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some of you who frequently use Union station on the TTC might have recently noticed that the TTC has begun to market some of their transit merchandise to the general public, as summarized in this article..
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Beware the Ides of Merch?
How the TTC is missing out instead of cashing in
by Dale Duncan
Managing Editor
photo courtesy of Nick Provart
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After years working abroad, first in Berlin, and later in San Diego, Nicolas Provart returned to Toronto full of ideas for how to improve the TTC. In 2002, he and a friend even put together a full-fledged marketing plan. After a month of figuring out costs, contacting suppliers, and coming up with ideas — including underwear emblazoned with TTC station names and slogans such as King, Queen, and Ride the Rocket (photo above) — the amateur transit boosters sent their plan off to the TTC.
“It landed in procurement,” Provart says. He hasn’t heard a peep from the commission since.
The reason, Provart later learned, is that the TTC was one year into a five year contract with Legacy Sports, a company based in Woodbridge that won the exclusive right to sell TTC merchandise, with the commission getting a 10% cut of the sales. But while the London Underground brings in a reported $3,424,000 from the sale of merchandise each year through its store and museum, Legacy’s projected sales at the time they signed their contract were only $50,000 annually.
For many, however, the cash is a secondary concern (even $3 million dollars works out to be a sliver of the TTC’s $1.07 billion operation budget).
People wearing TTC T-shirts, and tourists bringing home TTC souvenirs help to promote Toronto’s transit system. As the popularity of Spacing’s subway station buttons demonstrate, many people have an unabashed affection for public transit and they want to wear it on their jacket or shoulder bag. It’s this sort of sentiment Legacy has failed capture. Fortunately, the opportunity for change is growing near: Legacy’s contract comes to an end this August.
“Our tentative plan at this point is to come out with a Request for Proposal and survey the marketplace and see who else might be out there who’s interested in sending in a submission,” says Alice Smith, active manager of TTC marketing.
It’s unfortunate that few people know that Legacy’s products exist. A link to their website — where you can view and purchase T-shirts, toques, pens, and bags, baby clothes that say “property of the TTC,” baseball hats slapped with pictures of buses, and a host of other items — is tucked away on the TTC’s website. Only one store in Toronto, Bowrings, in the Eaton Centre, sells the merchandise year round.
“Our main supporters have obviously been the TTC employees,” explains the president of Legacy Sports, Rick Ferri. “[But] we’re in the process right now of revamping our whole line.” Their new focus, he says, will include “cute catch phrases” such as “Toronto Underground”.
“Will your new line include station names?” I ask. “Possibly,” Ferri says. “Those kind of things appeal more to the buff, the customer more concerned with the logistics of the TTC….We’re looking at the younger crowd and we’re looking to do stuff that’s more hip, to cater to them.” The same goes for the use of subway or streetcar maps, he says. “It’s nice to see, it looks cute, but it’s more for someone who’s really interested in the subway line and all the stops and everything.”
Though Ferri would like to see Legacy’s products appeal to a broader range of people, it seems odd not to market to the TTC buffs, especially the growing, younger generation of transit fans, the ones creating anagram maps, holding subway parties, and debating station design. You’d think these groups of people would be Legacy’s most loyal customers.
Another surprise: Ferri say that Legacy doesn’t look to other transit systems for ideas. “There’s not really much out there to take notes from. We’ve probably been more innovative than a lot of other transit system,” he tells me. “I don’t even think [the London Underground] has got half of the products we carry.” Without a hint of irony in his voice he says, “I don’t know how much more innovative they are than we’ve been.”
Ferri admits that there’s a learning curve to doing merchandising for public transit and hopes to build on what the company has learned over the past four and a half years. “Right now we’re in the rebuilding stage,” he says. “It’s what you produce and we’re taking a different approach to our line…. There’s no guarantees with this stuff.”
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source:
http://spacing.ca/archives/29/
well, needless to say that the merchandise being offered by the TTC looks like total crap, so some transit enthusiasts out there came up with their own ideas at what could potentially sell, which are shown on this website.
(albeit at a far lower cost than the 5 year contract being charged by Legacy Sports).
 vs. 
crap by Legacy Sports:
http://www.legacysportswear.com/TTC...hirts+%26+Vests
more cool (unofficial TTC) stuff here:
http://www.torontoist.com/archives/...ttc_swag_su.php
juss as an fyi.. the TTC recently extended their contract with Legacy Sports for another 5 years.. honestly, who the hell puts some of these TTC people in charge??
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