NHL Draft 2018: 15 first-hand takeaways from a weekend in Dallas
By Josh Clark
4. The memorabilia went quick
I guess the NHL wasn’t expecting a ton of fans to travel to the deep south for the draft. But that’s what happened, as we already established in slide one.
And speaking of slide one, do you remember John? You know, the friendly employee that I struck up a conversation with in the fan shop? Right.
Well, as I was talking to John on Wednesday and learning about the people from all over North America that had already been in the store that day, he pointed me out to another interesting development.
“We’re really quickly selling out of a bunch of stuff, and I’m not sure if we’re getting any new shipments in,” he said.
As I was looking at the different NHL Draft pucks they had on the shelves, John came over and pointed out that I ought to pick up one of the official ones quickly.
Upon questioning why, he told me that almost every NHL Draft fan that had come through on Wednesday (the day they initially put the draft merchandise out) had bought one along with other things. As a result, he was close to selling out of the stock he had and didn’t know if he would get any more in before the draft started.
Being curious about the puck, I asked if there were other pieces of merchandise that had sold well. He immediately took me over to the shirt rack and pointed out two or three of the six different shirt combinations that he had already sold a hefty portion of.
On top of the hats and pucks, the rest of the draft merchandise sold well. With everything from shot glasses to canvas-wrapped frames, they didn’t leave any stone unturned. And fans seemed to be extra antsy in picking up these objects to serve as memories of their experience. That’s why certain items were close to selling out before the draft even began.
While the draft was going on, the fan shops also offered to customize draft shirts for fans and add the names and numbers of their newest additions to the backs.
To top it all off, the NHL was also selling the official Adidas jersey of each team. And by the looks of it, those sold particularly well.
Merchandise sold really well, by the looks of it. After all, memories are one thing. Vulcanized rubber lasts forever.