Team Insight

INTERVIEW Team Insight: A Century of Sports is a long time — more than most other companies. To what do you attribute this longevity? Laura St. George: From inception, the foundation of Gared has been based on innovative approaches to improve the performance of sports equipment, ultimately creating an optimal and safe play experience for athletes, coaches, facility managers and spectators. Sports equipment is the backdrop for thrilling, inspirational and devastating stories of athletic performance. As such, providing quality product that allows athletes the premier environment for success has allowed Gared to be part of the story. Go ahead and give us the "elevator pitch" on who Gared is headed into 2023. Gared is focused on further implementation of our mission statement — Activate spaces with quality sports equipment. Elevate the sporting experience by matching equipment needs to the level of play of the athlete, fiscal requirements and playscape. Celebrate the impact that sports have on communities and youth. You continue to follow the guiding principles of your founder. Please explain how that impacts your way of doing business. Passion for sport and the athlete's experience was the established as the measurement of success for Mr. Sandeberg a century ago. rough the decades, Gared has continued to build on this solid principle, leading to continued innovations that have improved the standards of the games. How does that translate into your products? We continue to create product and provide services to sporting market focused on creating optimal athletic experiences for participants of all ages. Does it include expanding beyond your core product? While Gared's core equipment focus continues to be on the sport of basketball, we continue to expand our footprint into volleyball, soccer, football, gymnasium, pickleball and net sport markets. We use the manufacturing standards established through the years as the base for constant innovation with focus on safety and exceeding performance standards. Was there a certain turning point that allowed for the continued success of Gared? ere is a Michael Jordan quote that says a lot about how we approach our business: "You have competition every day because you set such high standards for yourself that you have to go out every day and live up to that." Explain that for us. Gared's legacy has set expectations for forward-thinking thought leadership. e turning points of our history are based on the demands of the athletes interacting with our equipment. As sports have become more accessible to active individuals of all ages and skill, the demand as an innovator increases. Whenever equipment does not meet the demands of premier athletes, Gared has used the opportunity to catapult into the next phase of the brand evolution and growth. Gared has gone through some consolidation and relocation in recent years. How has that impacted your dealings with the team sports business? Gared formally relocated our manufacturing facility from St. Louis, MO, to Indiana in 2002, followed by transforming our sales workforce to remote practice in 2013. e footprint of our manufacturing facility in Noblesville, IN, has quadrupled in size in over the past 20 years. Additionally, our onsite 31 • Team Insight ~ November/December 2022 teaminsightmag.com LAURA ST. GEORGE VP, Gared and EVP/Managing Member, Gared Holdings ONE-ON-ONE WITH... In a milestone rarely reached by any companies, team sports equipment supplier Gared has been celebrating its 100th anniversary throughout 2022. To mark the occasion, Team Insight sat down with Laura St. George, VP at Gared and Executive VP and Managing Member of Gared Holdings, to talk about the history of the company, how it lives up to the policies of its founders, its role in team sports in 2022 and where the company is headed in 2023.

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