Ann Arbor Public Schools enters agreement with Advantage Sports for use of Huron, Pioneer, Skyline logos
Advantage Sports sales associate Deirdre Clein folds Huron High School T-shirts before putting them on display Tuesday afternoon.
Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com
Ann Arbor Public Schools officials announced an agreement with Advantage Sports, a local sporting goods and apparel business, for licensing and use of high school logos and graphics.
The two-year agreement will give the district 10 percent of the proceeds from any item with the Skyline, Huron or Pioneer High Schools logos sold in the store. District spokesperson Liz Margolis said she has been discussing a licensing agreement with district officials and various businesses for years.
"We know we’re losing revenue when I see larger retailers that are selling logoed items from the high schools that we are not getting any royalty on,” Margolis said.
Advantage Sports, located at 2019 W. Stadium Blvd. in the former Big George’s Appliance site, will have a varsity shop area for high school spirit wear. Items will include T-shirts, golf-style shirts, sweatshirts and hats.
Margolis said she didn’t have an estimate on how much money the agreement will make for the district. She said the district’s portion of the money from the sales would be divided among the three high schools and the district, but exact percentages have not been determined.
The agreement runs through Feb. 11, 2013. Margolis said the district is going through the process of trademarking each school logo.
Scott Schmunk, co-owner of Advantage Sports and a Huron High School alumnus, said he and his brother Jaime had been talking to the schools’ athletic directors about what they look for in a sporting goods store and how they could be involved in the community.
“It’s great. It puts us where we want to be with the schools and be a part of the community,” he said. “We want people to shop at our store for stuff you can’t get at other places. There’s no place like this in Ann Arbor. The fact that portions of it go back to the schools is of great benefit to them as well.”
Schmunk said his store would still have to bid against other sports apparel providers to make school sports uniforms.
Margolis said she was not aware of any other school districts that had a similar licensing agreement. She said district officials looked at the licensing agreements universities have with apparel companies, albeit on a much smaller scale.
“I know that when I go into different communities, I see high school sports items being sold like ours were, but I don’t know how many have an agreement like this,” she said.
Kyle Feldscher covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com.
Comments
Kyle Feldscher
Tue, Mar 8, 2011 : 5:02 p.m.
An issue has brought to our attention with this story that there is some concern about how this licensing agreement will affect local retailers. This is the e-mail district spokesperson Liz Margolis sent to a local retailer as a response to his concerns. Margolis is aware we are posting this as a comment. "I know this licensing agreement is something new and unknown. We are working through it as well. As I explained our foremost position was to protect the revenue that was going out via larger retail stores such as CVS, Meijer and Dunham's for high school apparel, not the local screen shops. I just had a conversation with Scott Schmunk at Advantage Sports. He confirmed with me again that he has no intention to invoke the licensing agreement on local screen shops. The district's stance on this is that we would support some small licensing use fee at some time but not currently or in the near future. Scott does encourage local screen printers to contact him as a potential vendor for his retail store. Please continue with your associations with local teams/booster clubs. This will not have an impact on your arrangements with them at this time. Prior to any change in this status we will let local screen printers know. Likely that may be a yearly usage fee but again, there is no plan to invoke this now or next year."
Beverly Bornschein
Sun, Mar 6, 2011 : 3:47 p.m.
1. Is this legal? Was this "agreement " put out for bid amongst ALL the screen printing & embroidery companies in Ann Arbor? 2. How do you rein in logos that have been in the public domain for decades? Many of which were created and designed by the established Ann Arbor area screen printing companies themselves years ago. 3. This is certainly "biting the hand that feeds" many of our schools' teams and organizations. My husband owns a screen printing & embroidery company that has always supported our community's schools through discounting merchandise and custom artwork, buying ads in theater & sports programs, and paying school taxes for over thirty years !! His printing company is not the only one in town to do so. 4. Who EXACTLY is going to "own" these logos? Public schools belong to the taxpayers. 5. If this newcomer business wants to give back to the community let them do so at their own discretion, but they should not receive some special agreement with AAPS that guarantees them special rights.
Barb's Mom
Thu, Mar 3, 2011 : 2:39 p.m.
Pioneer and Huron both have Spirit Wear shops that people can buy from. This agreement will cut into the money that they make from those sales. Why doesn't the district send Cease and Desist orders to National Retailers such as Dunhams, Meijers, K-Mart, etc. who are wrongfully selling the logoed items from the High Schools. Many local Screenprinters and Embroiderers are already giving back more than 10% to the schools and should not be penalized for their efforts to support Ann Arbor Schools. Here is a link to the Official Huron Spirit Shop website <a href="http://kreativeklothes.com/huronstore.html" rel='nofollow'>http://kreativeklothes.com/huronstore.html</a> In addition is Advantage Sports going to provider extra services such as personalized items, Web sites, and product selection geared to individual teams? These are all services already being provided by local small businesses who are servicing these accounts.
Veracity
Wed, Mar 2, 2011 : 7:44 p.m.
Kudos to Advantage Sports and to school administrators for innovation that will be profitable to both an small Ann Arbor business and the Ann Arbor Public School (AAPS) district . The money that the school system receives could replace some funds that will be lost by actions of our state government. I assume that the AAPS is also receiving licensing fees from wireless cellphone tower owners who have amplifiers and transmitters on several light poles above the Pioneer High School football field. With funding of education dismal I would even encourage licensing of advertisements on our school sports fields and other property though this should be done selectively and according to high standards.
pegret
Wed, Mar 2, 2011 : 5:42 p.m.
Will the schools still be able to sell their own merchandise?
dotdash
Wed, Mar 2, 2011 : 3:10 p.m.
I'm glad to see they are outsourcing locally. But what about Community?
dading dont delete me bro
Wed, Mar 2, 2011 : 11:48 a.m.
go braves!