U L E Z I C K L

First off, tell us a bit about yourself and how you came to be hockey brand manager for Upper Deck. I’m originally from Vancouver. I came to the U.S. to do a sports MBA at San Diego State. I interned with UD as part of the program one day a week, and it was a very fortuitous time to intern here. That was 2011, the year my Canucks went to the Stanley Cup Final. Unfortunately, it was a devastating seven-game loss, but I got to go to Game 2 in Vancouver with UD. While there, my boss introduced me to some people from the NHL, and I took that relationship to move to New York. I interned with the NHL before joining the Major League Baseball Players’ Association where I worked for five years as a Licensing Manager overseeing trading cards and memorabilia. But I was ready for my next challenge. I’d heard about all the good things going on at UD so I came back three years ago.

It’s been a good time. I think I brought some good Canucks mojo to the market with three good rookie crops in a row to help drive our business. But it’s been really fun to be back.

What goes on in the day-to-day life of a brand manager?

I worked on the licensing side with the MLBPA but I never truly understood how difficult and time intensive it is to produce trading cards. At the core, the function of the brand manager is to align each of the departments to ensure we’re getting the products out to plan and on schedule.

Your team has accomplished quite a bit this season. What are you most proud of?

I think everyone’s been challenged during this current pandemic, so I think that what I’m most proud of is that we’ve been able to pivot and adapt to the difficulties in the marketplace and get products out the door. I look at some of our competitors and they’ve had some challenges. We’ve

stick elements. This year we’re delivering innovations like 2 ½” by 3 ½” cards made out of carbon fiber.

There’s another new product hitting the market this summer, Stature. It’s a single pack-per-box product delivering eight premium cards. It’ll be one thick pack! The cards will be printed on a new technology featuring dazzling colors and hard-signed autographs. We’re excited to introduce Stature to Upper Deck’s hockey brand portfolio. With each new brand we continue to push the innovation envelope.

Given the challenges posed by the pandemic, it’s impressive that you’ve been able to stay close to announced release dates. The longer this goes on, of course, that could change. Has there been any thought of delaying dates, decreasing print runs or making other significant changes in light of the lack of on-ice action and the economic impact of the shutdowns?

While we diversified our printers, we do have some products that are tied up with manufacturers that had to close down. So there will be some delays on some of those as they’re just getting up and running now [in mid-May].

[Beyond that], it’s really tough to forecast. We have a weekly call with the league. Everyone on the sports side wants to get back to hockey and see them finish the season but we don’t have a crystal ball. I think we were fortunate relative to other sports in that we have a well developed rookie class in place before the pandemic hit, so we’re well positioned through the end of the 2019-20 product calendar. I think the real question is, what does 2020-21 look like? We’re just going to have to wait and see how it plays out

Although many stores were forced to close temporarily as a result of the quarantine, collectors still had access to many of your products through e-Pack. How has the platform performed during the pandemic?

e-Pack is the only digital trading card platform on the market that allows collectors to purchase physical trading card packs through their computer or their phone. It also offers collectors a digital community to help them complete their sets, make trades and discuss the hobby, all at a click of a button. Some collectors prefer to stay indoors during the lockdowns and as a result we are seeing an uptick in purchasing and member interactions.

Fair to say 2019-20 OPC Platinum has been the surprise hit of the season. What made it work so well?

It’s a credit to our product development team. They’ve done a great job of choosing patterns and colors that really pop and that’s coincided with hard-signed autographs. It was the first product with hard-signed autos this year, so it’s a hybrid of those two things

Easter eggs have gained prominence in your products this season. What’s the impetus for that, and what makes a good Easter egg?

Collectors always want to find unique and rare cards and when you put something in a product that they don’t necessarily know about, it becomes that much more sought after. So we’ve tinkered with creating photo variants, black-and-white variants, [and other elements]. We had five Easter Eggs in OPC this year and they’re very hard to find.

With Credentials, we launched two Easter egg inserts, Colorful Characters and Hot Dog. Colorful Characters showcases some of the bright and vibrant suits that players wear to the stadium and Hot Dog highlights some of the great celebrations, so they have unique themes that collectors will get a kick out of. We always want to keep our collectors on their toes and give them something unique that they’re not expecting.

