The Inside Story of How the Iconic SLAM Magazine Got its Own Insert in Panini America’s 2020-21 Hoops :
https://blog.paniniamerica.net/the-insi ... asketball/
Last February, just weeks before a global pandemic
beganravaging the U.S., and altering
in some ways seemingly forever the way business gets done,
some business was getting done the old-fashioned way.
Face-to-face, through spirited conversation among passionate professionals.
The setting in this case? Inside Panini America’s All-Star VIP Lounge
in Chicago during 2020 NBA All-Star Weekend.
The principals? SLAM Media Inc., President Dave Schnur,
Panini America Vice President of Marketing Jason Howarth
and Panini America NBA Product Developers David Porter and Keith Hower.
The topic of discussion that day? Turning SLAM’s iconic
magazine covers into an iconic trading card set.
For Schnur, a kid who grew up both collecting cards
and reading SLAM, the concept was an absolute no-brainer.
Now 34, he still collects cards (now in concert with his son, 5).
He still loves SLAM. Only now, he has a 20-card,
retail-exclusive insert
in the new 2020-21 Hoops product to call his very own.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CLUZZGEnYSZ/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CLXR5dJHBc4/“I grew up on NBA Hoops the same way I grew up on SLAM,
” says Schnur, who’s been with the brand for 13 years.
“I think the marriage is a perfect one. It made so much sense
for us to be in Hoops because of accessibility and audience.
Everybody’s going to have the opportunity to get SLAM cards.
“For me to see SLAM on a card and have it be
a project that was under my supervision is surreal.
It’s really like coming full circle for me. 7-year-old Dave
would have dreamed of being able to execute
a project like this with the biggest card
manufacturer in the world. It’s so cool.”
Indeed it is.
And early feedback from collectors
has been nothing short of sensational.
The first SLAM cards started appearing on the market
late last week as 2020-21 Hoops Blasters
and Fat Packs made their way to retail shelves.
More are sure to follow in the coming days
when the product’s Mega Box
and Winter Edition SKUs arrive.
Hoops' SLAM magazine insert cards add fuel to retail fire :
https://www.blowoutcards.com/blog/nba-h ... tail-fire/The 20-card insert and its slick Holo parallels are randomly
inserted across all Hoops retail SKUsWinter Edition
and Winter Edition Holo versions feature the exclusive
“snowflake” pattern, and Purple Explosion
and Green Explosion (numbered to 89)
versions are Mega Box-exclusive SPs.
“My son is obsessed with video breaks and this whole
time I had this vision in my head of a kid doing
a basketball box break and getting a SLAM card,” Schnur said.
“I finally found that moment last week on Instagram
of this guy breaking a pack and yelling like ‘SLAM Luka!
Let’s go!’ and all I could think was, ‘This is amazing.’ It was a trip.”
We offer a complete gallery of the 20-card set below. But first,
Schnur had a lot more to say about the trading card marketplace,
his affinity for it and the SLAM trading card project. Some of the highlights . . .
On his return to collecting . . .
“I just recently got back into cards about two years
ago because I started giving my son, who was 3 at the time, my old cards.
Then I started buying him packs
and blasters and opening them with him.
As the collectibles market has continued
to explode, I was just thinking of how we could
get SLAM into this collectibles market.”
On the cards/sneakers crossover . . .
“There are a lot of parallels between the sneaker
and card markets both in audience and economics.
Card flipping is becoming as popular and as lucrative
as sneaker reselling among teenagers
and any time there’s an opportunity for us
to reach this young, core SLAM consumer, I want to take it.
Cards are much easier to store, they’re easier
to flip. It’s just a great place for us to continue
to develop our relationships with basketball fans.”
On collecting and reading SLAM in his youth . . .
“I’ve been reading SLAM since I was 8,
I’ve been collecting cards since I was 6 or 7.
Whenever I got allowance I would run right to Big Top,
our local toy store, and I would spend it on cards.
I got silver dollars from the 1930s from my grandpa
for holidays, I would spend them on cards.
I didn’t care, I just needed to get my cards.”
On the wide variety of cover subjects in the insert set . . .
“It’s really exciting to see people get amped about old covers.
It’s great that we have a Ja Morant card and an Allen Iverson
and a Tim Duncan and a Kobe.
It really just runs the gamut from 1994 through 2021.
I love the range of the cards.”
On his favorite card in the set . . .
“Iverson was always my favorite player growing up
and he’s really like the quintessential SLAM guy,
so that’s probably my favorite.”
Previews Galerie 2020-21 Hoops SLAM :
https://blog.paniniamerica.net/the-insi ... sel-2430802020-21 Hoops SLAM CARMELO ANTHONY
2020-21 Hoops SLAM KOBE BRYANT
2020-21 Hoops SLAM VINCE CARTER
2020-21 Hoops SLAM STEPHEN CURRY
2020-21 Hoops SLAM ANTHONY DAVIS
2020-21 Hoops SLAM LUKA DONČIĆ
2020-21 Hoops SLAM TIM DUNCAN
2020-21 Hoops SLAM KEVIN DURANT
2020-21 Hoops SLAM KEVIN GARNETT
2020-21 Hoops SLAM ALLEN IVERSON
2020-21 Hoops SLAM LeBRON JAMES
2020-21 Hoops SLAM DAMIAN LILLARD
2020-21 Hoops SLAM KAWHI LEONARD
2020-21 Hoops SLAM TRACY McGRADY
2020-21 Hoops SLAM JA MORANT
2020-21 Hoops SLAM DIRK NOWITZKI
2020-21 Hoops SLAM SHAQUILLE O'NEAL
2020-21 Hoops SLAM JASON WILLIAMS
2020-21 Hoops SLAM TRAE YOUNG
2020-21 Hoops SLAM ZION WILLIAMSON
