36-37 LSB Cotton Division 2023 (SL)_GF.qxp_NEW LSB 2008 GRID 25/09/2023 12:58 Page 1
IN CONVERSATION WITH... COTTON DIVISION
Cotton Division – Cultures United LSB catches up with Cotton Division’s Mark Lindsay to talk about sport licensing’s transcendence of borders in a new age of the international sports superstar.
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sking Mark Lindsay, commercial director of Cotton Division, for a bit of background on the Paris head-quartered licensed apparel and accessories business is possibly the wrong tack. With a response somewhat light on the details you get a sense, relatively quickly, that Mark isn’t one to dwell on formalities. “Sorry, I’ve got someone asking for forecasts,” he
says, glancing up from his phone. We laugh at the idea of anyone requesting forecasts any time after 1pm on a hot summer Friday. Particularly anyone in the licensing business. Seizing the opportunity to change the subject I instead ask Mark what he thinks flipped the switch for sports licensing. When did it realise its potential to be the juggernaut of the sector it is now fast on-track to become? Suddenly, we’re talking on Mark’s level. “That switch has totally been flipped,” he echoes. “We’re seeing a massive growth for sports licensing among retailers buying into the NFL, the NBA, the NHL, and what’s driving it is this borderless internationalism you see in the players and the fans today.” It’s profound and it’s bang on the money. My personal enjoyment of football, for instance, ended the day Jürgen Klinsmann left Tottenham to return to Germany in the late ‘90s. Breaking the trust of a wide-eyed youth looking for a hero to worship, and I then, without satellite television through which to follow his international
Inset: Throwing the first punch... was the Rocky series the first to start blurring the lines between sport and popular culture?
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LICENSING SPORTS BOOK 2023