“I suddenly wondered why there was no logo on it,” says Gannascoli, a fan of the New York Giants, Rangers and Yankees. “So I went online, where I saw everything imaginable but water covers for water bottles.”
Gannascoli, who played closeted mobster Vito Spatafore Sr. on the hit HBO show, first met with the Giants, who in turn directed him to the NFL’s consumer-products division. The league liked the Bottle Skinz concept but, recognizing how brutal the licensing-review process can be on newcomers, advised Gannascoli to team with longtime NFL licensee Fabrique Innovations.
The Manhattan fabrics company, which counts Snuggies and Pillow Pets among its hits for the NFL, thought the idea “was really cool,” says Fabrique Chief Operating Officer Tom Deluca, who set about adding Bottle Skinz to his company’s product line.
Gannascoli came aboard, too, as Bottle Skinz’s royalty-receiving ambassador. While Fabrique has been shipping the product for barely a year, it already has an outlet in Home Depot and is about to crack Lowe’s. It’s also available on Amazon and is being tested by Walmart.
Wait for it: "Fabrique expects Bottle Skinz to add about $1 million in revenue to the $20 million-plus the company envisions for 2015!"
Emphasis, ours.
But it gets even better.
“Girls are even wearing them as tops and skirts, although we didn’t license them for that,” Gannascoli says.
Get on on Amazon right now right here.
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