A Sports Fan Remembers the Sears Wish Book
Looking Back at the Awesomeness of the Sears Christmas Catalog
The Wish Book - A Brief History
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go. And the Christmas season always reminds me of the Sears Christmas Wish Book. If you can imagine a world without the internet, without 24-hour sports news, and without at least 3 sporting goods stores in every shopping mall, then perhaps you can begin to understand the importance of the Sears Wish Book to young sports fans of its day.
Although Sears began issuing a Christmas catalog in 1933, it wasn't until 1968 that it was renamed The Wish Book. This move made official the terminology already used by the millions of Americans who viewed the Sears catalog as that day’s equivalent of Amazon. Millions of Americans just like my grandparents. My grandparents lived in a small town in South Carolina where the nearest shopping mall was over an hour away. Not that they would have gone if it were any closer. No, my grandparents were ardent supporters of Sears. In those days, many small towns like theirs had a Sears Catalog Store, which was a small store that had a few everyday items and a limited selection of larger items for display, but mostly existed as a place for customers to order items from the catalog.
So as a child, every year on Thanksgiving Day, right after dinner was done and my uncles were all falling asleep to NFL action, I had the pleasure of opening the Sears Wish Book and preparing my list for Santa. With the fervor of my fictional ancestor Ralphie Parker from A Christmas Story, I'd pore over the catalog, debating which items were list-worthy.
At the height of its popularity, the Christmas catalog could easily top 600 pages, with over 250 pages of toys, so the debate was not to be taken lightly. As I look back now, through the twinkling lights of so many Christmases, I realize that those post-turkey jaunts through the Wish Book gave me perhaps my first glimpses of appreciation for sports logos, branding, and sports imagery. In other words, I can make a direct connection between the Sears Christmas Wish Book and why I'm now writing Beauty of a Game.
Before the 1960s - Go Outside and Play
Prior to the 1960s, sports apparel was virtually nonexistent in the yearly catalogs. The sole items of interest to baseball and football fans during these years were usually the equipment used to actually play the games. Full color pages of football uniform sets sit alongside black and white pages of baseball bats, balls, and gloves.
These scant pages often fell between everything from fishing reels to badminton and croquet sets. It’s interesting to note that football uniforms of that day were described as being just like “his favorite college and pro stars” wear, a subtle reminder that this was a time when, for many parts of the country, the collegiate game was as popular as the professional game. One brief exception to the lack of logo apparel is this youth’s pajama set, from the 1958 Wish Book, featuring “Woven All American emblem plus 6 woven professional team emblems on chest”. It’s difficult to make out which logos adorn the PJs, but the pajama set is an indication of things to come, as children’s wear will play a pivotal role in the next couple of decades.
The 1960s - The Pros Start Taking Over
In many ways, the 1960s were a decade of profound change, and the Wish Book is no exception. While we don’t see the explosion of officially licensed apparel still to come, the decade is notable for a few reasons. The first is that youth football uniforms begin to be accompanied by copy promoting “Pro styling” and “that real Pro-Look”, as the heated battle between the NFL and the AFL helped the professional game to begin overtaking the college game in terms of popularity on a national level.
It’s also during the ’60s that we begin to see licensed electric football games, so that rather than generic players, sets come with team logos adorning the field and players in various team colors. The 1969 Wish Book even offers a “Super Bowl Electric Football” game featuring Jets and Colts players, hoping to cash in on that year’s Joe Namath-guaranteed championship. 1969 also gives us our first taste of licensed apparel - youth NFL sweatshirts that come with a 24” x 36” illustrated action poster.
The 1970s - What Can We Put Our Logo On?
The decade of the 1970s has been called the “Me” decade, but anyone looking at the Sears Wish Book would likely refer to it as the NFL Decade. During the ‘70s, the total amount of licensed apparel and accessories for all major sports seemingly grew year over year. But while other sports leagues only dipped their toes into the shallow end of the waters of licensing, the National Football League did a cannonball into the deep end, putting their team’s logos, players, and colors on a staggering array of items.
The ’70s began much like the ’60s ended, with youth football uniforms, electric games, and a slightly increased offering of NFL-licensed items, primarily aimed at the youth market. Included in these items were NFL zippered hoodies, sweatshirts, and two items destined to become hallmarks of Wish Books for the next two decades - pajama sets and jackets with matching knitted caps.
