Team Insight

END ZONE 34 • Team Insight ~ January/February 2025 teaminsightmag.com Troy Leonard Joins Team Insight Sales Team As Formula 4 Media, the publishers of Team Insight, celebrates its 20th anniversary, we are excited to welcome back Troy Leonard, one of the founding partners of the company, in the role of senior account manager for Team Insight, Footwear Insight, run- style and sportstyle. Leonard is the former owner and president of Leonard Marketing & Media (a pro- fessional sales representative agency specializing in trade shows, consumer events, sports marketing and media sales), and most recently the own- er-operator of TLL Ventures, DBA Discount Daze New & Consigned Furniture. Leonard has stacked up an impressive resume over the past 30-plus years, but he says that he is most proud of the work he did at Formula4Media, LLC where he was a business partner and co-founder of e Running Event (TRE) and publisher of Running Insight magazine. Leonard will continue to work out of his office in Ocala, FL and can be reached at 352- 207-2347 or email at tleonard@ formula4media.com. Schutt Partners With Guardian Certor Sports, the parent company of the Schutt and Vicis football helmet brands, and Guardian Sports, the maker of the Guardian Cap, have inked a strategic alliance aligned with a "shared passion for safety and providing protec- tive performance to all football players through advanced technologies and continued innovation." "Certor Sports admires and appreciates any company who is committed to developing protective technologies, and Guardian Sports is clearly in this category. While we remain highly confident in our indus- try-leading Schutt and Vicis helmet technologies, we fully support any player, parent or coach who chooses to utilize the Guardian Cap additional protective device to further their confidence in the safety of the sport," explains Jeremy Erspamer, president and CEO, Certor Sports. Obit: Jeff Miller Jeff Miller, who was instru- mental in the growth of family owned team dealer Scholastic Sports Sales in Manlius, NY, and served on the NSGA Board of Directors, unexpectedly passed away on December 19, 2024. Miller was 69. Miller owned Scholastic Sports Sales, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in April and is in its third generation of family ownership. Jeff Miller's parents Harvey and Nancy started Scholastic Sports Sales in the family's garage in Cazenovia, NY, in 1974. e business grew into one of the country's most respected team dealers and moved into a 25,000-square- foot facility in Manlius, but it remained a family affair with Jeff 's wife Wendy (accounts payable) and their sons Justin, Josh (VP-sales) and Matt (numbering department man- ager) in significant roles. Miller is survived by Wendy, his sons Joshua (Kate Rayburn), Matthew (Amy Hyatt) and Justin; his father Harvey; siblings Tom, Karol Toole and Dave and four grandchildren. Starter In Uniforms A key sporting goods brand from the heyday of licensed products is back in the team sports business as Starter has announced the launch of a custom uniform business called Team Starter. According to the company, the brand will provide "high-quality, custom sports uniforms for teams, offering a seamless design and ordering experience tai- lored to athletes, coaches and organizations." Team Starter will initially cater to a range of sports, including men's and women's basketball, baseball, soball, men's lacrosse, wom- en's volleyball, and women's utility. Team Starter will also offer an online uniform builder that will allow users to customize uniforms. S&S Taps Levin S&S Activewear, a tech-en- abled distributor of apparel and accessories in the U.S. and Canada, has appointed industry veteran Eric Levin as general manager of its newly designated Prime Line Hard Goods division. As GM, Levin is responsible for leading a dedicated divi- sion focused on hard goods, leveraging his experience in the promotional products industry. A specialized sales team de- voted to hard goods will report directly to Levin as he works closely with the executive team at S&S and Alphabroder to shape the division's strategic and organizational design. n New PHIT Center Opens PHIT America, a nonprofit providing solu- tions to end the inactivity pandemic among America's youth, in collaboration with the Brownsville (TX) Independent School District opened an innovative fitness facility – the first ever PHIT Center – at the Garden Park Elementary School in January. Deemed the "future of physical education," PHIT Center and related programs from PHIT America currently serve 31 public schools in a city found to be the "Most Unhealthy City in America" (2023 & 2024). PHIT America collaborated with school officials and the mayor to develop the Brownsville Healthy Kids Campaign to turn the tide of this dismal statistic. The PHIT center is a 150 X 90-foot open- air facility that gets up to 60 kids moving and having fun with music while learning 10 different sports and fitness skills, from soccer to pickleball and running. Kids move around the facility in a circuit training fashion with the goal of building healthier, happier and more academically engaged students. Students will learn basic skills for pickle- ball, tennis, golf, soccer, running, walking, including hand-eye coordination using Billie Jean King's Eye Coach and four fitness stations -- a new way to introduce kids to lifetime sport skills to a lifetime of good health. Students will be able to use the PHIT Center before and after school, in physical education and for recess. The facility plans to be open to the community for free on the weekends. Jim Baugh, former president of Wilson Sporting Goods and a lifelong advocate of physical activity, founded the organiza- tion 10 years ago realizing that the key to reversing the alarming decline of physical and mental health among America's chil- dren requires going to where they spend a majority of their time: school. Nearly 50 percent of America's public schools have cut P.E. (physical education) classes and many have cut recess altogether. "America has failed our kids, PHIT America is fixing it," says Baugh. PHIT America's goal is to eventually have PHIT Centers in every major community in the country. n

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