I was in Palo Alto today (work takes me there) and visited the new, first-ever 49ers Team Store at some strip mall. Seems like everyone and their dog was there, even during lunch on a Tuesday. Not surprising since the team is, you know, playing in the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Made me think of a few questions.....

Has anyone else been here?

Why is their only store in Palo Alto? The Giants have a store here too. Is Palo Alto the only place in this post-recessionary economy where the locals are rich enough to afford insanely marked-up team gear?

Cal had its own "team store" in Walnut Creek once upon a time - now closed. Anyone think we might be able to do something like this again somewhere other than Berkeley?

49ers are located in Santa Clara. No surprise they have a store down there.

The fan base on the peninsula and the south bay is wayyyy bigger than in SF proper. From my experience, SF residents aren't exactly big sports fans; most of the SF fans are from the surrounding areas.

pingpong2;842071811 said:

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The fan base on the peninsula and the south bay is wayyyy bigger than in SF proper. From my experience, SF residents aren't exactly big sports fans; most of the SF fans are from the surrounding areas.

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Makes sense right? Most of SF is from outside the state and moved here with an already established pro team. So you have a small percentage of locals in SF (I think I've read that 30% of SF residents were born in California, so only the portion of that group that's from the bay area and chose 9ers over raiders) plus any converts. Naturally the converts go way up when the team wins.

Contrast that to the peninsula and other outlying areas which have far more locals both by percentage and total numbers and it makes perfect sense.

Also - does that store have the old school gold starter jackets? Those are a hot commodity right now.

Unit2Sucks;842071814 said:

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Makes sense right? Most of SF is from outside the state and moved here with an already established pro team. So you have a small percentage of locals in SF (I think I've read that 30% of SF residents were born in California, so only the portion of that group that's from the bay area and chose 9ers over raiders) plus any converts. Naturally the converts go way up when the team wins.

Contrast that to the peninsula and other outlying areas which have far more locals both by percentage and total numbers and it makes perfect sense.

Also - does that store have the old school gold starter jackets? Those are a hot commodity right now.

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OK, fair enough, forget about SF (after all, the team did). But of all the non-SF possibilities, Palo Alto? Is this the epicenter of 9er fandom?

How big is the market for "premium" team gear, anyway? That may be the answer....while there may be way more people in San Jose, Santa Clara, Fremont, etc. who actually watch and support the 9ers, there are more people in Palo Alto who will shell out $35 for a T-shirt or ???? for one of those gold starter jackets (yeah, they do have them) instead of just going to Target, a sporting goods store, or the guy in front of the stadium like the rest of us do.

The Giants have team stores all over the Bay Area, including in SF, so I'm not sure why the 49ers don't. I have noticed a few fly-by-night merchandise stands popping up downtown this week, though.

Cal Panda Bear;842071806 said:

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49ers are located in Santa Clara. No surprise they have a store down there.

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just a note, Palo Alto and Santa Clara are about 25 minutes drive away one another. i would expect the first store to be in San Jose, really.

I always thought that was strange since there are a few raiders stores in the east bay

There is the Giants Dugout in the Embarcadero Center, I don't know where a proper 49ers store is around downtown in the City anyway.

pingpong2;842071811 said:

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The fan base on the peninsula and the south bay is wayyyy bigger than in SF proper. From my experience, SF residents aren't exactly big sports fans; most of the SF fans are from the surrounding areas.

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Yeah, it's rich seeing people partying in the Mission after the Giants won in 2012 and later learning that a lot of them are from Vallejo and Fremont.

Giants fans from Vallejo. What a joke. :rollinglaugh:

Front runners and bandwagon jumpers are easily separated from their money. If big brother spanks little brother on SB Sunday they won't be able to give that crap away. The same dipsticks will be lining up to buy Ray Lewis do rags.

bearister;842071841 said:

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Front runners and bandwagon jumpers are easily separated from their money. If big brother spanks little brother on SB Sunday they won't be able to give that crap away. The same dipsticks will be lining up to buy Ray Lewis do rags.

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49ers fans have an easy way out - blow $400 on a gold jacket, and everybody knows you're serious business.

I was gonna make a snide comment about the Furdies being rich bandwagonners, but hell... they don't even show up when their team has been to three straight BCS bowls

bearister;842071841 said:

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Front runners and bandwagon jumpers are easily separated from their money. If big brother spanks little brother on SB Sunday they won't be able to give that crap away. The same dipsticks will be lining up to buy Ray Lewis do rags.

