BEST OF: #174: Tyrel Kirkham: Following Your Career Passion: A Journey in Pro Sports Marketing

FIRST AIRED 8/26/21

Tyrel Kirkham is the Vice President of Brand and Marketing Strategy at the Detroit Pistons. Before joining the Pistons in 2020, Tyrel ran different merchandising and venue services at staple organizations like my New York Mets, The Brooklyn Nets, and the Los Angeles Rams.

Beyond being a merchandising wizard who learned from the ground up how fans interact with teams from his days back in ticketing, Tyrel has developed an incredible intuition for brand building and shaping. At the Pistons, he works on campaigns that celebrate the rich history of Detroit, often alongside Superstars like Big Sean, who recently signed on as a Creative Director.

This Episode’s Heavy-hitters:

During his first internships, Tyrel would work 40-60 hours for the Mets for free, only to go home and earn a paycheck at his grandparent’s business. The moral of the story; do what you need to to get your foot in the door!

During his early days in ticketing and merchandising, Tyrel got precious first-hand experience by talking to fans about what they liked about the current merchandise and would pull materials from the field that they could sell as collectibles after the games.

One of Tyrel’s most fond and proud memories was the campaign he worked on with Biggie Smalls for the Brooklyn Nets, which he actually coordinated with some of Biggie’s family members and was determined to get right.

Through a partnership with Shopify, The Pistons formed Shop 313 where they will be picking 82 small merchandise businesses to promote as they would normally promote their own merchandise over 82 games.

Big Sean’s hands-on approach as Creative Director runs deep, his mother helps run his operation and Sean gets on call to discuss strategic direction at every step.

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