30 People. 1,300 Stores. Every Sport Imaginable. Inside the Marketing Machine at Lids.

0:00Adam Herstig:Customization is sort of our differentiator in the mall, a superpower. Featured it in our holiday campaigns. We kind of feature it in every campaign now. Okay, you love the Yankees, but do you love it with its extra special flair that we can offer you? Here's what that could look like. How has it been doing like the marketing for this company? Initiative to initiative, you could probably debate how much true marketing does something need. So if the Yankees and the Dodgers are playing in the World Series, we probably don't need to do a lot of marketing except to say we have the stuff that you want and need because it's called what we call a hot market.

0:34In terms of the channels and tactics you have for marketing with lids, what have you felt has worked best?

0:41Adam Herstig:You know, it changes consumer segment to segment, product to product. But I would say that as a general principle, diversifying your media is probably going to be smart, not to just over leverage it into one place.

0:57Hey, everybody. Welcome to the show. My name is Andres Figueira, and I'm going to be your host for the day. This show is brought to you by the Global Talent Company, helping fast-growing teams hire exceptional remote talent from Argentina, South Africa, and beyond. We connect companies with world-class professionals who bring skill, reliability, and a global perspective to every role. And just for our listeners, we're offering an exclusive 10 % discount on your first hire. All you need to do is visit GlobalTalent.co, click Start Hiring, and mention the podcast listener discount when we reach out.

1:27And today with me here, I am speaking with Adam Herstig, SDP of Marketing and Partnerships at LIDS, the leading North American retailer that specializes in officially licensed and branded sports headwear, including hats, snapbacks, and fitted caps. So with that said, Adam, it's a pleasure to have you on, man. How are you doing? I'm good. Thank you for having me.

1:49Adam Herstig:you said my last name perfectly thanks for that and um and yes lids does headwear but we also do apparel and hard goods and trading cards and a bunch of other stuff connected to sports so okay now um like i'm i i know lids especially because of the headwear but i must admit that when i saw that this conversation was going to happen i was ecstatic because it's like one of my favorite stores in the states it's like one of the few places where the first place i go to buy hats is there. So I really keep lids in a special place in my heart because like this hat is from lids. I it's the last one I own for now that I bought back in the States in your stores, man.

2:30Adam Herstig:I love that. And if you know us for hats, that means we're doing a good job. We are overwhelmingly a hat store. I just felt the need to plug the other things we carry. And and I'm glad you got that hat with us. And I'm sorry that the Celtics are no longer in the race. I know. But yeah, Like I must admit, when I was small, I used to go to Lids every single time we went to a mall. And it's crazy how you guys are everywhere. It really is amazing. And Adam, just so that we can get the audience a bit more in context, would you be able to give us a bit more about your background, how you came to become SVP of marketing and partnerships and just what Lids is in your own words?

3:07Adam Herstig:Yeah. So Lids is, I think of it as Lids Inc. There's a lot within Lids. You know, we have Lids locker rooms, big, a lot more apparel and a lot more trading cards. a lot more jerseys a lot more space in a lids locker room there's a few hundred of those lids the lids you know almost 1300 of those globally smaller more headwear focused we also run the nba stores the nhl stores we we do a lot of college bookstore businesses that are in the sports license space in the u.s so we kind of have our hands in a lot of sports licensed businesses that's sort of in my background so I've always you know I started off in retail in places like American Eagle Outfitters and Reebok and then Reebok was connected to Adidas where at the time Adidas had a lot of the sports licensing rights whether it was the NBA business with Adidas the MLS business with Adidas the hockey business with Reebok the NFL business was once with Reebok so at that time I was this was about 20 years ago working there and then Adidas had acquired a sports licensed business in Philadelphia called Mitchell and S and I had gone to Philly to run marketing there many years ago.

4:16Adam Herstig:And then I ended up doing kids licensed sports apparel overseas. I'm actually, um, I grew up overseas, mostly in Southeast Asian countries. Um, and so I, I went back as a, as a sort of expat adult, um, and ran the Asia Pacific business, uh, for youth licensed sports apparel. And then when I made my way back to the States, I landed in, in footwear, um, Snipes is a German-based footwear retailer that made its way to the U.S. And then Foot Locker, Champs, East Bay. And then now I'm at Lids. So now I'm on the retail side of sports licensing, very much connected to my past and also connected to Fanatics.

4:56Adam Herstig:So it's sort of a full circle moment for me. Wow, that's like you really have a lot of experience, man, especially with that style of sports branding and that apparel wear. And Adam, another question I have now is in terms of what your experience at Lids has been, how has it been doing like the marketing for this company? Because I feel that when you're so intertwined with these licensed sports brands and like these teams and everything like that, it's kind of like markets itself, right? People go to the store to buy the hat for the team that they like. Maybe this new Lids locker room is something that you've needed to maybe inform the customers and the audience about.

