vendor they use? if it’s Judy, this is another reason we need to overhaul the athletic department along with the current state of our basketball program.
Along with the current state of ALL of our programs. As of this post, of the sports that we sponsor only 1 finished the season with a record better than .500 or currently is above .500 if the season is still in progress. The one sport that did finish above .500 (mens soccer) went winless in both the C-USA tourney as well as the NCAA tourney.
This does not include golf, track and field, etc… that compete in tournament formats.
Along with the current state of ALL of our programs. As of this post, of the sports that we sponsor only 1 finished the season with a record better than .500 or currently is above .500 if the season is still in progress. The one sport that did finish above .500 (mens soccer) went winless in both the C-USA tourney as well as the NCAA tourney.
This does not include golf, track and field, etc… that compete in tournament formats.[/quote]
impressive research, however very depressing for niner fans everywhere.
Everything about our presence and public image is a complete and total dumpster fire. Media relations is rough too; I hate to say that, since I know all those people pretty well from my announcing days and like them a lot. I finally snapped last Friday and sent an email to Tom Whitestone complaining about the horrendous grammar and spelling in our post game releases on the website as well as on Twitter (Seriously, who the hell mans that @49erGameday account? Half those tweets are indecipherable!). he wrote back and said it would improve.
But I digress… To be a university of 26,000+ students and tens of thousands of alumni (at least), we can barely get a foothold to sell our merchandise in the NE Charlotte area, let alone the rest of the state. VCU stuff is all over Richmond, and they’re smack in the middle of ACC country too. Winning would probably help, but this was a problem when we were making the tournament every year too. Merchandise is awful and bland, and the game day experience is boring and not creative in any way. It’s a completely bush league operation. And what I said about the media relations people being good folks… I can’t say that about the head of our marketing department.
[quote=“UNCCTF, post:11, topic:29378”]Everything about our presence and public image is a complete and total dumpster fire. Media relations is rough too; I hate to say that, since I know all those people pretty well from my announcing days and like them a lot. I finally snapped last Friday and sent an email to Tom Whitestone complaining about the horrendous grammar and spelling in our post game releases on the website as well as on Twitter (Seriously, who the hell mans that @49erGameday account? Half those tweets are indecipherable!). he wrote back and said it would improve.
But I digress… To be a university of 26,000+ students and tens of thousands of alumni (at least), we can barely get a foothold to sell our merchandise in the NE Charlotte area, let alone the rest of the state. VCU stuff is all over Richmond, and they’re smack in the middle of ACC country too. Winning would probably help, but this was a problem when we were making the tournament every year too. Merchandise is awful and bland, and the game day experience is boring and not creative in any way. It’s a completely bush league operation. And what I said about the media relations people being good folks… I can’t say that about the head of our marketing department.[/quote]
In general I agree with this post, but actually I HAVE noticed our merchandise becoming much more prevalent in the area than it used to be actually. For instance, Dicks SG in Matthews now ALWAYS has some selection of our gear. 5 years ago, you might see some every now and then but not constantly like now. Same with the sporting goods stores in places like Concord Mills. Most all have a decent selection of our gear now when in the past----nothing. We certainly need more, but I actuallythink this has improved. Also, I don’t think our merchandise is “awful and bland” at all.
[quote=“919R, post:12, topic:29378”][quote=“UNCCTF, post:11, topic:29378”]Everything about our presence and public image is a complete and total dumpster fire. Media relations is rough too; I hate to say that, since I know all those people pretty well from my announcing days and like them a lot. I finally snapped last Friday and sent an email to Tom Whitestone complaining about the horrendous grammar and spelling in our post game releases on the website as well as on Twitter (Seriously, who the hell mans that @49erGameday account? Half those tweets are indecipherable!). he wrote back and said it would improve.
But I digress… To be a university of 26,000+ students and tens of thousands of alumni (at least), we can barely get a foothold to sell our merchandise in the NE Charlotte area, let alone the rest of the state. VCU stuff is all over Richmond, and they’re smack in the middle of ACC country too. Winning would probably help, but this was a problem when we were making the tournament every year too. Merchandise is awful and bland, and the game day experience is boring and not creative in any way. It’s a completely bush league operation. And what I said about the media relations people being good folks… I can’t say that about the head of our marketing department.[/quote]
In general I agree with this post, but actually I HAVE noticed our merchandise becoming much more prevalent in the area than it used to be actually. For instance, Dicks SG in Matthews now ALWAYS has some selection of our gear. 5 years ago, you might see some every now and then but not constantly like now. Same with the sporting goods stores in places like Concord Mills. Most all have a decent selection of our gear now when in the past----nothing. We certainly need more, but I actuallythink this has improved. Also, I don’t think our merchandise is “awful and bland” at all.[/quote]I agree that it is better than say 5 years ago, but I feel like I’ve been seeing it less and less over the last year.