As we talk in mid-May, the NHL Draft is still up in the air. That’s a significant event for UD, in terms of promoting the brand, generating interest in collecting, and asset acquisition. If, as expected, it ends up being an online-only event, how will you adapt?

It’s a bit of an X factor right now. The NHL is still looking at ways that they can honor some of the components that we collect during the draft and we’re also looking at things that we haven’t done before. So there’s a lot still in the air. We’ll eventually share what we’re doing but we don’t have it finalized right now.

The Rookie Showcase is another significant annual event that provides Upper Deck with, among other things, a chance to acquire autographs and memorabilia, along with significant promotional assets. Where does this event stand and what will you do to acquire these critical assets if the event doesn’t take place?

It’s the same situation as the draft. Unfortunately, without knowing if the players are going to get back on the ice this spring to finish the season, the NHLPA, our partner in the Showcase, really doesn’t know how that will impact the off-season and the availability of the players.

This is one of my favorite events. We institute some unique content every year and, as you alluded to, the acquisition is a key driver. I’m sure we’ll come up with a way to do that, even if it’s just on the asset acquisition side. We’ll have to adapt just like everyone else.

Let’s look ahead to the 2020-21 season. We’re already seeing sell sheets for some of the early releases, but there’s a lot of uncertainty ahead, including the possibility that the beginning of the season could be delayed as late as December. With that in mind, are any of these products in flux in any way?

Not yet. I think we’re very excited for the 2020-21 calendar. We’ve been building our brand portfolio over the past three years and we’re looking to capitalize on the two stud prospects, Alexis Lafreniere and Quenton Byfield, both of whom we have an exclusive autograph deal with. As of now, [the pandemic] hasn’t impacted our product portfolio. Our release dates may push slightly based on when the games start, but I do not anticipate significant release date adjustments when compared to previous years.

Singles Day seemed to be an impactful promotion in 2019. Will we see it again in 2020?

This past year we offered a 20-card promotional set incorporating our festive winter design that featured 14 NHLers and six UD spokesmen, so you could get a [Michael] Jordan card or a Tiger [Woods] card along with a [Sidney] Crosby card or a [Connor] McDavid card. Each card in the set had a scratch-off bounty code. If collectors completed the whole set and redeemed the codes on UpperDeckBounty.com, they could win some unbelievable achievement cards. We had four levels of complete parallel sets up for grabs, along with some randomly awarded dual autographs, so if you were one of the first 135 collectors to complete the set, you earned one of these rare prizes.

We’re excited to announce that we are planning for the return of Singles Day in 2020. We’re always looking for unique ways to interact with our customers and support the hobby, [and this is one of them].

How about Tim Hortons?

Of course, the Tim Hortons set is coming back! It’s a flagship promotion that evolves year after year and continues to bring new collectors into the hobby. Obviously, being Canadian, I have a soft spot for Timmy’s so we’re extremely excited for what’s ahead this year. The size and scale of the promotion allows us the ability to deliver the key high-technology cards that our consumers all love, including acetate, lenticulars, die-cuts and now, canvas. This year we’re excited to deliver a 125-card base set and it’s going to be better than ever. Red Die-Cut Variant cards (with rounded corners) will return. We’ll also be introducing a new 15-card NHL Canvas insert set along with a new Wayne Gretzky Tribute SSP.

What can you tell us about 2019-20 The Cup?

Well, I’m hoping we can get it out a little early this year. It’s going to be another big product.

Among the highlights, you’ll see the return of the fourpanel Printing Plate Booklet cards. Last year they were an Easter Egg. These use the Printing Plates from the 500card UD Series 1 and 2 complete base set, including the Young Guns. There will be unsigned and signed versions. We’re introducing a number of new auto patch designs including Logo Autographed Booklets, which will feature the full Adidas brand logo from the new NHL jerseys and will be numbered as low as 1-of-1. The Cup will also have the NHL Collection design, which features large patches along with an on-card signature and numbering as low as five, along with the Overshadow design. We’re also excited about the return of the silver cards. Each of these is made of two troy ounces of brilliant .999 fine silver, a key element of the Stanley Cup.

Obviously our Rookie Auto Patches are the key driver and, with Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes, I think the demand is going to be great. And I wouldn’t sleep on Jack Hughes!

Los Angeles Times.