5:35How has that been?

5:36Adam Herstig:I guess it depends on the initiative. So initiative to initiative, you could probably debate how much true marketing does something need. So to your point, we're in sports. So if the Yankees and the Dodgers are playing in the World Series, and oh, by the way, we operate those clubhouse stores and we have a lot of that product, we probably don't need to do a lot of marketing except to say we have the stuff that you want and need. because it's called what we call a hot market. So the demand is there. You're just there to supply it and you just to draw attention to yourself. That stuff sort of, to your point, markets itself.

6:17Adam Herstig:And then sales sometimes markets itself. There are times, however, when we introduce like a new business category, like we jumped in on trading cards a year and a half ago. We're being a lot more purposeful with customization in our stores now. We want to make sure customers understand that you can patch, You can curve your hats with us. You can embroider the side of hats. You can do jewelry on your hats. There's a lot of extras we offer in store. That probably needs more marketing just to get the word out there. If a new hat silhouette comes out and then it's in, you know, not the sports space or like I'm wearing a McLaren hat, it's in the F1 space.

6:54Adam Herstig:That probably needs a bit more marketing. If there's a whole new silhouette and instead of a strap back, it's a bow on the back, that probably needs a little more. So it depends. Sometimes, yep, it sells itself. Other times it needs a bit more of a push. And Adam, do you have any example of a feature, something that Liz began doing that you needed to market that went really well in terms of how it performed and how you were able to convey the idea and what you were doing to the public? Yeah, I mean, those two would be easy ones to just describe and call out. So customization is sort of our differentiator in the mall, a superpower, something you can do in stores.

7:35Adam Herstig:We've featured it in our holiday campaigns. We kind of feature it in every campaign now. OK, you love the Yankees, but do you love it with its extra special flair that we can offer you? Here's what that could look like. So we try to always do that. The other one I would say is trading cards. Trading cards is sort of making its way across America. but you know a year and a half ago i don't think you'd go into a list thinking oh i'm going to go to the trading card section and buy sports or even pokemon and other entertainment based trading cards but today that is available and it's it's becoming more and more of a real part of our business and we started marketing that and i'd say marketing it in store and marketing outside of the store in a big way about a year and a half two years ago and maybe the last one would be loyalty okay access pass premium.

8:20Adam Herstig:You know, you pay us$10 a year, which arguably is not a lot. And you get great discounts on hats up to 20%. You get discounts on apparel, you get birthday gifts, you get a lot of other good stuff. So that that's been growing for us as we continue to bring great product out. And Adam, in terms of lids, uh, changing the perspective more to the company itself, how big are you guys? Like how many people work for lids? Is it, uh, uh, I know you have your physical stores, but like in the administrative side of it, is it a remote work setting or do you guys have offices in different cities where you can go to?

8:55How does that work?

8:56Adam Herstig:HQ is here in Indianapolis. We are in the office five days a week, probably a few hundred of us here that sort of back end operate the 1300 store base that exists out there. You know, you pile in, our field, the team that opens and closes the stores every day and we reach a few thousand employees. And so that's what that looks like. We've got a small office in New York that sort of manages a lot of the branding and PR and collaborations aspect with the business. But for the most part, everyone's here in Indianapolis. Okay, I understand. And Adam, what has been, in your experience, one of the most rewarding things of working at Lyds?

9:45Adam Herstig:Pace. I think the pace of this place is incredible. It's to be studied. You know, you can meet people that have come here from other, maybe larger retailers, not larger in the sense of store-based, but maybe could be larger in store-based, could be larger in size of the business, could be larger as far as how long they've been operating. But And the pace of this place, considering how big we are, is quite astonishing. The pace in which we test new ideas, the pace in which we move from campaign to campaign, the pace in which we talk about many different things to the consumer and internally is quite remarkable.

10:32Adam Herstig:Not afraid to take risks, not afraid to openly debate things. I think it's got a really healthy environment to move quickly and to jump on things and to test and try, which is really refreshing because I think in retail environments, you have to do that. You know, if you're a bit complacent, you may watch competitors creep up. And this place is very cognizant of that and so tries to always sort of embrace the chaos and move fast. Wow, I love that. And it really is very nice when you find a place to work that actually enables you and allows you to progress, do ideas, test it out, experiment. And if it works, then you go with it.

11:12It's like you can't stop for too much analysis because that's what exactly happens, as you mentioned. Competition just creeps up and that nobody likes that when it happens, even though it produces a bit of what's it called? Healthy, healthy stress that allows you to then keep on progressing. And Adam, in terms of the channels and tactics you have for marketing with lids, for example, with the trading cards or what you've mentioned of customizations, what have you felt has worked best in trying to communicate that to the audience? I guess it sort of depends on the campaign, who the audience is.