I don’t pay THAT much attention to it since I don’t go out shopping much, but I feel like we peaked in the Summer of 2013 right before football started. There was a lot of excitement around town for football that summer.
With how awful we are now it might be time to formulate a new branding strategy and maybe even embrace the UNCC acronym. I know I know, but we are in desperate times.
[quote=“Niner National, post:13, topic:29378”][quote=“919R, post:12, topic:29378”][quote=“UNCCTF, post:11, topic:29378”]Everything about our presence and public image is a complete and total dumpster fire. Media relations is rough too; I hate to say that, since I know all those people pretty well from my announcing days and like them a lot. I finally snapped last Friday and sent an email to Tom Whitestone complaining about the horrendous grammar and spelling in our post game releases on the website as well as on Twitter (Seriously, who the hell mans that @49erGameday account? Half those tweets are indecipherable!). he wrote back and said it would improve.
But I digress… To be a university of 26,000+ students and tens of thousands of alumni (at least), we can barely get a foothold to sell our merchandise in the NE Charlotte area, let alone the rest of the state. VCU stuff is all over Richmond, and they’re smack in the middle of ACC country too. Winning would probably help, but this was a problem when we were making the tournament every year too. Merchandise is awful and bland, and the game day experience is boring and not creative in any way. It’s a completely bush league operation. And what I said about the media relations people being good folks… I can’t say that about the head of our marketing department.[/quote]
In general I agree with this post, but actually I HAVE noticed our merchandise becoming much more prevalent in the area than it used to be actually. For instance, Dicks SG in Matthews now ALWAYS has some selection of our gear. 5 years ago, you might see some every now and then but not constantly like now. Same with the sporting goods stores in places like Concord Mills. Most all have a decent selection of our gear now when in the past----nothing. We certainly need more, but I actuallythink this has improved. Also, I don’t think our merchandise is “awful and bland” at all.[/quote]I agree that it is better than say 5 years ago, but I feel like I’ve been seeing it less and less over the last year.
I don’t pay THAT much attention to it since I don’t go out shopping much, but I feel like we peaked in the Summer of 2013 right before football started. There was a lot of excitement around town for football that summer.[/quote]
I’ve noticed more. Large displays in Dick’s, Academy Sports, and Belk at Northlake. I’ve seen it at Targets all over Charlotte, in varying amounts. These alone make it substantially more than we’ve ever had. I definitely haven’t noticed any decreases since the start of football, if anything, I’ve noticed more.
We need to sell merchandise outside of Charlotte alone, it’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack when looking for Niner gear in Gastonia.
Yes, this I agree with. I am in Union County. However, we have even seem MINOR improvement out here as well. So much so that for the last 6 months or so, the Monroe WalMart has actually stocked several Charlotte t-shirts, sweatshirts and even little kids football jerseys. Blew my mind so much the first time I saw it I took a picture just to show my wife and son (figured they wouldn’t believe it). This store only carries Tar Heels, NC State, (maybe a few Duke items) and Charlotte items in addition to Panthers and Hornets gear. They also had a large Norm cardboard cutout last year in the CocaCola section just before the start of the football season. Seriously…out here, that is unreal.
I agree that the merchandise is better and more available than ever before.
All the sporting goods stores plus Target Northlake have some pretty good stuff.
In these negative times I will throw out one more positive thing.
I am involved in youth sports in the area and I do see kids
wearing Charlotte gear occasionally. Not every kid is
wearing Carolina Blue as it seemed was happening 10 years ago.
If we actually had a sweet 16 run you would see it everywhere.
the stuff you see at Target and the bookstore is garbage. Zephyr hats, Champion t shirts. I think i saw a Jansport sweatshirt one time in bookstore. Jansport is from the early 90’s.
need to get on board with New Era, Nike dry Fit, Under Armor.
We need to hire someone from a big time school that has experience in this.
[quote=“ninerqb, post:19, topic:29378”]the stuff you see at Target and the bookstore is garbage. Zephyr hats, Champion t shirts. I think i saw a Jansport sweatshirt one time in bookstore. Jansport is from the early 90’s.
need to get on board with New Era, Nike dry Fit, Under Armor.
We need to hire someone from a big time school that has experience in this.[/quote]You can get plenty of Nike Drifit and UA stuff in the bookstore.