Nike sells Bauer Hockey for $200 Million

February 21st, 2008

Nike Inc. has sold its Bauer Hockey subsidiary for US$200 million to an investor group led by Montreal businessman Graeme Roustan and U.S. private equity firm Kohlberg & Co.

The American athletic-goods giant, which acquired what it describes as hockey’s leading manufacturer in 1995, said Thursday it is pleased to have struck a deal with “strategic buyers who have a passion for hockey and are committed to continue to invest in Bauer’s long-term growth and brand leadership.”

Roustan, through private holding company Roustan Inc., places equity investments primarily in the arena business and aviation industry.

Kohlberg & Co., with offices in New York and California, has invested US$2 billion across six private equity funds.

Bauer, in business since 1927, is said to have developed the first skate with the blade attached to the boot, and it claims a No. 1 position in the hockey market.

Nike did not release specifics Thursday on Bauer’s sales and profitability, but CEO Mark Parker said “its team has done an incredible job.”

The sale, after a strategic review of Nike’s subsidiaries, “was a tough decision but one that was in the best interests of Nike and Bauer as we each look to maximize our respective growth opportunities,” Parker stated.

“Bauer is the most coveted hockey brand in the world,” said Roustan, who will be chairman of Bauer Hockey.

“It is a personal honour and privilege to have the opportunity to work with the existing dedicated team of professionals at Bauer and support this great company’s continued industry leadership well into the future.”

Bauer will continue to use the Nike Bauer trademark on existing products for up to two years.

Shame they ran the company into the ground… Nike never really brought anything to hockey besides those entertaining goaltender commercials in the 1990’s.

The good news is that Bauer is apparently back in Canadian hands, so maybe there is hope of a rebirth, though with CCM/KoHo getting pushed aside by Rbk, perhaps the few remaining Canadian manufacturers are destined to head the way of Cooper…

Oh, wait, Bauer put Cooper out of business before the Nike takeover ever happened… Sigh…

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Design Next Season’s Third Jersey

February 18th, 2008

My favorite team, the Hartford Wolf Pack, is currently running a contest right now where fans can submit their designs and one of them will be selected as next year’s third jersey.

As a designer myself, I think it’s a shortsighted idea.  Yeah, it’s a good idea to incorporate fan interaction, but realistically, things like this are best left to professionals otherwise they look, well, kinda like what homemade greeting cards look like.

Amateur. 

Sloppy.

And dare I say it… minor league… in an arena football sort of way.

But here’s to hoping there are a few pro quality designers interested in submitted their *un-paid* work for a chance at receiving a wee bit of publicity and zero compensation if they are selected.  Then, and only then, might we have a nice third jersey.

See, odds are stacked heavily against it.

Anyway, I’m sure they’re receiving a lot of tounge-in-cheek submissions like the one I threw together in less than 5 minutes at the top of this post and I hope the “judges” get a chuckle out of the numerous less-than-serious submissions they must be receiving.  I’m sure some are a hoot.

Sadly, though, I’m pretty sure my five minute joke design is probably of a higher quality than 99% of what they’re receiving. 

And I likely should, as a huge fan of the team and jersey collector, put my head down and piece together a top notch design, but you know what? 

I prefer to get paid for my time.

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Flashback: Byron’s Hockeyland Mailing List

February 8th, 2008

While cleaning out some old boxes from the attic I came across a bunch of all lists from my early days in the hobby. Lists and primitive catalogs from Milt, Meigrey, DHC, and Drop the Gloves from the late 1990’s…

The big headline from Milt in December of 1999 month was:

We are now offering our LIST sent to you Via E MAIL. Current mail list subscribers only. E-mail us your E mail address to get set up for a once a month E mailing, Which replaced the printed copy sent to you. You will be able to get it faster this way. The set up is Microsoft Word.

I thought some of the old time collectors might like to reminisce, and some of the newer collectors would see how we used to do things — via standard snail mail and telephone, so I scanned it in. Thinking back, lists like Milt’s were a gold mine.

My first example of the old days is Byron’s Hockeyland List #131 from December of 1999.

It’s a pretty large download, coming in at 11 megs, but you can print it out and relive the old days and the thrill of the chase.

No one stop shopping with a click of the mouse back then — you had to work the phones.

Some of my favorites on there are an Ed Belfour Chicago Blawkhawks gamer for $1500. Still pricey, but when you compare it to the $1000 an Eric Daze gamer (on page 3) went for back then, Belfour was a steal! Hard to imagine Daze had that much of an upside back in 1999, huh?

Page one had a Toronto Maple Leafs Mike Gartner jersey on sale for $1000. I wouldn’t mind having that one in the closet now.

Page six has a jersey that I actually called about back then, the 1993-94 and 1994-95 Hershey Bears Chris Winnes jerseys. Both had already sold when I called — and I’ve yet to see either turn up again on the open market. If anyone has them, yep, I’m still interested.

Download the list.

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Welcome

January 13th, 2008

Trying something new out here on my jersey site…

It seems everyone has a “blog” these days, so why not me, right?

Basically, the plan is to highlight one jersey in my collection at a time — and showcase all of the unique features it has.

I’m thinking I’ll start with jerseys from my Wolf Pack collection pointing out the slight variations I’ve noticed from set-to-set and season-to-season because that’s the team that I like to think I’m an expert on.

I also plan to pop in from time to time and sound off about the happenings in the NHL. None of the day-to-day stuff, but the big topics of conversation. Not that anyone will be reading it, but sometimes it’s just fun to voice your opinion on things…

We’ll see how it goes…

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