Pro athletes put their passion into products at trade show

Jim Kelly was an Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback who led his Buffalo Bills to the Super Bowl four times. He threw 237 touchdowns and won more than 100 games as the Bills field general.

John Buck is a Major League Baseball catcher who will be behind home plate for the New York Mets in 2013. He was an All-Star player for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2010 and has also played for the Kansas City Royals and Miami Marlins.

But on Friday, Kelly and Buck were rookies at the Sports Licensing and Tailgating trade show at the Las Vegas Convention Center, where they manned booths among the more than 300 exhibitors of sports merchandise and fan memorabilia.

Both are launching new products and spent their day like any other exhibitor - schmoozing with buyers, handing out business cards, meeting with retailers and talking up their products with anyone who stopped by their booths. The sports show ends today and is closed to the public.

Kelly, 52, who still lives in the Buffalo area, invested $100,000 to launch a money and credit card clip called MyFanClip. The device looks like a binder clip that keeps papers together and includes two round buttons showing the logo of your favorite NFL team. In Kelly's case, he showed off his MyFanClip adorned with the Buffalo Bills logo.

By Friday, Kelly and his staff at exhibitor space 1641 had chatted with 100 buyers and 25 retailers. The two clip packages will retail for $4.99 a piece and orders will be delivered to stores in the fall. Kelly said.

It was Kelly's first trade show and the former All-Pro quarterback looked spry talking with visitors even after neck surgery only a few weeks ago. Kelly said some of the profits will go to a foundation in the memory of his son Hunter, who died from globoid-cell leukodystrophy at age 8 in 2005. It's called Hunter's Hope Foundation.

"Jim is in involved in every aspect of the business. He was helping set up the booth yesterday morning. He reviews the financials and looked at six manufacturers," said Dan Kelly, Jim's 51-year-old brother. "He's almost too involved. He's very passionate about this product."

Next to Kelly's both was Gregg Leipzig of North New Jersey selling Pro Sports Eyewear who said, "Jim was taking this real seriously. He's been asking me questions about dealing with retailers, the middle men and wholesalers."

Several aisles away at exhibitor spot 1112, the younger Buck, 32, showed off black-zippered carrying cases specially made to hold a catcher's glove and also small gloves for infielders and big gloves for outfielders.

Two young women from a New York City-based company called Infinity Lifestyle Brands LLC were chatting up the Mets catcher, who is chief executive and owner of his company, Tools of Ignorance.

Buck sounded like a seasoned trade show pro when he asked the two women, "What do I get that I don't already have?" He ended the conversation, "Do you girls have cards?"

But then he committed a rookie error when he went looking in vain for his own business card.

Buck, the only active major-leaguer born in Wyoming, said he launched his Glove Guardian carrying case because his catcher's gloves were, in his words, "getting trashed" from the constant travel and weather shifts of a major-league season. Buck said in 2011 he went through six catcher's gloves. But he said last year he needed only two gloves thanks to the protective carrying case.

The Glove Guardian will retail for $64 to $74 depending on the case size, Buck said.

Buck said this week's show in Las Vegas was only his second.

"I'm still a rookie at it," he said with a smile.

Contact reporter Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273.