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Field of Dreams: Sports on The Web

Field of Dreams: Sports on The Web

Sporting goods—clothing and equipment—is a $150 billion business worldwide and the biggest purveyors of these goods were quick to get their business onto the Internet. Three young West Coast entrepreneurs began SportSite.com, an enterprise that united sporting goods distributors and catalogers into a giant electronic sports mall for the consumer. They quickly captured a big chunk of the market and bought out their main competitor. Then, they changed their name to something more whimsical, Fogdog Sports (Fogdog.com). For those who don’t know, a fogdog is a ray of light seen through the fog.

Fogdog is not alone in the cyber fields of dreams. Many traditional sporting goods stores such as Copeland’s in California, have online branches up and running. Copeland’s established a link with an American Online in November 1996. The major league sports products licensees have established a Web presence, too. Anyone looking for a Denver Broncos jersey can click onto National Football League (NFL.com) and quickly find such gear. There is a superstore online called sportssuper.com. Some, like SportsOutfitter.com, are linked to other sports sites.

When Fogdog.com was still the upstart SportSite, the business was often cited as one of the best of the Web for shopping and ranked in the top ten shopping sites. As one business journalist pointed out, “SportSite reeks of professionalism and Web-savvy design.” Forbes magazine selected it as a trailblazer in its April, 1998 A.S.A.P. section.

SportSite was founded, designed and maintained by Cedro Group, which took its name from the Stanford University residence building where the three cofounders lived. Cedro president Brett Allsop already had invaluable experience from a family owned sporting goods manufacturing company. Andrew Chen, vice president of production, had a background in electrical engineering. Vice President of systems and research and development, Robert Chea, came from an Internet and information technology background.

The original company was formed by developing Web sites for more than 100 sporting goods and outdoor product manufacturers and associations. The Cedro entrepreneurs worked with each association to educate them about the benefits of the Internet. They held seminars, trade show consultations, online demonstrations, and provided a newsletter. In early 1998, it began operating as SportSite.com. As the site grew, the staff grew to 24 full time employees and one consultant. A few months later, the site was bolstered by funding from J.H. Whitney and Company and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

That summer, while still operating as SportSite, Tim Harrington, a former GolfWeb executive, was named president and CEO while Allsop was made president of the new international division.

The name was changed to Fogdog in November 1998, to let customers know the that “at Fogdog Sports they are personally guided through the vast world of sporting goods to find the right product every time”—just like that ray of light through the fog.” The owners proclaimed Fogdog the ultimate sports store. “All Sports. Top Brands. Smart Shopping.” Visitors have more than doubled since the site was redesigned and the name changed.

Fogdog then acquired Sportscape.com, one of its competitors, to boost its leadership in the global sporting goods industry. Sportscape’s domain, its affiliates network and extensive database of customers came with the deal.

At Fogdog a shopper can select from the widest possible variety of clothing and gear for any sport imaginable from kayaking to wrestling. Because Fogdog works with sports product catalogers around the world, it can stock more than 137 brands and 7,000 items, much more than an earthbound store could manage. Information is available in German, French, and Spanish as well as English. Fogdog has been taking orders from more than sixty-five countries in Europe, Asia, South America, Australia, and elsewhere. All Fogdog catalogers ship anywhere in the world and each cataloger’s shipping chart can be found in the customer service pages in several languages.

Once clicking onto the Fogdog Web site, users can choose from several types of digital stores. That is, you can choose a sport and find all gear, equipment and apparel relating to that sport, sort of a digital basketball store or ski shop, for example. Or, one can simply go to the shoe store and find footwear for all sports from walking to mountain climbing. Shoppers can also stick to their favorite brands, too. For example, if you click into the Reebok or Nike store, you would find all the merchandise from shoes to shirts offered by that brand.

At Fogdog, women have a store of their own with the kind of helpful information that would not be likely in a conventional store. For example, there is a diagrammed explanation of how a woman’s jacket is constructed differently than a man’s. Because some women may simply order a smaller man’s jacket, this information can be very enlightening. There is also a page of information about exercising while pregnant, with tips on what to continue doing and what to avoid during those months. Women’s teams and leagues are featured, too. A search of WNBA products could pull up a menu offering official basketballs and a team video. A search for women’s soccer products pulled in a page offering a Mia Hamm team jersey, shoes, and equipment from a variety of manufacturers.

Michael Hodgson an outdoor author and fitness expert brings expert advice to Fogdog customers about buying outdoor products. Other experts lending their opinions on the site include “Miss Olympia,” and author and TV fitness host Cory Everson.