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Personally, I could not be happier that the 49ers are once again good enough to have bandwagon fans.

they should open a store in Hunters Point. I windsurf a lot at Candlestick, and the locals there definitely are hardcore 49ers fans, and from what I've seen they don't have a problem parting with large sums of cash on things that they want ;-)

rathokan;842071845 said:

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I was gonna make a snide comment about the Furdies being rich bandwagonners, but hell... they don't even show up when their team has been to three straight BCS bowls

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I know a 2009 grad who came to Berkeley for the Big Game, but didn't even go to the game, and then for the PAC-12 Championship went to Palo Alto for the festivities, but again did not even go to the damn stadium. He did go to Pasadena for New Years, but only because he was not sure that Stanfurd would be this good for much longer.

Strykur;842071839 said:

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...Giants fans from Vallejo. What a joke. :rollinglaugh:

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Why is that any more of a joke than the wannabes from areas like Orinda, Lafayette, Danville, and Alamo that are Giants (and Niner) fans when they have never had any connection to The City. At least Vallejo is more than 20 miles closer to SF than those towns.

Strykur;842071839 said:

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There is the Giants Dugout in the Embarcadero Center, I don't know where a proper 49ers store is around downtown in the City anyway.



Yeah, it's rich seeing people partying in the Mission after the Giants won in 2012 and later learning that a lot of them are from Vallejo and Fremont.

Giants fans from Vallejo. What a joke. :rollinglaugh:

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Wait I dont get it. I grew up in the East Bay. Does that mean I cant cheer for the Giants?

My first baseball game was a Giants game. I met JT Snow when I was younger. I always wore a Giants cap.

That is a trip. You walk around Serramonte, Stonestown, Hillsdale etc and no 9er stores.. Plenty of Giants dugout stores though. I would say that the Niners need to re-think their marketing but damn, all I've seen the past few weeks is red and gold.

Cal Panda Bear;842071857 said:

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Wait I dont get it. I grew up in the East Bay. Does that mean I cant cheer for the Giants?

My first baseball game was a Giants game. I met JT Snow when I was younger. I always wore a Giants cap.

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You get a pass as long as you stay a fan during long stretches of the team sucking like a real San Franciscan would. As an Oakland fan I am indifferent to the success or failure of an SF team.

I was at the new Target in downtown SF on Saturday and they were selling a crapload of 9ers gear.....

Unit2Sucks;842071814 said:

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Makes sense right? Most of SF is from outside the state and moved here with an already established pro team. So you have a small percentage of locals in SF (I think I've read that 30% of SF residents were born in California, so only the portion of that group that's from the bay area and chose 9ers over raiders) plus any converts. Naturally the converts go way up when the team wins.

Contrast that to the peninsula and other outlying areas which have far more locals both by percentage and total numbers and it makes perfect sense.

Also - does that store have the old school gold starter jackets? Those are a hot commodity right now.

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Actually, Santa Clara County (37%) and San Mateo County (34%) have similar foreign born population percentages as San Francisco (35%).

However, the locals in the suburban areas care more about the 49ers than in the city. There is a lot of support in the city for the Giants though, probably because the ballpark is so much more integrated into the city than Candlestick. Too bad the 49ers had to move out of Kezar, that would really be awesome if they still played in Golden Gate Park.

CaliforniaEternal;842071872 said:

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Actually, Santa Clara County (37%) and San Mateo County (34%) have similar foreign born population percentages as San Francisco (35%).

However, the locals in the suburban areas care more about the 49ers than in the city. There is a lot of support in the city for the Giants though, probably because the ballpark is so much more integrated into the city than Candlestick. Too bad the 49ers had to move out of Kezar, that would really be awesome if they still played in Golden Gate Park.

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god, traffic is bad enough in the Sunset on the weekends already LOL

Strykur;842071839 said:

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There is the Giants Dugout in the Embarcadero Center, I don't know where a proper 49ers store is around downtown in the City anyway.

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Not exactly a 49er Team Store, but tonight while walking up Powell from Market, I noticed a "Bay Area Sports Store" (I forget the exact name, but it was long those lines - maybe it was Bay Area Locker Room"). It was, of course, full of Niner stuff right now (though I noticed some Giants stuff, too. In the back I couldn't tell, but there appeared to be some blue (I was across the street). May have been Warriors, may have been Cal.

glb78;842071860 said:

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That is a trip. You walk around Serramonte, Stonestown, Hillsdale etc and no 9er stores.. Plenty of Giants dugout stores though. I would say that the Niners need to re-think their marketing but damn, all I've seen the past few weeks is red and gold.

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Strange because my impression was the hardcore 9er fans were mostly peninsula based. I never saw much more than passing interest for the team in "The City" outside of playoff runs.

