Merchandise Sales Prove a Big Hit For Chattanooga Lookouts

Chattanooga-(WDEF-TV) Merchandise sales are a staple for minor league baseball teams like the Chattanooga Lookouts, but it wasn’t always the case.
Now it’s big business for the Lookouts, who will sell just about anything.

Minor league baseball gift shops didn’t always look like this.
Just ask Lookouts general manager Rich Mozingo.
Said Mozingo:”My first job in minor league baseball was in Florida for the Rangers in Port Charlotte, Florida. We literally didn’t have any merchandise at all. We didn’t have a hat we could sell. A t-shirt we could sell. Anything.”
Oh how times have changed.
Said Mozingo:”Before Rocket City played a single baseball game, they sold over $2 million worth of merchandise. The Lookouts were really on the cutting edge. We were one of the first teams that had a logo that wasn’t related to a major league affiliate. So when the eyes logo came out in 1991, that was really just earth rattling for people. So we were doing a good business in that.”
The business of Lookouts merchandise sales falls to Jennifer Crum.
Said Crum:”You can’t go wrong with hats. Jerseys have been super popular this year. We sold out of our men’s jerseys in the month of April, and you can’t go wrong with the classic t-shirt. Everyone loves our logo and something with our simple eyes logo on it, so that has been very popular as well.”
And then there are those items that somehow become popular.
Said Crum:”Crop tops are a very big seller in places, and I saw that being proposed in a catalog, and I said you have got to be crazy. We’re going to sell a crop top. Now we sell a crop top. So that has been great. We just got that in about a week ago and have almost sold about 50 percent of what we have. It’s crazy. Like post cards is one that I was very hesitant to carry because I just didn’t know how well they would do. Every time we’ve gotten post cards, they’ve sold out. ”
Now Lookouts merchandise sales are global.
Said Crum:”I know we’ve shipped to China before. We’ve shipped to Japan a couple of times. We’ve also shipped to a couple of places in Europe, so we have fans all over the world.