The sporting goods market is incredibly competitive. No matter what specific products you manufacture or what specific sector you operate in, you face intense pressure to differentiate your products from your competitors and keep your customers coming back for more.

But how can companies in the sporting goods industry gain a competitive edge? Before the last few years, the only way to stay cost-competitive was to offshore all manufacturing to low-cost (and often low-quality) companies overseas. This solution, however, can create many problems of its own, especially when it comes to distribution issues, supply chain delays, high setup costs, communication barriers, and more.

Instead of offshoring your manufacturing, there’s a better way for sporting goods companies to gain a competitive edge: creating higher-performing composite solutions and producing them stateside. In this blog post, we’ll explore the advantages of thermoplastic composites for sporting goods products, and how you can leverage domestic production to stay one step ahead of your competitors.

Advantages of thermoplastic composites for sporting goods

Continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites offer significant advantages such as durability and impact performance. The bottom line? Composite manufacturing results in lighter sporting good components with much higher performance at a competitive cost.

Re:Build Oribi’s composite manufacturing solutions can be applied to a wide variety of sporting goods products, including climbing helmets, protective helmets, hockey sticks, lacrosse sticks, wheels, oars, decks, and more. Thermoplastics are:

  • Tough: Thermoplastics are highly durable and resistant to in-service wear and tear, improving the reliability and longevity of your products. This makes thermoplastics especially appropriate for products like hockey and lacrosse sticks.

  • Vibration dampening: Thermoplastics provide excellent vibration-dampening properties, leading to better product performance and user experience.

  • Lightweight: Lighter structures allow athletes to go faster, further, and longer. Thermoplastics can optimize performance and minimize fatigue.

  • Recyclable: Unlike traditional materials, composite solutions are recyclable and contribute to a more sustainable supply chain.

Cost and efficiency of composite manufacturing

Why have sporting goods companies not already adopted thermoplastic composite solutions? Until recently, the technology did not exist for efficient mass production of composites, making them prohibitively expensive for most industries.

Now, however, Re:Build Oribi Composites has mastered the art of high-volume composite sporting goods manufacturing, allowing us to create thermoplastics at a cost that is competitive with traditional materials. Through our innovative and highly automated manufacturing processes, we’ve unlocked the potential to manufacture cost-effective composite sporting goods that radically outperform traditional materials.

Transitioning to domestic production

Re:Build Oribi Composites’ advances in composite technology and manufacturing make it possible to mass-produce composite sporting goods domestically, meaning no more offshore manufacturing. With global turbulence and frequent supply chain disruptions, this means you’ll be better able to deliver excellent solutions to your customers: on time, every time.

And our expert team is here to help: from material selection to production, we tailor our process to meet your needs, without the high prices typically associated with composite manufacturing. We’ve worked with dozens of sporting goods companies to transform their product offerings and smoothly transition production back to the United States.

To learn more, get in touch today!