Len Fitzgerald, 18, showed off his San Francisco Cable Car commemorative shirt in his dorm room on the University of California, Berkeley campus last month. Fitzgerald, a community organizer, is a big fan of public transportation and is one of many young people who have used it for years.
Bronte Whitpen/The ChronicleIan Blackley and the SF City FC Soccer Club were in much need of a win Oct. 25 when they opened pre-orders for new jerseys featuring Muni’s curved “worm” logo on the front.
The club owed money to the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department for league, coaching and field fees, which put the 2024 season in jeopardy. The contract with Muni was not even a paid sponsorship. It was technically a licensing agreement, in which cash-strapped transit agencies agreed to allow cash-strapped sports teams to use their logos.
But after the new release creamsicle orange home jersey When merchandise emblazoned with the red Muni logo went on sale in October, Blackley, the team executive, watched in stunned glee as his incoming emails began scrolling quickly with “new order” alerts. I did. By the end of the week, SF City FC had sold 810 of his jerseys for $70 each and $80 each, making a profit of about $30,000 and eliminating most of their debt.
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“It literally saved the club,” said Blackley, who is also the team’s creative director. “We were thinking about being inactive and not playing, trying to figure out how to dig ourselves out of that hole.”
Local transportation, still struggling post-pandemic and long the subject of complaints among Bay Area residents, is finding success in an unexpected area: urban fashion.
An early version of the SF City FC soccer jersey sold over 700 copies in one week in October.
Provided by: SF City FCIn six years, BART’s merchandise sales have gone from a money-losing effort using cash registers at the system’s Oakland headquarters (hard to find unless you work for the transit agency). online store That’s a six-figure profit per year. BART’s latest ugly holiday sweater is expected to sell out again this year, but is expected to generate more than $100,000 in gross profit.
San Francisco Bay Ferry recently opened “Aft Deck” store, which sells shirts, stickers, and mugs proclaiming “The Best Way to Cross the Bay!” Additionally, Muni branded clothing is available for purchase through his two nonprofit organizations. SF City FC A soccer team playing in the developing USL League 2, Market Street Railroad Museum — However, transportation companies do not receive a portion of the sales.
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The product appears to be particularly popular among young riders who are embracing transportation as an all-encompassing service that contributes to a better climate future.
“I’ve been thinking about how the BART logo is the closest thing to the Bay Area logo,” says UC Berkeley freshman and transportation advocate whose daily wardrobe consists of T-shirts. Len Fitzgerald said. BART, Muni, and other transportation-themed socks, sweaters, and beanies.
Len Fitzgerald, 18, sits for a portrait surrounded by transit merchandise in his dorm room on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley.
Bronte Whitpen/The ChronicleLen Fitzgerald wears a San Francisco Bay Ferry beanie in his dorm room on the University of California, Berkeley campus.
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But the New York MTA is a pioneer in U.S. transit merchandising. The MTA has been selling large quantities of transportation-related clothing and memorabilia at the New York Transit Museum’s shop since the 1990s, and by the early 2000s sales had soared to more than $1 million.
BART’s product breakthrough came in 2021, when the agency ordered several ugly holiday sweaters featuring two reindeer jumping over a BART train as prizes for employees. Share photos on social media.
BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost remembers the breathtaking reaction. How many are there? Do you sell it? “I had to tell everyone, ‘There’s only five of us.'”
BART, Bay Ferry, and Caltrain merchandise in UC Berkeley student Len Fitzgerald’s dorm room.
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That week, officials ordered as many sweaters as they could with the company’s credit card, and the 112 sweaters sold out in 40 minutes. The following year, BART sold out of 800 holiday sweaters featuring the front of his BART train complete with antlers. This year, the transit agency ordered 3,000 sweaters (complete with light-up route maps and horn sounds) to meet demand. His 2,300 pieces set aside for pre-order sold out quickly in July, with more to be sold during the period. December 10th “SweaterFest” event At Rockridge Station.
BART also sells hats, shirts, and (coming soon!) other merchandise. HO model train set — Profit on holiday sweaters alone jumped from $1,429 in 2021 to an expected $106,300 in 2023.
How did the Bay Area transit system clothing that people constantly complain about become the regional clothing of the 2020s? Tickle Elmo?
Transportation leaders say the two ideas are related. SFMTA Director Jeffrey Tumlin points to a line Jimmy Fails says about San Francisco while riding the Muni in the 2019 film The Last Black Man in San Francisco. “You can’t hate something if you don’t love it.”
“I think that’s absolutely true if you’re a true San Franciscan,” Tumlin said. Tamlin’s extensive collection of transit merchandise includes his custom Muni suit, which features a map of the Central Subway. San Franciscans “know how much Muni means, how important it is, and how much better it can be.”
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Jeffrey Tumlin, director of transportation for the San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Authority, wears a custom-made Muni suit while boarding the new subway line at the Muni Chinatown Rose Park Station on November 19, 2022.
Yalonda M. James/The ChronicleBlackley said soccer teams have had paid sponsors on their uniforms in the past, but the unpaid deal with Muni has the potential to be more than just a win for both parties. The team is advertising all buses and trams that stop near Kezar Stadium, the team’s longtime home.
In its 22-year history, the team has made more money in one week than it has in merchandise sales in a year. And for a club that typically sells just a few hundred tickets in a 10,000-seater stadium, the hope is that the kit will introduce the team to new fans.
“A cryptocurrency company might give us $20,000 in cash, but the jerseys might be unpopular or fall apart on non-game days,” he says. “I think we can make 10 times more profit in the future.”
As an undergraduate student at the University of Berkeley, Fitzgerald fell in love with Caltrain transportation, the public transit system near her home in San Mateo. Starting with a “very comfortable” BART beanie a few years ago, Fitzgerald now owns dozens of transit clothing items, including designs by Chris Irvin. transit supply storeand our newest prize is an authentic 1970s BART operator jumpsuit.
Ms. Fitzgerald, who uses the pronouns “they/them,” rarely leaves home with less than two transit items on her person, so much so that one student points and yells, “Train girl!” was. Every time they cross paths.
Michelle Palen-Mendiola and Mark Nagales sort through this year’s BART holiday sweaters featuring lights and whistles at BART headquarters in Oakland.
Bronte Whitpen/The Chronicle“Public transport is such a great unifying tool. Whether you use it to go to a concert once every few months or just to get home safely with friends, you use it every day. “Public transportation is a great way to integrate, even if you’re a student and you know all the bus drivers,” Fitzgerald said. “I literally met some of my best friends on public transportation.”
Tumlin and Trost said Muni and BART could use help. Ridership for both agencies plummeted to record lows during the pandemic, and despite recent increases, both agencies remain in crisis.
They need money and riders, but perhaps more than that, they need goodwill. The goodwill that comes from having thousands of people proudly wearing your logo.
“Selling so many sweaters shows us that if people have a reason to come back for a layover, they will come back and they still love us,” Trost said. “And they forgive us for our shortcomings. That’s important.”
Contact Peter Hartlaub at phartlaub@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @PeterHartlaub