Sunday, March 30, 2008
Sports
Jersey Boy
Andy Hyman keeps Distant Replays a key player in throwback market
André 3000, one of Distant Replays’ famous customers
CREDIT: Courtesy of Distant Replays
DISTANT REPLAYS
2980 Cobb Parkway, Suite 103, Atlanta
770-953-2722
www.distantreplays.com
By Hunt Archbold
Like a bad April Fool’s joke, former bartender Andy Hyman officially entered the world of retail by opening a small kiosk at Lenox Mall 10 years ago this Tuesday, and the hip-hop/sports/entertainment fashion world would never be the same. Hyman and his store featuring retro sports wear and throwback jerseys quickly became known across the country and helped fuel the vintage-inspired sports apparel explosion of a few years back.
Ten years later, Distant Replays is alive and well. Yes, the industry’s heyday of the early ’00s has come and gone, but thanks to its solid online presence and cyberspace sales, Distant Replays isn’t just a distant memory.
Far from it, in fact. The current store, just down the street from Cumberland Mall, is a 1,900-square foot structure filled with a wide assortment of sports memorabilia ranging from jerseys and shirts to hats, pennants and more. But it’s the vast array of people—those who’ve worked at the store, as well as the famous and not-so famous faces—that have graced its different locations that have made Distant Replays both fun and profitable.
The walls are adorned with pictures of Hyman and employees with entertainers and sports celebrities who’ve visited the store over the years: Magic Johnson, Big Boi, LeBron James, André 3000, Brett Hull, Usher, Warren Sapp, Jermaine Dupri, Vince Carter, Billy Crystal, Randy Moss and Jay-Z are all represented. And that’s just a small sampling.
“Am I surprised we’re still around? A little,’’ Hyman tells The Sunday Paper. “I didn’t expect to have a store when I had just a kiosk. Eighty percent of our sales now are online. But I have such an emotional attachment to the store. It’s still a destination spot for when people come in from out of town. People want to see the store and have that one-on-one with others who love sports. I don’t want to lose that.’’
Right place at the right time
Not long after he opened his kiosk, Hyman was approached by a man who would soon become a frequent customer and friend: Big Boi of OutKast, who fell in love with a retro Nolan Ryan Houston Astros jersey with its rainbow of colors that day.
“I had no idea who he was,’’ Hyman recalls. “He just kept saying, ‘my video, my video.’’’
That video turned out to be Goodie Mob’s “Black Ice,” which featured Big Boi wearing the Ryan jersey while walking a pit bull on Atlanta’s streets while rapping about Chryslers and Buicks. Soon, every hip-hop artist in Atlanta was flooding Hyman’s new store location on East Paces Ferry Road in Buckhead to purchase thousands of dollars’ worth of video wardrobe.
Distant Replays was then located next to a bar (Mike N’ Angelo’s), making it a magnet not only for the famous, but the inebriated, as well. Sports talk and laughter were always in the air, and the ringleader was Hyman, a white Jewish guy from Long Island with the kind of infectious personality that allowed him to hang with older white conservatives just as easily as with black sports stars and hip-hop artists.
An innovative promoter, Hyman did whatever it took to get Distant Replays noticed. From Sports Illustrated to MTV, Playboy and ESPN, Hyman made sure the store was well-publicized. And he hasn’t stopped: Just last week, he and the store were featured on CNN. All that hard work definitely paid off—when the business exploded a few years back, Distant Replays had positioned itself as an industry leader.
According to Hyman, the retro sports jersey market generated about $1 billion in annual revenue during its heyday in the early years of the 21st century. In 2003, Distant Replays generated $4.2 million in revenue.
The bottom falls out
But the good times couldn’t last forever. Fake throwbacks soon flooded the market, helping to spark a backlash against all throwbacks. Jay-Z lyrically dissed the fashion trend, and Atlanta’s own Dem Franchize Boyz were seen stomping on jerseys in their 2002 video for “White Tee.’’ The video was shot in Atlanta and produced by So So Def Records.
“Yeah, that was Jermaine Dupri’s group, and he probably spent 10 grand here,’’ says Hyman, who admits to being “pretty bummed’’ when he first heard the song and saw the video.
The snap music hit, which featured group members rapping “F*** a throwback,” produced an astounding number if remixes. Soon, supersized white T-shirts had replaced throwbacks as the staple of choice among urban youths. But the white Tee also soon became a common element in police descriptions of suspects, rowdy teens and groups of loitering youths, garnering such a negative connotation that it’s been banned from many club and school dress codes.
The throwback industry doesn’t suffer from such negative imagery. In fact, at Distant Replays, humor is where it’s at.
“I remember one time when Jay-Z came into the store,’’ remembers Miles Cliatt, who’s been with Distant Replays since being hired six months into its existence. “We had already had those guys, OutKast, Ludacris, coming through for years. And Andy’s like, ‘I know you, you’re that rap guy.’ But Jay-Z didn’t know he was joking at first. That’s just how Andy is.’’
Let the good times roll
But Hyman’s not joking around with Distant Replays. He maintains a good relationship with Mitchell & Ness, the Philadelphia-based maker of the jerseys his store sells. He’d like to expand into locations such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, and he sees the market for college throwbacks as virtually untouched; what college garments are being produced are flying off his racks. He also wants his site to be the premier address for retro apparel. He’s on his way: Less than two years ago, the Wall Street Journal reviewed the selection and delivery performance of several such sites, and Distant Replays came out on top.
“It was tough a few years ago when the bottom fell out, but it’s proven to be a viable business without the fad, and that’s the key,’’ Hyman explains. “As the years go, there will always be new retro players, a new market.’’
Distant Replays has come a long way from that fateful day, 10 years ago, that Hyman flipped through an in-flight shopping catalogue while on a trip and came across a vintage, laced-up hockey jersey. Hyman wondered if such an item could be bought in local retail stores—when he got home, he learned that it wasn’t, and a business concept was born.
“I like the logos and graphics of a lot of old teams,’’ he says. “Problem is, there’s not enough people like me; most customers want something for their team in particular. But maybe that’s not really a problem.’’
Judging by Distant Replays’ 10 years of success, that doesn’t appear to be a problem at all. SP