There’s also Steiner Sports Memorabilia for collectors who want mementos of sports triumphs, legends, and heroes. Customers can also see some great sports moments by purchasing from the Video Action Sports collection which is available through Fogdog.

Fogdog partners and catalogers include Adventure One Retail, Baseball Express, Eastbay, Eurosport, Mountain Gear, Road Runner Sports, Royal Robbins, Volleyball One, TSI Soccer, Wrestling One, Video Action Sports and SnowSports Industries America, the non-profit national member-owned trade association (snowlink.com) of competing on-snow product manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors. Fogdog also has an affiliates program that encourages anyone with a Web site to feature a link to their site and earn a 20 percent commission on any resulting sales.

Fogdog customers can choose from brands like Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Airwalk, The North Face, Mizuno, Fila, Patagonia, and others. They can choose from a particular sport or product such as shoes. And the Fogdog search squad will attempt to located any product anywhere whether they carry it or not.

Customer orders go directly to the particular vendor who has the merchandise and it is shipped from that vendor’s place of business. Once the search is sufficiently narrowed by a shopper for a particular item, Fogdog lists all the catalogers that sell that particular product. They will be listed alphabetically from right to left in columns. Beneath each cataloger logo is the list of specific products they sell and links to their product pages. A customer can either jump directly to a product or choose to preview groups of products by selecting the “Preview All” link under each cataloger.

When ready to purchase, a customer in a multi-catalog sports store clicks on the shopping basket and enters the checkout area. They will see a list of what there are buying, as well as the name of each cataloger they are purchasing from. Buying from several catalogers means there may be more than one shipping charge involved in the transaction. The purchases may be coming from several different places.

Fogdog sends the separate orders to each of the selected catalogers for processing. The shopper gets delivery from each of the catalogers with a credit card charge from each one. Despite the multiple shipping charges, the Web way of shopping is still more convenient than driving from store to store for that particular product a customer wants.

Three quarters of a million shoppers jammed the Fogdog site during the 1998 holiday season with sales accounting for more than a third of the year’s sales, far more than expected by these entrepreneurs. Top sellers during this season were outdoor apparel and equipment, workout gear, footwear and radar baseballs. Other popular items were baseball bats, ski boots and basketball backboards.

A Swinging Sideline: Will’s Custom Golf
Will Foster, a Maine police chief, set up a Web site (willscustomgolf.com) to augment his sideline business of making custom golf clubs. While he has not become an overnight millionaire, Foster, who spends only a few hours a week at the site, has made a profit.

Foster has been playing golf since he was ten years old. His father, grandfather, and great grandfather were golfers. His own children and grandchildren are golfers. Will has been operating his golf business since 1993 at The Ledges, a golf club in York, Maine. He bought a domain address on the Web and a friend in the computer business helped Foster design a Web page. Foster paid a California company, ProNet, Inc., a one-time fee of $39.95 to list willsgolf.com in user lists.

Foster’s Web site is simple and straightforward, describing his company and listing his own credentials as a member of the Professional Golfmakers Society, the Golf Clubmakers Association, and the National Golf Foundation. The site includes a two-page application for the customer to return via e-mail with all the particulars relating to the customizing.

The site describes the elements of customizing golf clubs: golf swing, strength, swing speed, and age and physical characteristics. The components of the club all factor into a golfer’s swing—head type, loft, shaft length, weight, grip size, and so on. Foster also does repair, reshafting, and refinishing.

Foster has been building his land business by not compromising his integrity with knockoffs or clones. He deals only in first quality products from reputable manufacturers and distributors. But, he says, his main strength, is that he listens to his customers. “What the customer says is important so I can make the best clubs possible.” Foster takes no short cuts. He performs a frequency analysis on every shaft, insuring that the club will be consistent with the player’s swing timing.

The Web site includes Foster’s pricing and why there are variations. Although custom clubs usually cost less than original manufactured equipment, cost alone, according to Foster, should not be the deciding factor. Fit and feel and reaction are most important. The cost of a set of three woods and eight irons with steel shafts is about $320. The cost of the same configuration with graphite shafts is approximately $440. The cost for individual drivers is $120 and putters range from $35 to $75. All come with a two-year warranty. Foster paid for a domain for two years and figured he would give it that long to decide if it was worth while. In the first year he received about 2,500 inquiries, which amounted to sales of less than a dozen, but those sales were lucrative. He has not lost any money, and actually made a profit.

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