The rest of the ‘70s saw occasional licensed offerings from other sports, including MLB logo gloves (1971) and clocks (1977), NHL sweatshirts and caps (1971) NBA carry-alls (1975) and collegiate carry-alls (1977) alongside their NFL counterparts. However, most often these items were only offered in select teams, not the full complement of league teams.
While other leagues slowly explored the benefits of licensing, the NFL took the exact opposite approach, putting its logo on just about anything. The league continually experimented to find out just how big America’s appetite for football merchandise was. By the end of the decade, NFL team logos could be found on everything from trash cans, bedding, and lunch boxes to shoes. In 1979, the league debuted officially licensed action figures, no doubt hoping to capitalize on the relatively new popularity of action figures resulting from the first Star Wars movie. While the Wish Book only names teams, not individual players, it’s apparent through the numbering on the jerseys that star players were represented. Perhaps the boldest move by the league was the 1979 debut of the NFL bike. Adorned in official team logos and colors, the bike was similar in style to motocross bicycles of the time, as BMX racing was beginning a wave of popularity that would peak in the mid 1980s.
The 1980s - Not Just for Kids Anymore
In the 1980s the theme of NFL domination of page count in the Wish Book continued. Although other leagues stepped up their presence, MLB, NBA and NHL teams still trailed the NFL in terms of their licensed merchandise offerings. The ‘80s even saw soccer make an appearance as the North American Soccer League offered team bag and ball sets in 1982.
Although football remained the top draw for Sears customers, this is not to say that the decade was without change. Perhaps the biggest was that logo merchandise was no longer solely aimed at youth. Although children and teens were still the primary target, with pajamas, jackets and sweatshirts anchoring the product line, team logos could now be seen on an increasing amount of clothing for adults. To help sell NFL merchandise to adults Sears enlisted the help of San Francisco 49ers QB Joe Montana, modeling branded sportswear in the 1982 Wish Book. In the 1986 catalog, Chicago Bears RB Walter Payton is shown modeling an NFL sweater, replicating the look made famous that year by head coach Mike Ditka and the rotating cast of Saturday Night Live’s infamous “Da Bears!” skits.
Another change during the 1980s was the rise in popularity of sports trading cards. As the mania around baseball, football, and basketball cards grew, Sears was quick to capitalize and each year saw a greater offering of cards and related memorabilia. Initially confined to “card collecting sets”, usually featuring a handful of out-of-print cards, some plastic card pages plus 3-ring binder, and a crude price guide, by the end of the decade cards would take up a couple of pages and have their own section header.
The decade also saw the beginnings of branded tie-ins, with team logos appearing on merchandise from other name brands. Examples of these collaborations include NBA Converse high tops (1989) and NFL sweatsuits featuring the popular “Peanuts” character Snoopy (1988). A personal favorite is the 1989 introduction of NFL pajamas featuring team mascot caricatures by legendary artist Jack Davis, of MAD Magazine fame.
The 1990s - the End
The Wish Book continued largely along these lines into the 1990s. Sadly, in the mid-90s, as consumer shopping habits changed and online buying was beginning its attack on traditional forms of sales, Sears discontinued the Christmas Wish Book. Various attempts at replicating it, both digitally and physically, have been made over the ensuing years, but none of them have seemed to grab the magic of those wonderful catalogs of the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s.
While the story of those Wish Books is largely a study in the rise of the NFL as America’s most popular spectator sport, it begs the question: was the merchandise a response to the sport’s growing popularity, or was the increased popularity a response to all that great merchandise?
So happy to see electric football. I had a friend who was really into it and ran a whole league. He had all the teams and even did painting on his own. I at least participated in one whole season and it was a ball.
Great research, and cool nostalgia.
It also reminds me of the tragedy that happened to Sears. Like you state, their catalog had significant cultural power. And they had a nationwide shipping/customer infrastructure. Sears could've been Amazon, but their leadership didn't understand how powerful website ordering (and Wal-Mart) was gonna get in the 21st century. They clung to brick & mortar department stores, and became obsolete.
If you haven't seen it, there's a good history on how Sears built their catalog business, and how critical it was to America (especially isolated areas), 'Sears, Roebuck, USA'. It was published around 1977/78, so it doesn't get to Sears' demise, but is cool because it was authored during Sears' prime. Thanks again for this look back.