Interestingly enough, some Pac-12 schools have team gear stores away from their campuses.

Both Oregon State and Oregon have stores in downtown Portland. When I was up there, the beaver store (LOL) was empty while the Duck store was full of people.

WSU has one in downtown Seattle's Westgate Center. Not UW, WSU.

They probably don't make a whole lot of sense, but it does do a little for your team pride to know your school has enough demand for its gear to warrant a real offline store. I think we still have one at SFO airport.

Interesting - so much for that theory. I can't really explain the difference between niners and giants support in the city other than it seems like there are different bars for every NFL team, with fans of every NFL team here and I rarely see anyone rooting for other baseball teams. That could be because they don't show out of town baseball games but bars are set up to show out of town football games with sunday ticket.

CaliforniaEternal;842071872 said:

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Actually, Santa Clara County (37%) and San Mateo County (34%) have similar foreign born population percentages as San Francisco (35%).

However, the locals in the suburban areas care more about the 49ers than in the city. There is a lot of support in the city for the Giants though, probably because the ballpark is so much more integrated into the city than Candlestick. Too bad the 49ers had to move out of Kezar, that would really be awesome if they still played in Golden Gate Park.

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Strykur;842071839 said:

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There is the Giants Dugout in the Embarcadero Center, I don't know where a proper 49ers store is around downtown in the City anyway.



Yeah, it's rich seeing people partying in the Mission after the Giants won in 2012 and later learning that a lot of them are from Vallejo and Fremont.

Giants fans from Vallejo. What a joke. :rollinglaugh:

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Why a joke?

sycasey;842071829 said:

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The Giants have team stores all over the Bay Area, including in SF, so I'm not sure why the 49ers don't. I have noticed a few fly-by-night merchandise stands popping up downtown this week, though.

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The Giants have also been more relevant over the last decade. The World Series loss, followed by Barry Bonds chasing the all time home run record brings us to 2007. By 2010, they won their first title in SF, and have been good ever since.

The Niners on the other hand were terrible until last year. Makes it hard to move merch. Would you have bought an Alex Smith Jersey in 2005?

Strykur;842071839 said:

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There is the Giants Dugout in the Embarcadero Center, I don't know where a proper 49ers store is around downtown in the City anyway.

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There's a temporary Niners store in the Embarcadero Center now. No idea if they'll try to keep it around. I hope they do.

[COLOR="DarkRed"][SIZE="7"]Santa Clara Fortyniners! [/SIZE][/COLOR]

sycasey;842071829 said:

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The Giants have team stores all over the Bay Area, including in SF, so I'm not sure why the 49ers don't. I have noticed a few fly-by-night merchandise stands popping up downtown this week, though.

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Bad teams dont sell stuff.

Despite what people want to think, the 49ers are not good. They have had two good years. Not exactly a significant amount of time when opening stores, signing contracts etc. Stands are easy to open and close as the winds blow.

If the 9ers maintain their current success and people show mid range enthusiasm as opposed to the flavor of the year it is now, you will see more permanent stores...


Lets not forget that for ~15 years they were a pretty good joke.

Phantomfan;842072001 said:

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Bad teams dont sell stuff.

Despite what people want to think, the 49ers are not good. They have had two good years. Not exactly a significant amount of time when opening stores, signing contracts etc. Stands are easy to open and close as the winds blow.

If the 9ers maintain their current success and people show mid range enthusiasm as opposed to the flavor of the year it is now, you will see more permanent stores...


Lets not forget that for ~15 years they were a pretty good joke.

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The Giants have had these stores for decades, even when they were bad.

CalBearRJ;842071986 said:

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The Giants have also been more relevant over the last decade. The World Series loss, followed by Barry Bonds chasing the all time home run record brings us to 2007. By 2010, they won their first title in SF, and have been good ever since.

The Niners on the other hand were terrible until last year. Makes it hard to move merch. Would you have bought an Alex Smith Jersey in 2005?

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Giants Dugout stores have been around for decades though, way before the current championship teams, and even before Barry Bonds. And the Niners were still plenty successful for most of the 90s.

I wonder what the relative sales are of baseball and football gear? Empirically it seems like there is more baseball sold than football

Phantomfan;842072001 said:

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Lets not forget that for ~15 years they were a pretty good joke.

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That's a bit of an overstatement, unless you're putting all 30 teams who don't get to the Super Bowl each year in the "joke" category. They had an 8-year playoff drought from 2003 through 2010. Prior to that period, they had made the playoffs 18 out of 22 years.