New Game

Long played mainly on the athletic fields of East Coast prep schools, lacrosse has made a big enough showing in other parts of the country for a Van Nuys company to take notice. Easton Sports this month began shipping to specialty stores and major retailers its first batch of lacrosse equipment, joining on shelves the baseball and hockey equipment that has made the company a well-known brand. In the company’s offices are display rooms filled with baseball bats and gloves and hockey sticks, masks and protective gears. Will lacrosse soon join them? “That’s what we are still figuring out,” said Chris Zimmerman, the president of Easton Sports. Lacrosse is the first new team sport that Easton has added in 25 years to its product line as it and parent company Easton-Bell Sports pursue new business. The company also opened a new helmet technology center in Northern California in 2010 and started other new business lines. Lacrosse is one of the fastest growing sports in the country. US Lacrosse, the governing body of the sport, puts the number of youth, high school, collegiate, post-collegiate and professional players at 568,000 in 2009, an 8 percent increase over 2008. Easton’s interest in the sport began more than a year ago, with the purchase of a small equipment manufacturer in Northern California, Talon Lacrosse. That company was founded by three former college lacrosse players who remain a part of the new division of Easton. Following the Talon acquisition came the development period of refining shafts (or sticks) and designing new equipment. This is where the expertise Easton has developed over the decades came into play and blending it with the passion and knowledge of lacrosse brought by the Talon founders. “Easton has always been a company of innovative materials and engineering expertise,” Zimmerman said. Various sports Location: Van Nuys CEO: Paul Harrington CORE OF BUSINESS: Privately held manufacturer of sporting equipment for baseball, softball, football, hockey, cycling, and lacrosse. Sells and markets the Bell, Giro Easton and Riddell names and owns the licensing rights for the MacGregor golf brand. A subsidiary of RBG Holdings. Revenues in 2010: $772.8 million Revenues in 2009: $716.3 million Revenues in 2008: $775.5 million Easton is part of Easton-Bell Sports, a $700 million company which has divisions that make equipment for football, cycling, and active winter sports. Its Riddell line is the official helmet of the NFL, while Bell started out making helmets for auto and motorcycle racing before turning to biking. After posting a net loss in 2009, the company rebounded with its earnings in 2010 with net income of $8.1 million. Both the team sports and action sports divisions had increases in sales over 2009, particularly with baseball and softball bats, a new line of hockey sticks, and strong fill-in orders for snow sports helmets and goggles. While lacrosse may be the new team sport on the block it is not the only advancement the company has made in pursuing new business. In 2010, Easton-Bell opened its EBS Helmet Technology Center in Scotts Valley in Northern California. Nicknamed “the Dome,” the center designs and tests state of the art helmet technology. “We plan to take advantage of this facility to improve head protection for our athletes and consumers and grow our approximately $250 million global helmet business,” company President and CEO Paul Harrington said in a conference call in November when discussing third quarter financials. Other introductions in the last year are e-commerce for baseball and softball equipment sales; going live with Giro.com for the snow and bike business; the new Riddell 360-degree helmet with enhanced protection features; and a new line of Synergy hockey protective gear. Harrington is a new face to the company, having been hired in 2008 as chief executive. Zimmerman is approaching a year as head of Easton Sports after having worked for Nike, Nike Bauer Hockey, and as president and CEO of the Vancouver Canucks NHL team. Re-energizing brand The goal Zimmerman has set out to accomplish is re-energizing the Easton brand. To him that means creating products to perform better and fulfill the potential of players and athletes at all levels. Putting some new life in the Easton brand takes more than just engineering and better materials. There needs to be an element of good storytelling added in and that is what creates companies that win. While Easton-Bell had already entered the lacrosse business before Zimmerman was hired, he fits well with the strategy in that he played the sport while in high school. In college he played hockey. In fact, in discussing the spreading popularity of lacrosse Zimmerman points out there is an overlap in states where hockey is also popular, such as Michigan and Minnesota. The appeal in the game, which has been played in some form for centuries, is its fast pace and the subculture that has grown around it, Zimmerman said. “There is a free spiritedness about it and that fits in with what youth look for in a sport,” Zimmerman said. See related stories in Manufacturing >