11:53Adam Herstig:you know, if we're talking to a WWE customer, because we sell wrestling product, and that's sort of new IP, that's it's a growing category for us, that media, those channel tactics may look a little different, not to mention your target audience, than maybe somebody that just wants to get a jersey replaced, because their old one is falling apart. So, you know, it changes consumer segment to segment, product to product. So we're always mindful of that. But I would say that as a general principle, diversifying your media is probably going to be smart, not to just over leverage it into one place.

12:34Adam Herstig:That way you get to bring back a rich pool of data that lets you sort of analyze. And it also, to your point about healthy competition, well, I'm seeing this read over here and this sort of attribution report over here, I get to now measure it against something else here. And not to say that someone's lying or fabricating results, but at least when you get multiple results in, you can keep each other honest. And so like when we run media and when we can afford to run it in multiple places like holiday, we like to be on TV. We like to be on radio. We like to do out of home. We like to test into coupons and into bag fillers.

13:11Adam Herstig:Some call it more traditional. Some call it more new age. We'll try a lot. There's some things we believe in more than others where we'll spend more dollars. But I think diversifying in general is healthy to do when you think about media and tactics. The best part about it, as you mentioned, it is the measurement of data that it provides, trying a different variety of techniques, because that way you can reiterate in what you feel went well and what you see went well and make sure you just don't keep investing in what's not actually performing properly or anything like that. And also, Adam, I would also love to know about you guys in terms of AI.

13:45Are you leveraging AI in any peculiar or particular ways with LIDS?

13:50Adam Herstig:Yes, we are. I mean, day-to-day, back-end office functions, you know, there's your GPTs and your clods and your pole pilots and all that. I think that helps you find things quicker, lets you get summaries faster, things of that nature already sort of across the org happening from a consumer-facing marketing standpoint, it is a little bit of let's dip our toes into it. The last thing we want to do is bring the consumer a campaign that's completely AI. And sometimes you could argue there could be backlash if you are not employing talent, if you are not utilizing what you would call traditional means of marketing and everything just goes to...

14:34Adam Herstig:So not trying to go fully into it, but trying it in sort of baby steps ways. Copy is one easy way. Like we can get bogged down on copy a lot. Copy can be generated through AI quite efficiently and fast. So we leverage it there. I'd say versioning. So if you think about, okay, well, I have this hat in black, but I want to show it in all the colors it's offered in. Or let's just say I'm wearing a University of Connecticut hat, But that same hat is available in Michigan and in USC, all these other teams or colleges. AI can sort of help version this piece of content in many different school teams in a very quick way.

15:17Adam Herstig:So there's also like the content generation piece that we sometimes will use AI for. And in terms of when campaigns are created for marketing, are you leveraging AI in terms of helping generate content? and then you curate it and make sure it has a humane touch to it instead of just like doing 100 % AI slop? Yeah, a little bit of that for sure. Even just ideating. Food boards are like, we're going to get to the concept when there's maybe a title to a campaign, but everyone's a bit divided on what the best name is. Let's get another round of a bunch of different iterations. AI can help with that.

15:54Adam Herstig:So yes. And Adam, how big is your marketing team? like how big is the marketing department per se? We're roughly 30 people here. Well, it's a lot smaller than I would have imagined for how many teams you work with, like how many possible brands and things, licensings that Lids has. Because I really feel that it's a lot. Isn't it overwhelming at a point or do you just get used to it? Well, thank you for acknowledging that it feels like we do a lot for a mighty team of 30. Yeah, I think it's just about, being efficient with your day, prioritizing what's really important. Yes. Short answer, this team does do a lot across many stores, many leagues, many teams, many product SKUs, not just marketing, but the merchandising team, planning team, operations team, finance team, all have to sort of wear many hats to some extent.

16:52Now I'm just being curious. In terms of the marketing you've done for different types of sports, and let's put hats as an example, different hats for different sports, have you seen that a certain sport performs better or consumers are more eager to buy these types of hats than others? I imagine if you had hats for soccer teams, it wouldn't be as popular as baseball teams. But is there any particular pattern that you've noticed?

17:17Adam Herstig:Yeah. I mean, soccer-wise, we're about to learn a bunch as we enter World Cup. And we are playing in that space quite a bit, both headwear and apparel and kits and all that good stuff. So I'm curious when it's all done in a few months, what we are going to learn. We're going to learn a ton. generally speaking MLB's synonymous with hats fitted hats particularly because they wear it on the field so that is sort of like you know a big portion of our business when we launch something new in that league specifically it generates you know a lot of buzz and it does generally do well so a hat wearing culture is very synonymous with major league baseball But that's not to say like the NFL, the NBA, the NHL, we sort of participate in all that.

