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    Categories: Lights

Zapponians + Chelisians = Zappos and Lights FC Business Union

The Zappos and Lights sponsorship deal was a natural.

By ALAN SNEL

LVSportsBiz.com

 

Las Vegas Lights owner Brett Lashbrook knew it from the get-go:  Zappos would be a great business partner.

 

Lashbrook was having lunch with Zappos Experience & Community Team Manager aka “Culture Commando” (that’s what his business card says) Loren Becker. The lunch was not even over before the two were already swapping ideas for Zappos to play a part with the new downtown soccer team’s jersey (sponsor and designer) and play a big role at the Lights’ games (llamas and beer garden).

 

To an outside observer at LVSportsBiz.com, the reason for the three-year Zappos-Lights sponsorship agreement was simple: The Zappos and Lights work cultures align.

The Las Vegas Lights practice jersey features the Zappos mark prominently. Photo credit: Daniel Clark/LVSportsBiz.com

 

First, both organizations are committed to downtown. While many businesses are migrating to the 215 Beltway corridor in southwest valley and to Summerlin, Lashbrook and Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh love #DTLV for their businesses.

 

In 2012, Hsieh rehabbed old Las Vegas City Hall for his online retail shoe and clothing call center headquarters.

 

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Meanwhile, Lashbrook looks forward to reshaping baseball-centric Cashman Field into a soccer-only venue in 2019 when the Las Vegas 51s baseball team moves into a new $150 million Triple A ball park in Summerlin.

When a smiley face is inside the Las Vegas Lights FC jersey, you know Zappos has its fingerprints on the soccer jersey.

 

Both Zappos and the Lights have relaxed business organizations. Zappos (owned by Amazon.com Inc.) is known for its manager-free, self-management work environment. Also based in downtown, the Lights work out of an old 3rd Street church where Lashbrook’s office is a small narrow space off the entrance that is probably smaller than most Summerlin master bedroom walk-in closets. The Lights even allow an LVSportsBiz.com writer to bring his bicycle into their offices.

 

Hsieh, who dislikes the rigid corporate world culture immensely, has stayed away from investing dollars in professional sports, choosing instead to underwrite his $350 million Downtown Project revitalization initiative to transform a blighted section of downtown into a hub for entrepreneurs. Downtown Project has had mixed results, but people generally believe it has economically improved a stretch of the Fremont Street corridor east of Fremont Street Experience.

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh does not like the corporate world’s corporate rigid work structure — and that made Zappos’ outside-the-box style a sponsor match for the Las Vegas Lights FC.

 

LVSportsBiz.com contacted Zappos’ Becker for this story to find out why Zappos wanted to partner with the Lights. We submitted questions via email and received no response. LVSportsBiz.com also met Becker at a Feb. 7 event at Zappos where the Lights unveiled its jersey and Becker told us he would send answers. But LVSportsBiz.com received no response. But that didn’t stop LVSportsBiz.com from reporting this story.

 

The front of the Lights’ jersey features the Zappos logo very prominently. In fact, a Zappos worker designed the jersey. It’s no surprise that’s fans have told LVSportsBiz.com the Lights’ blue, yellow and pink colors on the black background soccer jersey have given the team jerseys a rainbow-looking touch.

The Zappos logo is as big as the Lights logo on the jersey front. Photo credit: L.E. Baskow

 

Hsieh’s call center workers enjoy their organization’s priority of having a good time and partying — which is exactly how Lashbrook markets the Lights games. The team owner implores locals to enjoy the downtown party at soccer games. It worked last Saturday when more than 10,000 fans packed Cashman for the sellout.

When a llama is at your event, you know Zappos is involved.

 

Hsieh’s llamas visited the Zappos tailgate party before the game last week when the Lights lost to the MLS Montreal Impact, 2-0.

Last week’s game. Photo credit: Erik Jon Ricardo/LVSportsBiz.com

 

Over at Zappos headquarters, the online retailer sells the Lights jersey for $80 in its lobby retail store, while the shop also sells other Lights licensed gear from scarfs to ball caps.

 

And when you go online to buy a Lights shirt on the team’s website, it transfers you to the Zappos online retail site.

 

The Lights also have a colorful, expressive coach — Mexican Jose Luis Sanchez Sola, known by the nickname Chelis. He fits in well with the Lights’ out-of-the-box approach and is known for his funny quips and brutally honest observations. And just so you know, he doesn’t appreciate you photographing him when he smokes a cigarette during practices.

Zappos coach Chelis wears the Zappos-marked shirt during a practice. Photo credit: Daniel Clark/LVSportsBiz.com

 

The Lights tonight play game two of its three-game preseason schedule with a match against the Vancouver Whitecaps 8 p.m. at Cashman Field. The 34-game United Soccer League regular season begins March 17, while the regular season home-opener is March 24 when Reno 1868 FC visits Cashman.

 

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Follow LVSportsBiz.com on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Contact LVSportsBiz.com founder/writer Alan Snel at asnel@LVSportsBiz.com 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alan Snel: Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com. Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle. In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com. After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent. Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.
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