More Videos
- Moon Hopes To Complete Amazing Story
- These Poker Stories Are No Bluff
- Did Matsui Make Contract Money Last Night?
- Adidas Out At UCF After MJ's Son Wears Jordans
- If Yanks Win, Merchandise Will Fly Off Shelves
- Final World Series Games Big Money Makers
- What I Got Wrong About Keflezighi
- Marathon's Headline Win Is Empty
- New Cubs Owner Tom Ricketts Goes One-on-One With "SportsBiz"
- Roger Federer Signs With Chocolate Brand Deal
RSS FEED
MOST SHARED
- Future of Marketing
- Oil Tomorrow
- Priceline Crushes Profit Forecasts; Shares Jump
- Home Prices Start to Stabilize In the US as Sales Pick Up
- Dow Industrials at New Highs—But Other Indices Lag
- Dow Up Over 100 After G20 Stimulus Pledge
- Can Apple Top Microsoft as Most Valuable Tech Firm?
- 'Modern Warfare 2': Biggest Entertainment Event of 2009?
- Sprint to Cut Up to 2,500 Jobs, Sees Charge
- Warren Buffett to Sell Stakes In Union Pacific & Norfolk Southern
- Nov. 9: Unusual Volume Leaders
- The Battered Businesses Behind Housing
- Modern Warfare 2's Record-Breaking Launch
- Merck’s Mega-Monday Morning
- Why are Traders Bullish on This Food Company?
- Profiting From Natural Gas: Strategists
- S&P Stocks Trading at New 52-Week Highs
- Shopping for Answers
- Obama Says Will Raise Currency Issue with China
- Look Ahead: 'Risk On' Attitude Could Fuel Rally Further
- Can Apple Top Microsoft as Most Valuable Tech Firm?
- Buffett to Sell Stakes in Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific
- Cramer: 5 Stocks to Play the Next Bull Run
- Do You Know Your Coca-Cola Myths?
- Electronic Arts Beats Street, Announces 1,500 Job Cuts
- Time Is Here to Look at Overseas Stocks: Bill Gross
- Home Prices Start to Stabilize In the US as Sales Pick Up
Sports Biz
Text Size 
Today's obscure sports brand of the day is Gared Sports (Motto: "Where your game is our business!).
If you haven't heard of them, don't worry, neither did I.
Yesterday, while I was at the Garden in Boston, I saw a man putting up new nets. The "Net Changer" told me they now change the nets every game.
 |
Source: garedsports.com Gared Sports |
So while he was changing a net, I wandered over to the scraps and saw that it was made by a company called Gared Sports.
Later in the day, I found myself under the rim. I looked up and on the part of the rim that connects it to the backboard, I saw "Gared Sports" and a phone number.
I assume this was a maintenance number, but I thought it was pretty funny the number was there because only the players can see it.
So here's the deal. You haven't heard of Gared because they don't have a deal with the NBA, which prevents the company from advertising (aside from a brief mention on the company Web site). But the NBA has been using their backboards and rims since the mid-80's.
According to the rules, teams must change their rims every year and their backboards every five years. That's undoubtedly been a good business for Gared. But they're kind of boxed in from a publicity standpoint because the NBA's sponsor is Spalding, which owns Huffy, maker of backboards sold at retail.
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes