The Sporting Goods Space Is About To Get A Big, New Player
One reason we have a jobs section on SponsorPitch, aside from connecting you with the best career opportunities in the sponsorship industry of course, is that job postings are one of the single best ways to gain insightful tips about who's marketing what, hiring who and spending where BEFORE it lands on the business page of your local newspaper. As a seller, that gives you an actionable advantage and that's why, we've added a jobs section to each of the 1,600+ brands in SponsorPitch's Sponsor Index.
It's job postings like this most recent one that make us (and if you sell sports sponsorships, should make you) want to dig deeper:
"There’s a new team here that is about to make a big splash in the athletic space. We’re building a brand-new, world-class customer experience for everyone who loves participating in sports, and a set of high capacity, scalable services to support it... We have a crystal clear vision and a very aggressive launch target and we’re looking for the best of the best to help us achieve it!"
To date, few online-only sporting goods marketplaces have been able to make a dent in the vertical, as most customers seem to go directly to vendor websites (i.e. Nike, Under Armour) or the websites of brick-and-mortar companies they are already familiar with, like Dick's and Modell's. Many of these brick-and-mortar websites are powered by white label ecommerce company, GSI Commerce, a competitor to Amazon. Having cut their chops in other channels (like diapers and books), Amazon clearly sees sporting goods as one of its next big opportunities and is aiming to not only power others' websites like GSI, but also create a whole new sporting goods brand of its own. Amazon's 2010 acquisition, Quidsi, which created websites like Soap.com and Diapers.com, is taking the lead on the project. Look for the online sports and activity site from Amazon to launch in the first half of 2012.
Will the to-be-named website, with very deep pockets, compete for sponsorship deals in the sporting goods category alongside brick-and-mortar companies in the space? It seems likely the Senior Marketing Manager, Athlete will have a hand in deciding that.
