Want to wear a customized Christmas jersey that you 3D-printed at home right before the game between 2015 NBA Champion Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers? Well you can’t. At least not yet.
Today’s 3D printing is inaccessible to the masses because printers are expensive – tens of thousands of dollars – and the printing materials are less than ideal. 3D printing textiles are particularly problematic since the “fabric” is still somewhat plastic-y and fragile.
Never miss the latest NBA Tech news with the SportTechie newsletter.
According to Mark Dill, General Manager and Product Designer at 3D printer startup Extrusionbot, 3D printing is still being refined to minimize jagged edges on printed objects and to increase comfort of wearables that are, for now, somewhat abrasive. Another challenge, Dill says, is that desktop 3D printers cannot print color combinations. So today, jerseys, shirts and hoodies can be 3D-printed in only a single color.
However, athletic apparel manufacturers have been experimenting with 3D-printed shoes for the past couple of years and Nike recently announced its plans to build and utilize an in-house 3D printing system. In time, fan apparel, caps, and more could be customized and printed at home or at a local 3D print shop – even at an in-stadium kiosk during the game as Mark Dill suggests.
Will.i.am, musician, producer and Chief Creative Officer of 3D Systems, envisions a time when a fan can capture a basketball player’s dunk during the game then transmit that image to be 3D-printed at the arena as merchandise, such as a figurine. “A photograph changed popular culture in the world of sports, but a 3D image could change it forever,” Will.i.am says.
The ways in which this new technology and the law impact one another remains to be seen. Professional sports leagues utilize etailers to sell fan merchandise. The structure of those business arrangements could be significantly modified if online purchasing decreases as a result of demand due to 3D printing by fans. New business models will emerge where patterns for 3D-printed merchandise are sold and downloaded so merchandise may be printed at home or by local 3D print shops who invest in high quality 3D printers. As a result, deal-making and contractual obligations will change.
For now, dealmakers should carefully consider strategies for optimizing revenue streams from 3D-printed merchandise. This may mean, for example, limiting the duration of contracts with etailers. Leagues, teams and other licensors will want to continue to ensure online demand justifies the relationship with their etailers as 3D printing evolves. Given the unknowns in the 3D printing market, parties to contracts should seek indemnifications to minimize risk as this new technology evolves.
Additionally, models for licensure of intellectual property will evolve.
Nike COO Eric Sprunk recently said at the GeekWire Summit, “Do I envision a future where we might still own the file from an IP perspective, and you can manufacture that either in your home or we’ll do it for you at our store? Oh yeah, that’s not that far away.”
Clearly, leagues and teams who own logos and other intellectual property rights want to retain those rights. And by law, they must take action to ensure these rights are not eroded if they wish to retain ownership. Because of this, rights holders are likely to embrace a model where patterns that incorporate their intellectual property are licensed to be transmitted, downloaded and 3D-printed on a limited basis for a limited purpose, restricting the number of 3D copies that may be printed.
3D printing will also pose a challenge to the leagues and other rights holders who already spend millions of dollars enforcing rights by restricting the sale and importation of counterfeit merchandise by unauthorized parties. Professional sports leagues, players associations, and their subsidiaries have initiated a number of lawsuits seeking to shut down websites offering merchandise that has not been officially licensed. If patterns for counterfeit 3D merchandise are created, it will result in an additional market segment that leagues and other rights holders must police.
However, as sports fans increasingly demand the integration of technology and their consumption of sports entertainment, leagues and teams will want to cater to them. 3D printing technology that allows customization of apparel and other fan merchandise is another way of doing that. Technological advancements will make this a reality.
So add a customized, 3D-printed jersey to your wish list . . . because it’s coming.
Kristy comes from a corporate background having been a member of in-house legal teams in a variety of industries including tech, big data, financial services, and pharmaceuticals. Her experience in the intellectual property, transactional, regulatory and other corporate practice areas gives her a unique perspective and ability to identify legal issues and real-world solutions that satisfy the business and legal teams. Kristy focuses her efforts on sports tech law issues that arise where sports, tech, business and the law intersect, consulting for all sports industry players who utilize tech. Kristy received her LL.M. in Sports Law and Business from Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and her J.D. from Arizona Summit Law School. Kristy, based in Phoenix, enjoys all sports (but is partial to basketball and football), is an avid hiker, and loves jumping out of airplanes and other adventures.