By Ainsley Walters, Staff Reporter
David Shirley (left) managing director of Locker Room Sports; sales representative Dawn Irving (centre) and warehouse manager Dean Smith (right) check team shirts on display.- Michael Sloley /Freelance Photographer
INTERNATIONAL SPORTS is big business. Athletes command multi-million dollar salaries and sports goods manufacturers throw millions more at them, offering huge incentives to the stars who endorse their products with a smile.
The payback for these companies would be fans and fashion buffs wanting to be decked out in the latest designs worn by the stars.
Locally, Jamaican athletes might not be on TV every other minute advertising some product or another but do benefit from endorsement/sponsorship deals.
Locker Room Sports, a four-year-old sports marketing and sales company run by brothers David and Stephen Shirley, has been aggressively pushing the Kelme line of football kit, sponsoring teams and individual players, making inroads into markets once dominated by the more traditional brands.
An idea born out of David's knack for business, Locker Room Sports has already outfitted Premier League teams such as Arnett Gardens, Harbour View, Reno, Duhaney Park and Rivoli United.
"During my college years at the Florida International University (FIU) I played football three times per week in a local park with some other guys," said David, who attended FIU on a lawn tennis scholarship.
"A few people started watching us and all of a sudden the crowd started getting bigger. The business side of me kicked in and I said 'hey, why not start arranging tournaments?'"
The tournaments were fun, Shirley said, attracting people driving down from northern Florida and even Atlanta.
"After it became established we would have prizes, which the local soccer shop, Soccer Locker, would sponsor. So I was spending a lot of time in the shop around equipment and decided if I was going to market the game I might as well market the products."
Football fever was high in Jamaica when Shirley returned home in 1998. The Reggae Boyz had qualified for the World Cup in France and the spirit was in the air for him to launch Locker Room Sports.
"We were new and had to establish ourselves plus the brand," said Shirley, who started his business at 92 Hope Road before expanding next door.
"We had to hit the ground, visiting teams and schools, work our way from the grassroots up," added the young entrepreneur, who participated in a Young Business Leader's Forum hosted by The Gleaner recently.
Kelme, Shirley said, is a Spanish line which is highly popular in Europe and has been linked to Spanish teams such as Real Mallorca and giants Real Madrid.
Arnett Gardens were the first local club side to don the Kelme kit in addition to individual footwear deals being struck with Reggae Boyz Marco McDonald, Claude Davis, Premier Leaguers Dwayne Richards, Baris Johnson, Patrick Beech, Denton Shedden and Shane Edwards.
However, instead of trying to take on major established brands head-on, Shirley has targeted the future - youths.
"What we have found is that older players have a brand loyalty," he explained. "We target the younger generation which in five years time will be loyal to our brand.
"We have distributors who carry the brand from stores in Linstead, Westmoreland and Mandeville," Shirley added, pointing out that walk-in customers account for a small percentage of business at Hope Road.
Describing his four years in the business as challenging, Shirley's main peeve is delinquent creditors, who hop from supplier to supplier in what he said was "a vicious circle".
"I believe the major suppliers of sports goods should come together and build a credit data base," said the Locker Room managing director, who also markets lines such as K-Swiss, Asics, Wilson and Lotto along with his flagship Kelme.
"When you're introducing a new product credit has to be extended but there are some people who abuse the process," he pointed out. "We should be able to automatically blacklist those people but there's no camaraderie in the business."
