A plethora of champion players and coaches – from New York Rangers Stanley Cup icons Mark Messier and Mike Richter to Football Giants Super Bowl legends Tom Coughlin and Mark Bavaro to women’s basketball greats Sue Bird and Nancy Lieberman to Yankees World Series champs Aaron Boone and Willie Randolph to college coaches Lou Holtz and Jim Boeheim – have all lined up to partner with Brandon Steiner’s brand new “Athlete Direct.” “Athlete Direct” is just another Steiner brainchild. He launched the new sports marketplace CollectibleXchange.com just over a year ago.
Steiner, who revolutionized the sports memorabilia and collectibles industry during 32 years as founder of Steiner Sports Marketing and Memorabilia, has transitioned from that company to transform the industry once again with the launches of “Athlete Direct” and (earlier) CollectibleXchange.com (in 2019); AD gives the players and coaches a “one-stop-shop” to sell memorabilia – autographed, game-used and commemorative items – as well as new product lines – directly to their fans.
In addition, collector’s will be able to have their own photos, jerseys, balls and other items personally-signed by the athletes. And that’s not to mention fan experiences for zoom one-on-ones to such video greetings as birthday messages, and specialize products.
“This was always the big picture I had in my mind,” says Steiner. “I found that over the years, there was too much of the same thing, hundreds, thousands of balls and jerseys signed by the same player. People bring collections to us, and are disappointed in their value because players just signed so much. Now we are away from the volume and give propriety to high end exclusive stuff; those ‘hard to get,’ cool, pieces. We’re trying to work on not only collectibles but also private items – from exercise machines to skin care products to healthy snacks.”
