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Wholesale Sporting Goods

With thousands of people, young and old, participating in dozens of sports around the world, the wholesale sporting goods business ought to be quite a challenge and quite profitable. It ought to be and it is! That is probably not big news. The real news is that more and more individuals and partners are getting into the wholesale sporting goods field, often through one of the many distributors who have established themselves as reliable.

Some of the wholesale sporting goods merchants have been in business for decades, passing the torch to younger family members through the years. These companies have grown to the point that they employ hundreds of people and cover the globe with contacts to make sure they have the best and least expensive wholesale sporting goods to offer to their longtime customers.

In years past, the traditional wholesale sporting goods relationship involved a large distributor or manufacturer's representative who worked with major retailers, sporting goods stores, schools and other organizations. These customers either had business license information and sales tax numbers on file with the wholesale sporting goods distributor or filed as non-profit organizations that could purchase at wholesale or discount prices. Often these resellers and organizations could get sporting goods direct from the factory at unbelievably low prices.

But in more recent times, some of the distributors of wholesale sporting goods have established a separate sector of business that sells directly to individuals who do not necessarily meet the minimum order size requirements for wholesale buyers. In either case, the wholesale sporting goods business continues to flourish, to the delight of distributor and end user alike.

One of the benefits of working with a larger wholesale sporting goods merchant is the customer service, marketing support and display assistance offered. Many of these larger concerns have a range of sporting goods that includes fishing, camping and other outdoor equipment as well as gloves, uniforms and other items for baseball, football, hockey, basketball, soccer etc.

But a note of caution: Sometimes the prices shown in print catalogs and in the online lists are only for authorized dealers and resellers who have established themselves as resellers in the wholesale sporting goods system. These distributors often have a separate sales path for the public and the prices can be a bit higher. The good news is that some of the newer merchants in the wholesale sporting goods arena are aggressive in attracting new dealers. Becoming a dealer for a large distributor opens doors to a profitable business opportunity, in addition to allowing company individuals to get wholesale sporting goods at the best prices.

In this still-growing area of commerce, there are also a number of companies that focus only on wholesale sporting goods available because of closeouts, inventory reductions and business liquidation. Due to the explosion of school sports programs and summer sports programs, as well as the amazing growth of sports programs for girls of all ages, manufacturers sometimes produce far too many gloves, uniforms, bases, fences, scoreboards etc. In these cases, certain wholesale sporting goods merchants buy the extra items and offer them to resellers or the public at discount prices. For example: a team blanket (National Football League) for $14; select items of Wilson sports clothing for $3; name brand athletic shoes for $22. Prices like these attract new entrepreneurs to the wholesale sporting goods business every day.

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