{"id":668996,"date":"2026-05-27T23:33:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T23:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/668996\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T23:33:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T23:33:07","slug":"sbj-marketing-knicks-show-theres-no-demand-like-pent-up-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/668996\/","title":{"rendered":"SBJ Marketing: Knicks show there\u2019s no demand like pent-up demand \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Across the sports licensing industry, they\u2019re starting to refer to the NBA Eastern Conference champions<\/a> as the New York Knick$.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what happens when a team from the nation\u2019s largest market progresses to the championship round for the first time in 27 years<\/a>. Keeping in mind that the Knickerbockers\u2019 last championship was 53 years ago, when google was just a number that seemed infinite. It all harkens back to our favorite licensing aphorism: \u201cThere\u2019s no demand like pent-up demand.\u201d That\u2019s always been true. So much so, that we might even believe the often-spurious claims of record sales, should the MSGers win. Industry-types already are.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith a win, the Knicks would be profound, their fans would go on a feeding frenzy, and it would be the best NBA hot market for us in years, probably ever,\u201d said FOCO CEO\/Founder Michael Lewis. \u201cI had six of my employees leave the office this week as soon they heard that the [Eastern Conference] Champion caps [now sold out] were for sale. The Knick fan right now is in an emotional euphoria you don\u2019t see often.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Oklahoma City wins, it\u2019s another non-event, but San Antonio brings with it the promise of a lot of Wemby [Victor Wembanyama] product sales and could be a sales tsunami by himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fanatics is calling this Knicks squad its best-selling NBA conference champion ever, noting that in the two hours after the Eastern Conference title clinching on Monday it sold more Knicks merchandise than the previous-best 2022 Golden State Warriors did over their first five days, post clinch.<\/p>\n

Tim Shanahan, New Era\u2019s senior director\/licensed products, said the conference championship cap sellout was real and immediate across accounts within a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew blood in any championship is always good,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be a bit tight on championship locker room stuff if they win, but we have a bunch of other options. The Raptors championship [in 2019] was really big, because all of Canada bought in and the early Warriors also. A Knicks championship would challenge those.\u201d<\/p>\n

OuterStuff CEO Sol Werdiger said his principal concern now is keeping up with front-end demand for FIFA World Cup apparel. He called the Knicks hot-market prospects \u201cincredibly strong and making us wish we still had a big New York-based retailer, like Modell\u2019s and Herman\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Werdiger and Lewis noted that the biggest potential hot market would be if the Canadiens won a Stanley Cup, which they haven\u2019t since 1993. \u201cThat would be the largest hot market we\u2019d have for years in any sport,\u201d he said. \u201cOur if-wins [orders] for a Canadiens championship are double what the Knicks are.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Canadiens trail the Hurricanes 2-1 in the NHL\u2019s Eastern Conference final, heading into Wednesday night\u2019s fourth game in Montreal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Across the sports licensing industry, they\u2019re starting to refer to the NBA Eastern Conference champions as the New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-668996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}