Putting On A Gameface
Tagged in: BBNZ News
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Basketball apparel manufacturer Gameface have won a double victory, securing the uniform contract for Basketball New Zealand and successfully defending its logo against a legal challenge from Major League Baseball.
Gameface already outfits Canterbury representative teams, including the NBL Scenic Circle Rams, and their deal with BBNZ will cater to all national teams, including the NZ Tall Blacks and NZ Tall Ferns, for three years.
“We’re excited,” says owner Joe Hammond. “I think we are the best suited company for Basketball New Zealand.
“We are 100% New Zealand, we are basketball, and we will make the BBNZ staff and all its teams look good.”
Gameface was intended as the name of a sports store selling other athletic brands, but Hammond decided he could better cater to his market by developing his own range of clothing.
“We began as a fashion label, but quickly gained appeal to our
basketball public and they ate us up. Now, team wear is 80% of our business and has grown quickly.”
The company gained some unexpected attention from Major LeagueBaseball in the United States when they sought to register a stylisedlogo considered too similar to that of the San Francisco Giants.
MLB lawyers asked that Gameface stop using the logo on baseball orsoftball gear – they don’t make apparel for those sports – and alsodrop the version in Giants colours, orange and black.
Hammond objected to the colour stipulation, since those are also thecolours of a basketball, but stopped using the logo on new products as a precaution after taking legal advice.
MLB recently notified Hammond they were withdrawing their objection altogether.
“They posed a major threat, but it’s now over, and we welcome the logo back into our company,” says Hammond.
“We will continue to use the “gameface” font as our main logo, but the ‘GF’ looks killer on our basketball uniforms and on certain other products, so it will still be used.”
