See You in Tucson at the NASO Summit July 25-28

Get ready Arizona! Sherry and I will be attending the Tucson NASO Summit presented by National Association of Sports Officials in cooperation with the National Federation of State High School Associations and the Arizona Interscholastic Association on July 25-28th.

This will be my 3rd trip to the yearly NASO Summit after attending Denver in '07 and Cleveland in '08. We always manage to make the most of these trips and this year hope to see over 1,000 officials and officiating leaders from Arizona, the U.S. and other countries over a 4 day period. This is Sherry's 1st NASO Summit visit.

Here is our schedule.

Saturday, July 25th
10:00a – 5:00p
Exhibit Hall Booth (Arizona Officials' Meeting Day - Jim and Sherry)

Sunday, July 26th
7:00p – 8:00p
2009 Sports Officiating Summit Grand Opening (Jim and Sherry)

8:00p – 10:00p
Gala Welcome Reception (Jim and Sherry)

Monday, July 27th
7:00a – 12:15p
Exhibit Hall Booth (Jim and Sherry)

8:00a – 8:30a
Keynote: The Pursuit of Sound Judgment and Great Decisions (Jim)

12:15p – 1:30p
Luncheon (Jim and Sherry)

1:30a – 5:00p
Exhibit Hall Booth (Sherry)

Tuesday, July 28th
8:00a – 12:00p: Exhibit Hall Booth (Sherry)

Please stop by and see us if you are going to be in attendance during one of the times above. We plan to bring some newer products and some of our specialty items for multiple sports. If attending and there is anything you want us to bring, simply ask.

For more information, visit the mini-site set up by NASO.

Save Up to $15 on 2009 Football Referee Gear

Just before each season, we re-visit the products and the prices of each upcoming season's sport. We'll consider things like competitor prices, our costs - as we may have gotten a better (or worse) cost on an item this year over last, and a few other factors.

As a result of this exercise, we have dropped the prices for the entire season on the following items for football, so much that if you bought all items on this list you'd save up to $15 this season on football referee gear.

• Reversible Referee Jacket - $56.99 to $52.99
• All Throw Down Bags - As high as $9.99 to $5.89
• Ball Center Flags - $9.99 to $6.99
  
• U.S. Flag Patches - $2.99 to $1.99
• Nylon Chain Clip - $7.49 to $6.89
• Ultimate Belt - $9.99 to $9.49
• Cloth Penalty Flag - $5.49 to $5.24
• Elastic Down Indicator - $3.99 to $3.89
• Markup for Larger Sizes of Football Referee Shirts Reduced: 2X shirts from $2.50 to $1.99, 3X from $4.50 to $3.49 and 4X from +$6.50 to $4.99

We think when you add in these great values and our already low prices throughout our store, our largest selection ever with nearly 20 new items, our industry best U.S. made Ultimate Referee Shirts, the most user-friendly online shopping and world class customer service, why shop anywhere else in 2009?

Shop by Type Enhanced

We just added 9 categories to our Shop by Type section and insured that all products were represented in each category. So now you can better shop for things like shoes, rulebooks and packages from all sports for you multi-sport officials or those of you who just prefer to do so.

View the Shop by Type section here or click on the "Shop by Type" link now predominantly displayed in the main navigation on the left of the home page:

With this enhancement plus our Shop by Sport, Shop by Brand and search feature, we feel Ump-Attire.com is the destination where it is easiest to find the umpire or referee gear you are looking for.

Would You Wear a Mouthguard When Umpiring?

On 4/24/09, I posted an article called "Recent MLB Umpire Head Injuries Prompt Discussion".

I received a lot of responses, but of them, 3 were of umpires and/or hockey referees who had discussed the importance of wearing a mouthguard to prevent concussions where force is applied to the jaw area. These 3 individuals seemed to imply this important factor had been missed when discussing head injuries and umpires.

Anyway, I've been doing some research on the subject and found there definitely appears to be some strong supporters of wearing a mouthguard in contact sports for the prevention of concussions in addition to tooth protection even when there is a mask or helmet used.

Of course, there is no specific research as it applies to umpires or even catchers that I found. But there's an article here with a good overview:
http://www.sportsdentistry.com/concussion.html

So what do you think? Anyone have any further insights on the subject? Do you wear one? Would you consider wearing one? Why or why not?

Charcoal Umpire Pants: In Stock / High in Demand

I am happy to report the Smitty Charcoal Grey Umpire Pants are back in stock in most sizes and styles, including Combo.

In the Fall of 2008, I developed a memo and shared it with my staff on all the new trends expected for the 2009 baseball/softball season. So on it where things like silver and titanium umpire masks, charcoal grey umpire pants and 4 or 5 additional things. It wasn't rocket science. I'm sure many of you could have written such a memo being aware of at least a few of these from the top of your head.

But after giving them time to digest it, I also met with them on the subject as I wanted to make it clear to them that we fully gear ourselves for these trends in all facets of our business from marketing to purchasing to stocking. We certainly didn't want to miss out on these very important trends, and the upcoming year there just seemed to be more things brewing than usual.

How did we do? Well, mostly great, except the trend toward charcoal grey umpire pants was much stronger than we had expected. I mean we bought a boatload of charcoal grey pants; don't get me wrong. But we still ran out of some key sizes of the very popular Smitty Charcoal Grey Umpire Pants, especially the combo pants, around mid-May... and so did Smitty.

(I find that I am gritting my teeth as I type this as anyone who knows me well in this business knows that I don't like to run out of anything, especially key products, anytime during season.)

I honestly think part of the problem was that the new Smitty pants were very good and very well-received. If you read any review on our website or discussion about them on one of the discussion boards, this is obvious from umpires at all levels. Combine that with the fact that most umpires demand a high quality product but at the same time in this economy are looking for it a great price as well. And what you have is a high demand for the Smtty brand that offered an excellent alternative to competing, more expensive brands. So there... another good problem to have I suppose.

Well, anyway, they're back in and should be available for the fall as well. Order away if you need a pair or two.

Kid's Referee Shirts & Cap Shoot - Favorite Photos

Each of the last 3 years, we have added 1 new product for kids.

In '07, we started with a kid's basketball referee shirt that proved very popular. In '08, we added one for football, you know, with a collar (left). This year, we've just added a kid's referee cap (also left), the only one ever made, to my knowledge, sized just for kids.

Why do we sell referee wear for kids? Well, besides it being fun, we receive many requests for toddlers and up to dress as a referee for Halloween. Why should Batman, Thomas the Tank Engine and the Disney Princesses have such a monopoly on Halloween costumes? Plus, it can be cheaper than purchasing any store bought costume.

Besides that, we have requests that vary from birthday or Super Bowl party themes to supplying dance troupes for recitals, and even for magazine photo shoots.

We thought it would be fun to update our kid's referee wear pics using a nice summer day as a backdrop.

And who else could I use to model besides my kids, Lydia - age 10 and Ben - age 7? Lydia had posed for a pic previously one day a couple of years ago on a whim while in the office. She's been on to me for a while letting me know that that photo has been in bad need of updating.

So, we all traveled to our photographer's back yard on a recent late June day. The kids did great! They took great instruction, and we even got Ben to smile for the camera - something he rarely does. Who knows? Maybe there could be some modeling in their future starting with this first gig.

See some of my favorite pics from the shoot below.














To view more product pics or to purchase a kid's referee shirt, cap or accessory for your son or daughter, niece or nephew or favorite kid on your street, visit one of the product pages here:
Children's Basketball Referee Shirt
Children's Football Referee Shirt
Children's Football Referee Cap