As the San Francisco Giants battled their way to the National League Championship and a place in baseball’s World Series, fans have devoured merchandise including caps, T-shirts, bumper stickers and — fake beards.
The hirsute trend is inspired by All-Star relief pitcher Brian Wilson, whose whiskers and legend have inspired a “Fear the Beard” mantra. Wilson saved the game that propelled the Giants to the championship series against the Texas Rangers, and his 48 saves during the regular season tied the Giants’ single-season record.
“The beard is our big thing,” said Dave Martinez, director of retail operations for the Giants.
Photo: REUTERS
Martinez filled the team-owned Giants Dugout Store with fake beards and beard masks last month and they immediately sold out. He then collaborated with Nike Inc, which designed a silhouette of Wilson’s cap and beard and put them on orange T-shirts with the slogan: “Fear the Beard.” Just in time for Game 1 this week, the Giants opened a seventh Dugout Store across the street from their stadium, AT&T Park, to accommodate the growing demand.
“We’re doing 26 times the business we did last October,” Martinez said.
While the follicular focus may be new, exploiting the oddities of the team isn’t. Such merchandise sales have helped make the Giants the ninth most valuable baseball franchise, worth US$483 million, according to Forbes magazine.
In 2002, Martinez noticed a fan waving a rubber chicken each time an opposing pitcher would refuse to pitch to slugger Barry Bonds. Martinez added rubber chickens to the Dugout Store and sold more than 5,000. In 2007, with strikeout artists Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum on the team, the store sold 3,000 giant foam Ks, the scorecard symbol for strikeouts. The popularity of third baseman Pablo “Kung Fu Panda” Sandoval triggered sales of 15,000 panda hats over the last year.
“Facial hair is facial hair,” Wilson said in a televised interview ahead of the first World Series game on Wednesday. San Francisco won, 11-7, with Wilson finishing the game. He didn’t appear in Game 2 on Thursday night, which the Giants won 9-0.
“The growth in searches for ‘Fear The Beard’ has been astronomical,” said Jim Prosser, a spokesman for Google Inc. “It’s certainly the breakout search term of the month.”
Zazzle Inc, the product-maker backed by venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, has bought ads tied to Google searches for the phrase. The company, which lets users design their own key chains, neckties and coffee mugs, said the slogan has inspired 2,201 items.
Zazzle’s staff is working overtime to meet demand, said Mike Karns, Zazzle’s director of marketing.
“We’re big Giants fans here,” he said. Even so: “We’re not rooting for a Giants sweep. With all these orders, we’d love it to go to a Game 7.”
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