Brand experts warn Raiders about dangers of knock-off Vegas gear

The Raiders will soon relocate to Las Vegas, but until they do, they’ll continue to be known as the Oakland Raiders.It could be three years before the move is finalized and the Raiders play their first regular-season game in Las Vegas, as they have yet to break ground on the recently approved $1.9 billion stadium project.

In the meantime, there’s going to be a lot of fans who want to stock up on Las Vegas Raiders gear. Since all official NFL merchandise will continue to use the Oakland Raiders moniker, that opens the door for knock-off Vegas hats, jerseys and other apparel.

Patrick Walsh, an assistant professor of sport management at Syracuse University, went into more detail on exactly how the knock-off gear could damage the Las Vegas Raiders brand.

“From a licensing perspective, licensees are chosen and approved because they make high-quality products,” Walsh said, via the Sun. “From an NFL perspective and from a team perspective, you want fans if they buy Las Vegas merchandise, apparel, collectibles, you want it to be a high-quality product. If there is knockoff merchandise, not only does it impact from a financial perspective, it could impact from a brand perspective as well. . . .

“I think there would be some potential for confusion to the brand. You want the brand to remain consistent. If you have Oakland-specific merchandise and Las Vegas-specific merchandise, there would be some confusion there because there eventually will be some different associations people have with the Las Vegas Raiders than they would with the Oakland Raiders.”