An Insider’s Guide to the World of Licensed Sports Products: Practical Lessons from the Trenches

Canada -- Free-Press-Release.com-- Jun 8, 2011 -- Scott Sillcox, owner of Toronto-based Maple Leaf Productions, spent the better part of 15 years as a licensee of the NFL, MLB, NHL and CFL, and through an associated company, was a US collegiate licensee as well. Maple Leaf Productions was licensed by the various leagues to produce a variety of products that were decorated with team logos, team names and other images. The products produced were plaqued and framed posters, clocks, fridge magnets, playing cards, fanframes, etc. The products were sold across North America by a wide variety of bricks and mortar retailers, catalogues and e-commerce retailers (e-tailers).

Sillcox is continually contacted by would-be licensees – fellow entrepreneurs with licensed sports product ideas but little experience in the business of licensed sports products. This constant contact led Sillcox to decide to share his knowledge in a 12 Part blog entitled “The Insider’s Guide to the World of Licensed Sports Products: Practical Lessons from the Trenches”. As Sillcox says, the blog is a “Share-all”, not a “Tell-all”, with the clear and simple goal of sharing information about being a sports product licensee in the hope that it will help other people in their quest to become licensees.

“I am sharing this information as a service to people interested in obtaining a sports league license because I know from first-hand experience that I would have liked to have known all of this information prior to becoming a licensee – it would have made me a smarter, and therefore better, licensee” Sillcox says. “I am also sharing this information as a service to the various leagues. That might seem a bit odd, but the leagues simply do not have the time or the patience to deal with the seemingly inexhaustible supply of entrepreneurs seeking licenses and who the leagues tend to think of as dreamers. I celebrate dreamers and hope to help them better understand the intricacies of becoming and remaining a licensee.”

The 12 Part blog “An Insider’s Guide to the World of Licensed Sports Products” will be published weekly from early June to late August 2011 at Sillcox’s highly popular Heritage Uniforms and Jerseys blog which receives more than 20,000 visitors each month.

The blog titles are:
Part 1: How Licensing Works - Follow The Money or How can $5,000,000,000 be less than you think?
Part 2: What’s Involved in Getting a License - You need them far more than they need you
Part 3: The Landscape and some of the players
Part 4: Quality Control – Where The Real Power in Licensed Sports Lies
Part 5: Royalty Reporting and Audits
Part 6: Selling Licensed Goods - Why it’s not as easy as it looks
Part 7: Players Associations and Current vs. Retired Players
Part 8: Royalty Rates – Is 12% the norm and when 12% isn’t enough
Part 9: Local Licenses – myth or reality?
Part 10: Packaging
Part 11: Ten Things I Learned Along The Way
Part 12: Ten More Things I Learned Along The Way

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About Scott Sillcox:

Scott Sillcox was President and Owner of Toronto based Maple Leaf Productions from 1993 to 2009 and during that time researched, designed and manufactured a family of NFL, MLB, NHL, CFL and US college licensed sports products that celebrated the evolution of team uniforms. Maple Leaf Productions produced a variety of products that were decorated with team logos, team names and other images. The products produced were plaqued and framed posters, clocks, fridge magnets, playing cards, fanframes, etc. The products were sold across North America by a wide variety of bricks and mortar retailers, catalogues and e-commerce retailers (e-tailers).

Sillcox now owns Heritage Sports Art which is devoted to the sale of what is believed to be the world’s largest collection of original sports-themed artwork, artwork that celebrates NFL, MLB, NHL, CFL and NCAA football uniforms and stadiums/ballparks/arenas. For more information about Heritage Sports Art or its President Scott Sillcox, please contact him directly at 416-315-4736 or scott@heritagesportsart.com.

Scott Sillcox
President, Heritage Sports Art
Aurora, Ontario, Canada L4G 4T5
Ph: 416-315-4736
Email: scott@heritagesportsart.com
Web: Heritage Sports Art
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/ssillcox
Blog: Heritage Uniforms and Jerseys blog
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Heritage-Sports-Art/145915525450743
Flickr: Heritage Sports Art

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Heritage Sports Art
Scott Sillcox
416-315-4736
http://www.heritagesportsart.com