It’s been 2 years, so it might be easy to think the wrong thing about the “B” word. B stands for branding, which at the time in lower league soccer was taking a beating. Some implied that focusing on branding meant you were focusing on the wrong part of the club. We’d argue that all parts are important.

David Smotherman, a man with a particular set of skills.

In soccer, having the right person in the right position at the right time can be the difference between three points and one. Opportunities will change and shift depending on the talents and skills of the people involved and sometimes, chances simply wouldn’t happen if it wasn’t for having the “aces in their places.” For soccer organizations, this true both on and off the field. Too often clubs die because they lacked the personnel (often volunteers, I might add) to do the work necessary to get the job done. Sometimes it’s because the club can’t find help and other times, because the club just doesn’t have people with the right skills.

For those organizations that have become legacy clubs, filling the skill positions has been accomplished, sometimes by luck, but most of the time through a lot of hard work and planning. Chattanooga FC, formerly of the NPSL and now NISA, is a club that has always found the right people for the task. David Smotherman, who serves as the club’s Director of Merchandise, couldn’t be a more obvious choice for his role. David is the owner of a Chattanooga based store, Winder Binder, which, according to David, sells “chattacentric” items, including books, art, and music. In a brilliant bit of cross promotion, the store also carries the full line of CFC merchandise.

One of the strengths of Chattanooga’s merch is the wide variety of items. When I asked David what made an item the right fit for the club, his response was a perfect balance of passion and business. “Best possible quality but still in an affordable price range. Solid designs that can take some chances, but still under a unified theme.” That unified theme is key to the process of any item becoming official merchandise. David walked me through the process. ”We have a design team that is headed by Paul Rustand (who is also a co-founder of the team), he is the "brand czar" and has ultimate say on any design that gets produced. He is assisted by Matt Greenwell (who is basically in charge of our yearly jersey design) and Sean Burney (who does all the day to day graphics and design and works directly for the team). Myself and my merch staff also bring design ideas to them to create, so it really is a group effort when it comes to the design portion of the job.” When all of that collaboration is done, David’s special talents really come into play. “What I personally bring to the job is that I am good at sourcing, logistics, and implementation, plus 25 plus years of owning a non-traditional retail store, so I have a pretty good pulse of what interests people.”

The variety of stock is a hallmark of CFC merch.

David’s business plays a special role for CFC merchandise, one that may be entirely unique in American soccer. “Winder Binder actually owns all the merchandise and we pay a "licensing fee" to the team (we give a set percentage of all merch sales back to the team). I am responsible for the online shop, game day sales, and sales through Winder Binder. I also help facilitate wholesale orders to third party vendors who want to sell CFC merchandise. So technically, I am a contractor for the team, but I am also considered a staff member and do a number of other projects for the team throughout the season.” Because Winder Binder handles all the inventory for the team, David can really control the margin (profit). “Margins are important because it has to be enough to pay the team their percentage and still have it be worthwhile for Winder Binder. Another factor we always consider when it comes to margin is the retail price because the team, and myself, have always been very price conscious when it comes to our fans. We don't want to be the team selling a t-shirt for $35 like you would expect from a lot of professional teams. So how do you keep the price affordable and still keep everyone happy with the margins? Well, I am lucky enough to have the buying power to order in larger quantities and get better price breaks. A lot of these deals I have cultivated from working in retail for 25 years. I could get a lot more technical in how to get the best deals, but most readers would probably find it tedious and boring, but needless to say, there are a lot of ways to work with a manufacturer (and knowing how they produce things), to make a product less expensive without sacrificing quality.”

Inventory control also help keep costs at reasonable levels, by not carrying product no one wants to buy. Being a club for ten years gives CFC the insights into what sells and, more importantly, what doesn’t. “We are lucky, at this point, to have a lot of statistical data from past years. We know what people are buying and when they are buying the most of it. We know what does well at games and what does better in Winder Binder. We have a core group of items that we know we are going to keep forever, so those I order basically every January/February and order enough to last for the entire year. That's where you get big price breaks. We like to call those coconuts, because they will last for years.” He continues his fruit analogy. “Then we order smaller quantities of specialty items, or items specific to a single season. Those we call bananas, because they have a much shorter shelf life. Basically, you want bigger margins on the coconuts to make up for the smaller margins on the bananas.”

All of those years of coconuts and bananas doesn’t mean the CFC team misses sometimes. “The biggest lesson you have to learn is that sometimes you just get it wrong on an item and you put it on sale and try to get your cost back as quickly as you can and then move on to something else. I have been fortunate not to have made very many ‘wrong calls,’ but sometimes you just think something is great and the fans don't agree.” The biggest hits have been the tri-color Crest Logo shirt, which they have “literally sold thousands of them over the years, it's bread and butter” and the Owner's Jersey (with names of all 3,200+ investors in the team) [pictured below]. For CFC, the yearly makeup of their sales is 25% kits and 75% other merchandise.

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When you have someone like David on the line, with all the experience and success he’s had, it’s important to glean advice for other clubs. Here’s a list of suggestions from a guy who does this as his livelihood.

“Build slowly with a line of basics (coconuts) and then add new items each year. If you see a seasonal item with staying power, turn it into a coconut.”

”Rotate the basics. We'll have an item that sells really well for a year or two, then we pull it completely for a year or two and then bring it back again later. I always joke that it is like when Disney ‘opens up the vault for a limited time’ to sell DVD's of an classic movie.”

“Always be looking to add new things, even if they are small, "chotchkies," type items.”

”And most importantly, keep a list of things that fans request. We write down EVERY request, no matter how silly it sounds, then at the end of the year we go through that list and add a couple of them for the next season. Always keep them coming back with something new.”

“Be organized, especially as things grow. If you are not organized, things can get out of control quickly.”

”Don't get bogged down with a mistake or a bad idea. Acknowledge it and move on.”

”Never stop trying to grow and change. If you go back and look at photos of our merch boot each season, it has grown and changed. We are always striving for a way to do things better. I strive to be incrementally better each match, each season. In 2016, I thought I had designed an amazing merch booth and at the time it was great. But now the staff looks back at and laughs because it looks so much better now than then.”

Very rarely are you going to get better advice from a more qualified voice. CFC has one of the finest merchandise games in grassroots and David is a key component of that game. Finding the right person, with the right skill set, makes all the difference in the world.

- Dan Vaughn