18:10Adam Herstig:Some headwear styles do better in some leagues than others. And we're very cognizant about learning and driving more volume and tweaking and buying differently to accommodate the fan. um but i would say that like a good idea a good collaboration a good partnership like we just did one with the simpsons we happen to do it with major league baseball but but you could probably do that with any uh ip combination or league combination it would do really well because idea is just great so sometimes the trend gets bucked because the idea is so good and you just found a new lane okay okay no i get it and now that you mentioned the the hat styles like i hadn't seen it until you said it but it's true like dad hats are so much more popular in baseball than basketball where you could more probably find what's it called like these flat rimmed uh caps that are more fitted or yeah ac hat or yes you're right and and have you guys have you guys experimented with like uh i believe it's called experiential marketing when trying to do the the the when trying to show the audience the possibility of the customizations that you can do in the stores and everything like that.

19:17Adam Herstig:Yeah, we do. We show up to the major events that we are involved in, like your Super Bowls and your All-Stars. Sometimes like Fanatics Fest, if you've heard of that, that's going to happen during World Cup in New York City. We'll bring what we feel is the right amount of experience. So customization, access to, do, you know, Access Pass members get to skip lines and get special things from us. We'll do, you know, trading card events. We do one called Rip to Rep, where if you open a card and it happens to be a jersey we carry, you win the jersey there immediately if it's an autographed card. So we try all kinds of stuff depending on the event.

20:01Adam Herstig:And so we follow the major leagues like big moments. Oh, my goodness. I'm getting so much FOMO from hearing everything you guys do because I really am a true fan of your store. And that leads to my second question, Adam. Are you guys ever planning to expand outside of the U.S.? Yeah, I think we have. We've obviously tested that. We've got partners in certain parts outside of U.S. Canada. We're in Mexico. We're in Australia in a small way as well. I think that, yeah, as opportunities come, we evaluate it and try to grow outside. It is different. You know, we learn a lot when we do that consumer behavior, things like that.

20:45Well, I'll just throw an idea out there, because if you guys open a store in Argentina and make hats for the soccer teams in this country, I feel that would be an excellent idea and choice. But I'm just excited to see a lids here if that ever is bound to happen, because I'd be the first one in close contacts.

21:02Adam Herstig:Okay. And Adam, another question I do have now is in terms of you as SVP of marketing, what are your plans for the ends of this year? And what would you love to have accomplished with LIDS at the end of 2026? More traffic to stores, more sales. Those feel like obvious business goals, obviously. I'd love to have a really great loyalty base of consumers that are following us. You know, we measure, there's a lot of different KPIs, more followers, more people tuning in, you know, new categories of business growing. This year has been very interesting. I mentioned World Cup. Would be curious to see when it's all said and done, were we able to acquire a new customer, both domestically and those that are traveling into the U.S.?

21:53Adam Herstig:You know, you're always curious as you get into the fall and holiday. Holiday is always a really meaningful few months for a lot of retailers. And then there's all these articles that come out speculating, is this holiday going to be more or less than the year past? You study mall behavior. I'm encouraged to see that the next generation is embracing the mall and going to the mall and spending more time in the mall. And so come holiday, will we see that that is truly the case? Anyone of any age enters the mall, LIDS is top of mind, no pun intended. But I'm curious this holiday, if we'll see it exceed, you know, what we did last holiday.

22:35Adam Herstig:So sales, traffic, follower growth, great engagement, great loyalty members, you know, would be some of the things I'd like to see. No, I'm certain you guys will be able to accomplish everything that you have just mentioned and make sure to hit your goals and even surpass them. And I had not thought about it properly because you're opening my eyes to this. And it's true that retail is not as popular as it was before. And these perks that Liz offers, like customization and having to go into the store, are things that bring the consumer in physically. And that helps a lot. But hopefully people will actually just go and enjoy a moment at Liz.

23:16Because for me, it always has been an experience. Even if I don't buy a hat, it's going there, seeing the new models, seeing what's up, the different teams. And just I could spend hours in there. And it just brings me back to when I was smaller. So I hope that people do get to enjoy that feeling more often and that it doesn't die out. But with that said, Adam, thank you so much for your time, man, for hopping on the show with us, for telling us about your story, how you got to Lids and what Lids is. We really appreciate it.

23:41Adam Herstig:I appreciate it as well. Thank you very much for having me. This is fun. No problem at all, man. And to anybody who is here listening to us, we really appreciate you as well for hopping on these shows to listen to the different personalities that we're talking to and learning about all the different industries that we are seeing. So with that said, have a good one.