Sports Insight

C athy Pryor of Hibbett Sports made history in June when she officially began her three-year term as the National Sporting Goods Association's Chair of the Board of Directors. Pryor is the first woman to lead the NSGA Board since the Association was founded in 1929. She takes over for David Labbe of Kittery Trading Post, who will remain on the Board as Past Chairman. Pryor has been with AL-based Hibbett since 1988 and is the Senior Vice President of Store Operations. She took Hibbett from 25 to more than 1,100 stores across the United States. Pat Donnelley (Donnelley Sports) has been elected as Treasurer/Chairman-Elect and David Lynn (Dunham's Sports) and Mick Montgomery (Denver Athletic) were newly elected to three-year terms on the Board. n Cathy Pryor Elected First Female NSGA Board Chair; Two New Board Members Named sportsinsightmag.com July/August 2019 Sports Insight • 9 KRENZIEN, KRENZIEN & ASSOCIATES INC. the sporting goods professionals eight decades of excellent service! Please call us regarding representation in the Midwest, Pennsylvania, Texas & Mountain States. 425 Huehl Road, Bldg. 1 Northbrook, IL 60062 P: (847) 498-0400 F: (847) 498-0449 Skype: ron.isaacskka ronisaacs@krenzien.com SFIA Tabs Future Industry Leaders T he Sports & Fitness Industr y Association (SFIA) has announced the winners of the 7th annual Future Industry Leaders Scholarship Program. e 2019 scholarship has been awarded to Tommy Acchione (Engineering Manager, STX), Brian Dietrich (Coordinator of Marketing & Sales, Rapsodo), Kelsey Ping (Marketing Operations Manager, Riddell), Susan Riley (Director of Brand Marketing, BSN Sports), Hewan Teshome (Corporate Counsel, VICIS) and Matthew Weiss (Director of Marketing, Retail, Events & Sports Marketing, Brooks Running). e program rewards young, hard-working individuals in sports and fitness, who aspire to lead future generations of business executives in the industry. e scholars receive com- plimentary access to SFIA's annual Industry Leaders Summit, where they are recognized and applauded for their dedication to the world of sports and fitness. is year, the summit will be held in Baltimore, Maryland on September 25–26. n IN THE MARKET W ilson Sporting Goods is the lead sponsor and a partner of a game-changing new non profit organization called RecycleBalls. RecycleBalls, a VT-based organization, makes it easy for tennis facilities and tennis players around the country to collect, recycle, and reuse their tennis balls. RecycleBalls, whose mission is to recycle and reuse all tennis balls nationwide, provides its partner facilities with free recycling bins which, once full, get shipped to RecycleBalls at no cost. Each day, RecycleBalls receives a UPS de- livery of a pallet or two of recycling bins, each of which contains 24 bins, or 4,800 tennis balls at his 9,000-square-foot warehouse. Once the tennis balls arrive at RecycleBalls, an innovative PLAY IT GREEN machine separates the com- ponents of the ball, removing 99 percent of the felt from tennis balls at the rate of 8,000 balls per hour. The resulting crumb rubber product called GREEN GOLD, can be used for a variety of applications, including Laykold tennis courts, and rubber form sign bases. Green Gold may also be used as a natural pebble rubber mulch for playgrounds and, potentially, equestrian arena surfaces. The patent-pending PLAY IT GREEN machine was installed after two years of R&D. In just three years, RecycleBalls has built a nationwide network to more than 1,000 partners from nearly every state. n RecycleBalls Changes the Game with Wilson

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