The Indian Premier League (often abbreviated as IPL) is a Twenty20 cricket competition initiated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and supervised by BCCI Vice President Lalit Modi, Chairman & Commissioner for IPL. It presently includes 10 teams “franchises” consisting of players from different countries. It was started after altercation between the BCCI and the newly-created Indian Cricket League. The Indian Premier League’s brand value was estimated to be around $4.13 billion (over Rs 18,000 crore) in 2010. This value has been increasing manifolds over the past 10 year making it one of the most luxurious domestic league of the world. According to global sports salaries review IPL is the second highest-paid
league, based on first-team salaries on a pro-rata basis, only second to NBA league. It is calculated
that average salary of IPL over a year is £2.5 million.
IPL is a monumental incident which is indicating where the world economy is heading towards 21st century. India is taking the driving seat slowly. The IPL is one of the indicators of it. Finally we Indians found the formula to make money, though for this a free outflow of cash was there but still it is a great revenue generating game. IPL soon might be turn out to be the super bowl of India. A player can earn from one session of IPL as much amount of money which he could earn for
playing international cricket for five years. It is an indicator of the future of Indian economy which
is rising slowly.
A domestic league which has so much money invested makes it to go on a different level as away from the daily shorter domestic league. In a country like India with so many domestic league, what makes IPL standout tournament is a question to all the fans out there. There are many reasons to this . One of the most important reason is the brand value of this league which has been set just about right through various strategies and one of the most important is the merchandise used in this league.
Auth0rized sp0rts merchandise is primarily determined by advancement and impr0vement 0f m0re appealing and trendy sp0rts attire, sp0rts frill, and 0ther item ass0rtments. The market is additi0nally alt0gether affected by the impr0ved financial c0nditi0ns acr0ss creating ec0n0mies, f0r example, India attributable t0 which, sp0rts sweethearts are spending lavishly 0n auth0rized sp0rts merchandise. IPL has always been 0ne 0f the m0st expensive league with high budgets and t0 make a team m0re appealing the 0wners 0ften g0 f0r high quality premium luxuri0us merchandise t0 attract vari0us audience. The merchandise we are referring t0 N0t 0nly g0ing t0 attract the audience but als0 has a huge ec0n0mic impact in this d0mestic league. During times 0f recessi0n IPL has been a savi0r f0r many c0mpanies he did IPL merchandise industry have pr0vided w0rk 0n a really large scale t00 many industries and generated a huge am0unt 0f inc0me which has c0ntributed n0t 0nly t0 BCCI but als0 t0 the Indian ec0n0my. Further this industry has pr0vided Pr0m0ti0nal 0pp0rtunities f0r the c0mpany’s in 0rder t0 gr0w financially 0n a large scale. Further the high number 0f audience 0f this League pr0vides are very subtle s0me 0f advertisement t0 these c0mpanies which in turn leads t0 their financial devel0pment and thus leading t0 the financial devel0pment 0f a c0untry and BCCI.
Vari0us fashi0n merchandise and sp0rts merchandise deals have been a part 0f this d0mestic league and s0me 0f the deals which happened in the recent years are :-
Performax : Official jersey partner for the Mumbai Indians
This brand signed a deal for providing sports merchandise such as jersey, polo t-shirt, Wristbands,sports jackets, sport gears, Sports caps etc. Mumbai Indian have been one of the major teams and the team with the highest brand value and hence not only this deal was a huge financial boost for the company but also resulted in high degree of brand advertisement. This durable , flexible , light weight functional sports wear-making brand signed the deal with the team of Mumbai Indians in 2019 and has been a sports merchandise partner since then. Performax is planned by the French plan house-Carlin to help and prepare competitors to accomplish ideal execution and performance.
Seven: Official merchandise partner of the Chennai Super Kings
Recently the c0mpany seven j0ined hands with 0ne 0f the m0st successful team 0f the Indian Premier League that is the three times champi0n team 0f the Chennai Super Kings. This brand is an indigen0us h0megr0wn brand which deals in vari0us equipment related t0 sp0rts such as sp0rts merchandise, sp0rt wear, gears, caps, jackets, etc. The SEVEN 0fficial IPL C0llecti0n inc0rp0rates the 0fficial gr0up 0utfit 0f Jersey, L0wers, and supp0rting access0ries. The ass0rtment additi0nally inc0rp0rates the gr0up preparing/exercise attire and access0ries; sh0rts, shirt, brings d0wn, and c0vers. The wh0le reach is made 0f 100% P0lyester, Breathable, Skin Friendly, Antibacterial, and Antistatic material.
Alcis Sports: The Official Kitting & Merchandising Partners Rajasthan Royals
As the title suggests this brand has signed the deal of providing kits and sports merchandise to the team of Rajasthan Royals since the year 2019. The various equipment which are provided by this brand to the team include jerseys, kits, sports caps, gears jackets etc. This brand is another 100 polyester brand which makes breathable and stretchable sports wear which are anti static and are very efficient as sports wear. This team as always been one of the favorite team since the inception of this domestic league because of the owners being Bollywood celebrity in the past. This company thus took the advantage of the brand value of this team which can help them advertise about their brand to a large audience.
