The Time Sons Of Anarchy Took Their Merch To The Next Level
You know a TV series is truly popular when its merchandise arguably saved a company that has been around over 100 years. This is exactly what one of the stars of FX's "Sons of Anarchy," Mark Boone Junior, proudly announced regarding the show's connection to the world-famous motorcycle brand, Harley-Davidson. Even though the talented actor may have exaggerated the show's actual effect, there's no doubt sales rose after the series took off. Whether it saved the company or not, Harley-Davidson took advantage of the attention by collaborating with "Sons of Anarchy" to take the show's merchandise to the next level.
Around this time, the series was hitting its prime and bringing in 5.5 million viewers per episode, the most in the network's history. It didn't take long before the powers-that-be locked onto a marketing strategy created for the show's most loyal fans. "It was a unique strategy," Jeffrey Godsick, President of 20th Century Fox Consumer Products, told the Hollywood Reporter. "They range from the show's fan base to people who just like the counter-culture biker attitude to people who are weekend bikers." This deal led to the release of 100 "Sons of Anarchy" motorcycles for fans to purchase at $25,000 each. These "Special Edition" bikes were first introduced to the public in 2012 at the world's largest motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota.
Speeding past hats and T-shirts
As with any TV show as popular as "Sons of Anarchy" was, any merchandise associated with the series has a chance to be a hot-selling item. Up until 2012, the offerings mostly consisted of simply hats, stationary, games and more. But as Harley-Davidson motorcycles were the vehicle of choice for the members of SAMCRO, it's not surprising that the classic motorcycle company saw an opportunity to cash in. Harley saw a rise in its stock price between 2009 and 2014, with the show's popularity a contributing factor. Mark Boone Junior told The Hollywood Reporter, "We basically saved Harley."
This new focus led to the production of the Harley-Davidson "Special Edition" models in 2012. The $25,000 price tag for the specially-made motorcycles actually pales in comparison to the most valuable bike featured on the series: Rusty Coones, who plays Quinn on the show, rode a Hellrazor valued at $90,000.
For fans that weren't ready for a full-size bike, 20th Century Fox Consumer Products also teamed with the Chinese company Maisto to produce a die-cast "Sons of Anarchy" bike. "We started the entire consumer products program as a way to reach the fan-based audience and as it grew we saw an opportunity to create products that related to the biker culture and the essence of the story ... As the audience has grown, so it has continued the evolution," said Jeffrey Godsick. Even a set of six of the miniature bikes can fetch a decent price on eBay.