12/02/99 09:49 Riddell Sports Announces Launch of Two New Web Sites; Varsity.com and Riddell.com
NEW YORK, Dec. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Riddell Sports Inc. (Amex: RDL) announced
today that it has launched two new web sites, Varsity.com and Riddell.com.
Varsity.com (http://www.varsity.com), is the Company's community-based web
site with an e-commerce element. It will provide up-to-date content for
participants in extracurricular activities, with the initial launch focusing
on cheerleaders and their coaches. The content will enhance basic skills and
enable participants to share similar interests with other members of the
cheerleading community. The site will provide step-by-step instructional tips
and techniques, bulletin boards and celebrity chats, as well as information on
health and fitness, beauty, music, entertainment and other topics of interest.
A special feature of the site is the ability to post a public squad home page
and the capability to communicate in a private fashion between squad members
and their coach.
The Company's strategy is to roll out individual web sites for a variety
of extracurricular activities in addition to cheerleading. There are an
estimated 20 million young men and women who participate in team sports, such
as football, baseball, softball and soccer, in junior and senior high schools,
colleges and recreational youth leagues, and another 10 million participants
in other extracurricular activities, such as cheerleading, dance and band. The
Company plans to add sites over the upcoming year especially designed for
football and other team sports at the high school and college level, as well
as web sites tailored to the needs of youth sports players below 14 years of
age.
David Mauer, Riddell's President and C.E.O. stated, "We believe that the
community of extracurricular participants such as cheerleaders, football
players and other team sports members, often find their participation in these
activities to be a significant defining element of their lives. By providing
content that "speaks" to the participant's extracurricular activity, we expect
to maintain their interest and enthusiasm for our sites.
Importantly, our sites will become the place where team members can
converse with other members of the community and "power" the web sites with
their own submissions and viewpoints. Our plans recognize that each
extracurricular activity represents a unique community of interests, and that
the needs of high school and college players and coaches are quite different
than those at the youth level."
Mr. Mauer went on to say, "We believe that the content and community
building aspects of our web sites will enhance our existing relationships and
help us build new relationships with coaches and participants in various
extracurricular activities. The Internet will also provide us with another
way to rapidly disseminate new product information and promote our camps,
clinics, competitions and performance events.
Our goal is to create web sites for these discrete, highly focused
communities, that when aggregated, will represent a large audience of school
leaders and trend setters. This is a highly desirable demographic not only
for our products but for advertisers and third party marketers of a variety of
goods and services".
Riddell.com
Riddell.com (http://www.riddell.com) is the Company's on-line store for
its successful sports collectible line of products licensed by the National
Football League, Major League Baseball, NASCAR (and various professional
drivers) and the NCAA. Riddell.com will also promote a unique concept -- the
Custom Shop -- where sports fans can personalize mini helmets for gift-giving
occasions such as graduation, birthdays and Father's Day. The Custom Shop
will offer a product line that cannot readily be offered in a traditional
retail environment.
The Riddell.com site is also a natural extension of the Company's retail
collectible strategy. If a fan lives in an area away from his favorite team
it is often difficult to find that team's merchandise in local stores.
Riddell.com will make it more possible for a fan to find merchandise from
his/her favorite team no matter where they live.
Tom Clark, Sr. V.P., Consumer Products for Riddell commented "The new
Riddell on-line store makes it easy for sports fans to find what they are
looking for in a simple to navigate, interactive format. By marketing all of
our products together, with the ability to view all of a team's products with
a few simple mouse clicks, we believe that collectibility will be greatly
enhanced."
Mr. Clark continued, "Our Custom Shop is expected to generate an
enthusiastic response from our consumers and we expect that this area will be
expanded with new offerings over the next few months. The entire on-line
store format lends itself to an expansion of our product line that would be
difficult to achieve otherwise."
Riddell Sports Inc. provides institutional sporting goods and school
spirit products and services to educational and recreational organizations
through its national, direct sales force. The Company is the leading
manufacturer and reconditioner of football protective equipment and the
leading supplier of products and services to the school spirit industry. The
Company's consumer products group markets miniature and full-size helmets for
collectors and licenses the Riddell and MacGregor trademarks for use on
athletic footwear and apparel.
This release contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of
risks and uncertainties and actual results may differ significantly from those
anticipated in these forward-looking statements. The factors that may cause
such differences include, but are not limited to, the Company's ability to:
(i) generate meaningful interest in its community or commerce web sites, (ii)
provide updated content or obtain content from the users of its web sites,
(iii) launch additional web sites for other extracurricular activities, (iv)
offer new product lines or generate advertising, sales or other revenues from
its web sites and (v) adapt to rapid changes and general uncertainties
relating to the relatively new and continually evolving business of electronic
commerce, as well as general economic conditions and other business factors.
Have to check these sites out.
Jack |