Myntra : exclusive fashion partner for RCB
This e-commerce giant has been signed as the fashion partner of RCB in the year 2020. One needs to understand that RCB has one of the biggest fan bases due to elite players in that team like Virat Kohli and ABD Villiers . This fashion giant has taken the advantage of the RCB fan base in order to increase their brand spread and advertise it’s name to the fan following of this team. Further the logo of this team was displayed on the upper right chest area of the RCB team jersey . Myntra will provide sports gear and equipment to the RCB team which will include Jerseys, sports caps, sport practice wear and other related sports gears.
Lux industries: Merchandise partner for KKR
BSE listen Lux industries were one of the first companies to vouch for merchandise partnership with an IPL team. This industry which is more famous for making innerwear for both male and female and children had signed as a merchandise partner for the team of Kolkata during the 2018 IPL tournament. Once again, a company had tried to use the brand image of the team owner of Sharukh khan to increase its advertisement audience. During the 2018 period, this was the first time a brand was not only an official brand partner but the merchandise partner for two straight years. This brand was committed to supplying merchandise like t shirts, jackets, caps, sports gear, kits, etc. They were committed to supply this merchandise to a variety of countries throughout the world with the help of their increased advertisement and e-commerce platform.
Spektacom and Kotak : Merchandise sponsor of Punjab Kings
Punjab was among the few teams that always had the intention of getting an all-time merchandise partner. Not until 2017 was this dream fulfilled when Punjab got sponsorship from companies like Kotak and spektakom. Punjab had a widespread fan base due to the ownership by Preeti Zinta which in turn led to the increased recognition of these two brands in the name of the advertisement. Just like the other brands these two brands have supplied merchandise to the team in the name of sports jerseys, gear kits, jackets, gloves, caps. The brand name was displayed 0n the jersey as well. KL Rahul, Captain, Kings XI Punjab said, “The team has been fantastic, we’ve been getting al0ng great and are l00king f0rward t0 playing a g00d brand 0f cricket and making this seas0n a mem0rable 0ne. We’re c0nfident, we’re m0tivated and we are really excited t0 be a part 0f this editi0n 0f the Indian Premier League. It is g0ing t0 be a different experience this year, but we as a team are up t0 the challenge and are playing f0r all the fans wh0 c0ntinue t0 supp0rt us.”
Delhi Capitals Merchandise: Daikin, and Livinguard
Delhi Capital in the recent years has emerged as a very strong team and due to the changing of the name the previous year it has been in media spotlight over a few months. This has resulted in a lot of sponsorship change in the merchandise. The Delhi merchandise like the jersey etc. just like other teams has evolved over a period of time resulting in the change of face of the team. They have stuck with the their darkish navy blue colored jersey over the years and have had a new brand name sponsor in the form of Daikin and other supplementary brands.
Sunrisers Hyderabad Merchandise: Valvoline, and JK Laxmi
Sunrisers Hyderabad over the years have been called as the orange army due to the colour of their jersey which has been constant over the years since it had a change in the name. Earlier it was called as the Deccan Chargers and had blue merchandise mainly which later changed to orange. JK Laxmi cement was the name printed in the center of the jerseys with other brand like Valvoline on the top left as well. The SRH merchandise just like all other teams merchandise can be purchased online through its official website and other retail stores as well.
While on one hand the luxuries and Shinning IPL merchandise have added to the pride of the Indian Premier League on the other hand it has lead to another big problem which is the black marketing and duplication industry of these merchandises. Imitation is the biggest flattery and in this case has resulted in huge losses to the companies like Nike, Adidas, and Reebok. Local people have always selected the so-called first copy or duplicate merchandise over the original for the sole reason that it is easily available and cheaper than the original product. The original jerseys would cost around 1000 to 2000 rupees and this initiated merchandise is available for not more than 300 to 400 rupees. This has resulted in the non-selling of the stocks of these merchandise and hence the black market has resulted in huge amount of losses to these industries. The Indian mentality maybe is not that developed to have brand loyalty and are not ready to spend the said amount to these stores for the costly merchandise and hence the dream of selling these merchandise officially is still a far fetched dream. To add to the problems literally each and every small retail stores and local vendors have started selling illegally all these jerseys and merchandise and hence no amount of raids and legal steps can solve this problem. Further, Indian crowd in general is not that educated or aware about the losses caused by black market and hence are ignorant towards the same. Further in a developing nation like ours it is still difficult to achieve the merchandising success the brand owners are expecting. This very unaware and ignorant attitude makes it almost impossible for the local crowd to sometimes differentiate between the original and the fake one posing another serious problem. Thus it can be rightly said that just like every coin has two sides coin of merchandise has this dark side of black marketing which not only causes loses to the brand owners but reduces the actual value of such good merchandise in the market as well this defaming the brand name. Thus it is a conclusive statement to say the merchandise is a very integral part of this domestic league and also like everything else has certain reasonable restrictions as well!