Rawlings keeps up with baseball's growth spurt
Rawlings has kept up with baseball's growth spurt in Canada including some grandparents who place a new glove in their grand child's crib .... a tradition he first saw in the Dominican Republic.
Brantford Ont. _ Rawlings Canada is re-investing back into baseball and softball at a grassroots level.
Rawlings has taken a new approach to building its business in Canada. The diamond sports category is seeing a major increase in participation numbers and Rawlings wants to help continue this trend by investing into the grassroots of Canadian sports.
It’s no secret the success of the Toronto Blue Jays has re-ignited the love of diamond sports to households across the country. Every night, we all sit and watch, listen or even get updates on what’s happening with the Jays.
Over the past three years this re-kindled love of baseball and softball has shown in participation numbers across Canada to a point where some municipalities are changing over or building more sports fields for baseball and softball to keep up with the growing demand.
“We took it upon ourselves to analyze our promotional spending in Canada and figure out how we could maximize our investment to help enhance the initiatives our partners are rolling out,” said Randy Beatty, Canadian General Manager for Rawlings Sports Canada. “Growing our sports is healthy for the entire country and getting more people playing ball is great for Canada.”
With major long-term partnerships with Baseball Canada, Softball Canada, and Slo-Pitch National, Rawlings has invested huge back into the youth and grassroots of this country in-order to stabilize this growth for years to come.
It all starts at the top with Baseball Canada, Softball Canada and Slo-Pitch National. They develop LTAD programs for the entire country and they work the provincial and local levels to roll them out.
“We attend a lot of meetings and work very closely with the National bodies to ensure we are all working towards similar goals,” said Jason Shipley, Canadian Business Unit Manager for Rawlings Canada.
By investing not only at the National level but also provincially Rawlings has been able to maximize the funding getting to the grassroots and helping players across the country.
Rawlings currently has a grassroots partnership with the following provincial baseball organizations:
Baseball BC, Baseball Alberta, Baseball Saskatchewan, Baseball Manitoba, Baseball Ontario, Baseball Quebec, Baseball New Brunswick, Baseball Nova Scotia, Baseball Newfoundland and Baseball PEI.
Rawlings currently has a grassroots partnership with the following provincial softball organizations:
Even the cool kids are wearing Rawlings kids more so than Big Shaun hoodies.
Softball BC, Softball Alberta, Softball Saskatchewan, Softball Manitoba, Softball Ontario, Provincial Women’s Softball, Softball Quebec, Softball New Brunswick, Softball Nova Scotia, Softball PEI and Softball Newfoundland.
The investment into Canada’s development has always been on top of mind but for six plus months of the year parts of Canada is covered in snow. Over five years ago Rawlings started to see a trend of players, leagues and teams moving indoors and turning baseball into a 12-month sport.
Great partnerships across the country with elite indoor diamond sports facilities has given athletes a place to play and a new marketplace for Rawlings consumers. “We are very proud of our partnerships with the indoor facilities,” Shipley said. “Having stabile, safe places for players to train, workout and enhance their skills has led to better players coming from Canada.”
Shipley said the numbers are beginning to show as well as more and more elite youth baseball and softball teams in Canada your seeing more talent play at a collegiate level either in the USA or at a Rawlings Partner School like University of British Columbia.
Grassroots development is hard work without strong relationships and solid alliances. Partnerships with the Toronto Blue Jays and their Jays Care Foundation are examples of how two business can work together to create a good thing… This program effects approx. 5000-6000 kids a year and has proven hugely successful across the country.
With the Olympics coming in 2020 and both baseball and softball back in the games the growth of these sports couldn’t happen at a better time.
Rawlings is the Official Ball, Helmet, Bat and Bag of the Canadian National Team and is a proud member of the Softball Canada Supplier Pool and supplies both men’s and women’s national teams with various products.
It’s a proven fact that playing on a team is good for your spirit. It creates a social setting for everybody involved alongside promoting a healthy lifestyle. It doesn’t matter if you’re a pro or a beginner there is always a place for you on a ball field.