In the colors of football, rugby, cycling and even skiing, their posters find more and more walls to display. The number of orders increases. Their printer, at the port of Nice, is running at full speed. And, in the apartment they still occupy for a few days, on the ground floor of a residence in the Liberation district, the walls would soon have had to be pushed. Behind the computers where graphic design software purrs and the space for inserting, the room fitted out to accommodate their stock is overflowing. “And we haven’t really stocked up for Christmas yet.” At this time of the year, there are really everywhere”, say Thomas and Léonard Mercier.
Fortunately, these two brothers from Nice aged 33 and 30, at the head of sports on display, will move to rue Voltaire, right in the center of Nice, at the beginning of November. They need space. Created a little over two years ago, their small wall decoration company is moving up to the first division. Since this year, the PSG, France Rugby, or the Alpine F1 team have allowed them to use their brand.
Before that, they were already collaborating with Stade Rennais, Stade Toulousain and OGC Nice. “We are always working on new partnerships. Currently, it is with OL, notes Thomas Mercier. We would also like to do something with the NBA. The idea is to expand our offer to be able to work on all sports news, be reactive and offer posters according to the results”.
“Intellectual property and image rights”
A revolution for the start-up which today employs “three full-timers, three work-study students and one trainee”. “When we started working on our projects, the issue of intellectual property and image rights quickly became a hindrance. [ils utilisent des photos de sportifs sur lesquels ils « dessinent » à la tablette graphique]. We had to partner with these brands to have sufficient creative freedom,” continues the co-entrepreneur. With in return, a royalty to be paid and which varies between 10% and 20%, according to their interlocutors.
A must. Without the agreement of clubs or competition organizers, the use of jerseys or logos could have earned them some legal action. They passed between the drops. “At the end of 2021, we removed 50% of our catalog which was unlicensed and we focused on canvassing”, he explains again.
The “slightly handsome side” of sports-derived products
They also work directly with athletes: swimmer Alain Bernard and skier Antoine Dénériaz in particular. A nice deal, finally quite fast. It was not until 2019 that the idea of sports-themed posters budded in the heads of the two brothers. “We are passionate, especially football, and we did not really find ourselves in the offer of derivative products”, says Thomas Mercier again. “Apart from the swimsuits, the products offered have a slightly redneck side,” says Léonard.
The first, who had been working for a year in e-commerce, and his younger brother, a freelancer in the design of special effects for the cinema, finally embarked on the adventure during the first confinement, in the spring of 2020. I was looking for a side project, I wanted to set up my company and that inspired me. Very quickly. I very quickly had lots of ideas for graphics,” recalls Léonard Mercier. Their respective backgrounds allow them to easily claim leading roles. The youngest will be the creator of the story, his eldest will mainly take care of the business part.
In just over two years, they have created 300 posters and nearly 200 are currently on sale (from 29 to 39 euros) on their website, in the shops of the clubs concerned and in a network of gift shops made in France. And they are already thinking about the next step: offering their visuals on other media. “But always in quality, made in France if possible and without the kitsch effect”, they promise.