The State of the Industry 2022

The State of the Industry 2022

What Trophy House customers need to know.

The supply chain, although better, is still very much strained. The word in the team sports and custom apparel industry is that there will be at least another year of shortages. This includes some of the apparel, equipment and custom order manufacturing capabilities. We have already seen great improvements with high in-stock apparel quantities, but it is still a daily occurrence to find a desired apparel item in stock in all sizes but one, or in all colors except the 4 most popular. So, if your order is in stock celebrate it and don’t delay. Get that order in. Any hesitation and you may be out of luck!

What are we at Trophy House doing to help ease the strain on our customers?

Well, in short we are planning ahead, holding decoration prices, making deliveries and increasing efficiencies in our production processes to ensure we will meet deadlines and provide a quality product at a fair price.

At Trophy House, we want our customers to succeed. We also have a great group of vendors who want to promote success as well. But, due to unforeseen circumstances with the supply chain we have seen where vendor projects are moving along smoothly then, bam! The vendor is hit with an unexpected shortage of a material or supply and production stops. It stops for weeks to months at a time. That isn’t fun for anyone. So, we advise our customers to order early.

In addition, we have not increased decoration prices throughout the pandemic (even though supply costs for us have gone up). It is true that we are getting vendor notices weekly with increases effective immediately. And while we will continue to hold decoration prices, don’t delay your orders because additional product price increases are coming in from our vendors pretty regularly.

With gas prices increasing shipping is also on the incline. We can’t change shipping rates, but we can and do make regular deliveries to our local customers. In addition, shipments from our vendors are taking longer. Some warehouses don’t have the resources to pick and ship quickly and some orders are experiencing increased transit times, so it takes the product longer to get to our door. To help our customers continue to meet their deadlines, we have increased our production output to help us produce more in a shorter time to meet deadlines. When it gets here, we get it done. Shout out to the hustlers on our team!

It's a reality that product can just flat out be hard to get. Last year, for example, we sold out of football equipment midseason, as did many other retailers. Sports equipment is not exempt from the supply chain woes that we are all experiencing. We have already had customers coming in this spring asking about equipment for this upcoming football season. And, we have already had vendors letting us know that they don’t have enough parts to complete all preordered equipment production needs. In addition, the equipment they will be able to get out won’t be coming until June. Shop early this summer, it looks like the upcoming football equipment purchasing season is expected to be fast and furious.

What can you do to ensure you get what you need? Plan ahead! I know, I know it’s hard to know who will come aboard and what size they will need for apparel, uniforms or equipment, but you likely have past years data that would help you make an educated guess for size and quantity you will need to place your orders early. It’s better that you have a few imperfect sizes than no apparel, equipment or uniforms when you’re ready to play. The sooner you can make us aware of your needs, the more we can do to get your products in house when you need it.

We feel it is important we share with you where the industry is to help you best plan for your needs. We want our customers to know that we are committed to delivering a quality product, on time, and at a fair price. We are doing what we can to counterbalance the volatility of the industry. We have been doing this for over 50 years, surely we can get through the next year together! We will all come out even stronger in the end.