New York cleaning up on sanitation hat sales

NEW YORK – When city officials here decided to roll out a line of merchandise featuring insignias of municipal agencies, they had no doubt that there would be a strong demand for items emblazoned with the logos of the police and fire departments.

But the Department of Sanitation?

After several months on the market, the best-selling item from the official New York City line is a distressed brown cap with a frayed bill and light blue DSNY patch – a fact that startled John J. Doherty, the city’s sanitation commissioner, who didn’t initially think much of the design.

“I was taken back a little,” he said. “I thought, ‘Why are we using this beat-up hat?’ When I go out, I put on a decent baseball hat. But everybody said, ‘That’s what they love out there.’ “

The popular cap – available in city souvenir stores and carried nationally by Target since July – exemplifies how New York has sought to harness the power of its brand through a canny marriage of promotion and fashion.

Sales from the merchandise line, which can be purchased at a new online store, at http://officialnycshop.com, are expected to top more than $20 million annually. Royalty fees will go to fund city departments.

Up next: a photo campaign featuring city workers modeling the apparel.

The idea grew out of New York’s failed efforts to persuade Olympic officials to choose the city as the site of the 2012 Games. In the process, city officials discussed the global appeal of the New York name and realized that they had a ready-made label.

“We started thinking about it, that we do have this wonderful brand,” said Lloyd Haymes, vice president of licensing for NYC Marketing. “If there’s so much popularity for the city, there’s probably a demand for the markings and logos most closely associated with the city.”

Several departments, including the NYPD, had already licensed products with their logos, which proved especially popular after the Sept. 11 attacks. But there was no centralized city licensing office, which led to inconsistent quality and a flood of counterfeit items on the market.

“It’s safe to say there were millions of dollars that the city never saw,” Haymes said.

Last year, NYC Marketing announced that it was consolidating the city’s intellectual property under one authority and developing a new line of casual apparel and souvenirs.

Manufacturers submitted bids to develop merchandise for seven agencies that city marketers believed would have the broadest appeal. The Department of Transportation made the cut, but as of now, there are no plans for gear from the Affordable Housing Resource Center or the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services.