The name of one of America's most iconic brands rests upon one of America's most innovative stadiums. In May 2013, the 141-year-old San Francisco born blue jean brand, Levi Strauss & Co., announced it was partnering with another iconic San Francisco brand, the 49ers. While the $220 million deal gave Levi's naming rights to the 49ers' new stadium, as the partnership unfolds this 2014 NFL season, it is clear that the deal extends much further. In partnering with the 49ers, Levi's has been given a unique way to make its brand come alive in the 21st century while utilizing a football team and stadium to help attract new fans of its own.
Take a walk inside Levi's Stadium this NFL season, and one thing will become clear: Everyone's in Levi's. From the 49ers' mascot, Sourdough Sam, to the team's cheerleaders, the Gold Rush, Levi's has outfitted them all. After signing its naming rights deal, Levi's worked with the 49ers to adopt a strategy allowing the apparel company to outfit visible people related to the team, ranging from its mascot and cheerleaders to even the 10,000-plus concessionaires it employs. Outfitting these individuals not only allowed Levi's to get its products on the bulk of people inside of Levi's Stadium, but to control the aesthetics of a stadium bearing its name. "We saw outfitting these individuals as an opportunity. Since we work in products and like fashion, the look and feel of the stadium were very important to us. We came to the 49ers with the idea of outfitting Sourdough Sam and high-visibility people in the stadium to make it look like the best-dressed stadium and stand for Levi's," said Levi Strauss & Co.'s global product line manager, Devon Tompkins.
While Sourdough Sam wears Levi's Commuter Performance Denim and the Gold Rush wear 501 cutoffs, Levi's has given 49ers fans another way to represent their team affinity: Their own collection. Earlier this summer, Levi's announced the launch of the Levi's x 49ers collection, which offers men's and women's trucker jackets in denim and twill. The brainchild of Tompkins and Levi's Strauss & Co.'s Adam Zloto, the collection features a denim varsity trucker jacket which retails at $190 and a twill trucker jacket which retails at $90. Like the naming rights deal, the Levi's x 49ers collection allowed the apparel company and football team to cross-collaborate again, albeit this time through a clothing collection for fans.
Inspired by the gold satin jackets worn by 49ers fans for decades, Levi's Zloto--also a 49ers fan--began working on a way to combine the well-recognized satin jackets with Levi's Trucker jackets in 2012. Zloto began working on the idea before Levi's officially partnered with the 49ers on the naming rights deal. Rather, the project was more of a lovechild for Zloto, who was looking for a way to combine his passion for the 49ers and his love for the Levi's brand. Working after hours to build the idea, Zloto explains, "The idea came from a simple place. Being a massive Levi's and Bay area fan in general, looking at the market, there weren't many new or exciting options to wear to rep Bay area teams. I wanted something from Levi's I could wear on game days. I was fixated on the concept of blending the satin jackets and Trucker jackets together," Zloto noted.
Unfortunately for Zloto, his idea would have to wait to come to life. "People didn't see the potential of it," he remarked. Realizing that in order for his idea to actually come to fruition, he would need to find support from somebody else within Levi's, Zloto reached out to Tompkins to see if he could get her on board with the idea. With Tompkins' support behind his idea, the two decided to pitch the concept to the brand's leadership. This time, though, the timing was right: Two days before their pitch, Levi's announced the stadium naming rights deal with the 49ers. Unlike in 2012, now, in 2013, the brand saw the potential of Zloto's idea. As such, the Levi's x 49ers collection was born. "There was no better idea I've seen to capture a new consumer and our loyal Bay area Levi's fans while also expanding our iconic brand through that lens," Tompkins remarked.
The Levi's x 49ers collection is just one piece of a puzzle that Levi's is utilizing in the sports sponsorship marketplace to build its brand. Taking the reins as Levi's president in 2012, James Curleigh has made it his mission to find innovative ways to connect the brand with its fans. "Levi's invented the blue jean almost 150-years ago. We've always found ways to continuously connect with people, whether it was to cowboys wearing our western wear or to Hollywood with Marilyn Monroe wearing our apparel. Through the ages, we've found ways to connect with fans. When you come into this century, though, connecting with fans has been more challenging than it traditionally has been. There are more competitors not just competing for entertainment and life share, but also electronics and mind share being spread across the consumer database. In a world of too much choice, how does the most authentic brand break through with a clear message? We could have done a new ad campaign, but we wanted a move that connects us with fans who know us, love us and never left us and also with fans who left us for some other brand and those fans who don't know us yet," Curleigh said.
In explaining why a naming rights deal was attractive to Levi's, Curleigh explained, "This was a fan base quest--not just to gain sports fans, but Levi's fans. A stadium deal is really interesting when you understand centers of cultures. The sports brands have done a great job of espousing the lifestyle of sports further into the closets and day-to-day cultural experiences of individuals. They have done a better job of doing so than the traditional lifestyle brands. We aren't trying to be a sports brand; we are trying to be a fan based brand. There are 70,000-plus people in a stadium on game days. 80-percent of them on any given day are wearing blue jeans. What better way is there to connect with them than through a stadium name? There are more denim brands born this century than in the previous 141-years. What statement is the leader going to make to separate us from the pack? How do we make our consumers more excited, competitors more nervous and consumer base more confident?" Curleigh remarked when asked what motivated Levi's to invest in a $220 million stadium naming rights deal.
For Levi's, investing in a stadium naming rights deal has provided nearly immediate value. Not only was the 49ers x Levi's collection born from the partnership, but Curleigh notes that the NFL is interested in expanding the collection to additional NFL teams. The possibility of bringing the collection to more teams will likely become more appealing to the NFL and other teams as they continue to watch the growth of sales of the 49ers x Levi's collection. Curleigh notes that the collection is one of the highest trending items at the Levi's Stadium team store and that sales continue to grow each week. Furthermore, through the relationships Levi's has built with NFL athletes, it has launched its 541 collection of denim which provides a more athletic fit for men's thighs and glutes. Curleigh explains that the 541 line was "the direct result of engaging with serious-level athletes" and in its first month on the U.S. market has experienced "above average sales." Thus far, 49ers star players Vernon Davis and Anquan Boldin have come out in public support of the collection.
As for the naming rights deal, it has also provided immediate value to Levi's. "We signed a 20-year stadium deal for $220 million for the lifetime of the deal. That effectively works out to cost $11 million per year. We signed that deal before we knew about Super Bowl L, WresleMania, soccer games and concerts being held at Levi's Stadium. We signed the deal because we wanted to connect with the 49ers--the rest, though, are great bonuses. Since we signed the deal one-and-a-half years ago, we had a complete year of public relations engagement about Levi's Stadium before we paid our first payment on the deal about two months ago at the start of the 2014 NFL preseason. We had over 40 billion impressions of Levi's Stadium before it ever opened," Curleigh explained when noting the value of Levi's Stadium to the brand.
For 49ers fans, one thing is certain: The relationship between Levi's and the 49ers will only continue to grow. For NFL fans who aren't 49ers fans, this is good news for them, too. In partnering with the 49ers, Levi's has felt firsthand the power of sports sponsorships. In time, this will benefit other NFL fans, as Levi's will expand their sports sponsorship reach to other teams, providing fans with additional, classic apparel to wear while cheering on their favorite players.
