Already ahead of the curve with Junior merchandise

DALLAS -- At 11 a.m. on Wednesday, the first Dale Earnhardt Jr. apparel featuring Mountain Dew, Amp and National Guard hit shelves at JR Motorsports' shop, JR Nation, the Hendrick gift shop and online.

Rollout of a limited collection will follow in the next two weeks. That's fast work, and it's important work, because Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the box-office king of the $2 billion-plus NASCAR merchandise market. The faster such merchandise is available to the public, the more hits it gets, and the more money it makes.

"It's Hendrick Motorsports' day, and Amp and Mountain Dew and National Guard," said Mark Dyer, president of Motorsports Authentics, the leading distributor of licensed NASCAR products and collectibles. "We're so proud at Motorsports Authentics to be partnered with Hendrick Motorsports and JR Motorsports and these great sponsors. This is a great day for Junior Nation and for NASCAR. I think it's an exciting new chapter for everybody."

Dyer said that die-cast is going to take a while, given the turnaround times for production, however.

"Die-cast is available through our dealers, and QVC and other channels are going to take orders, and product won't actually ship until after the holidays," he said. "But we're getting a whole product array for 2008 and it will be at Daytona. Junior Nation will have plenty of selections for the new wardrobe."

Out with the red, in with green and blue is the name of this tune.

Team owner Rick Hendrick is happy with the combination of his new driver and sponsors he's worked with for years, especially in the licensed products arena.

"I think definitely the sponsor has an impact on souvenir sales, for sure," he said. "I think it takes a combination of the driver, though, and the sponsor. Junior has a tremendous fan base. But then again, when you look at the colors of Pepsi, especially Mountain Dew and AMP and the National Guard, with the number of people that they touch through media and activation, that's the key, is growing our fan base and having products that can promote your driver and take your whole organization to the next level.

"That's why with these sponsors, that's gonna help us with souvenir sales. I think you've got Junior, who is the most popular guy out there, and he's leading in the souvenir sales. Just adding these brands, with their activation, it's just going to make it even better. We'll have to wait and see."

Thanks to JR Motorsports VP of licensing Joe Mattes and VP of marketing and brand management Thayer Lavielle, the apparel was up and running at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, a task that still had Lavielle buzzing after the announcement.

"Our VP of licensing, Joe Mattes, worked very hard to ensure we had limited items ready to go," she said. "We also had to work very hard to keep it a secret, as to what the sponsorship and number were, so therein lay somewhat of a conundrum of how to work with our licensees and treat them fairly. We worked specifically with one vendor to produce some items for us locally, and today they are available at our shop, in JR Nation, and online. As of 11 a.m. this morning, the licensees got the rest of the items and the rest of the outlets should have items out very quickly."

To put this in perspective, you have to understand how licensing works. It's not as easy as coming up with an idea or design and starting to make products. There's a sample process, approvals, redesigns or tweaks, another round of approvals and so on until the final product is signed off on by everyone involved.

"It's complicated in that you have a lot of different pieces that you want to bring to market, from a decal to a bumper sticker to a floor mat, T-shirt, hat, die-cast car, all these different items," Lavielle said. "As the negotiations kept going on longer and longer, we kept having to sort things out, not necessarily on the deal points, but in terms of getting marketing programs and logos ready. It's been a nail-biter. We're working as hard as we can with our licensees to get the products out there for Daytona, if not before."

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As for the sign-off process, Lavielle said it was fairly streamlined.

"There are internal processes between Hendrick and JR Motorsports ... JR Motorsports controls and runs the licensing of Junior's Cup and Busch teams, but we work very closely with Hendrick on that to make sure it has the right look and feel."

The group doing this pedal-to-the-metal project is an experienced one, with lots of hands from the old Action Performance and Sports Image days on staff. Even so, the process left Lavielle and Mattes gasping for breath.

"It's full-boogie-tilt, pedal to the metal," Lavielle said with a laugh. "Joe and I were joking around the other day, as we were pulling our hair out, we said, 'just think, it's only going to get worse!' It's nice to be able to talk about it freely, so we can focus on getting the product out and serving everyone who has supported us."

Earnhardt Jr. himself had a hand in some of the designs, including the paint schemes for the cars, and he exercises some control over products which bear his name, Lavielle said.

"[Earnhardt's] totally easy to work with," she said. "We produce so many items; he doesn't look at all of them. Specific to adidas, for example, he looks over the line because it's a personalized Dale Jr. line of lifestyle clothes. He'll look at that, and not necessarily nitpick, but have suggestions.

"On every race fan T-shirt, he's not going to put his thumbprint on all of them, but he does definitely put his thumbprint on certain items that are particular to him."

Wednesday's announcement was a definite thumbprint from Driver 88, and its mark will be left on the industry as a whole.

"I do know where Dale Jr. falls into [that $2 billion number], in terms of pushing items out the door, and that's a good position to be in," Lavielle said.