NECESSITY BREEDS INNOVATION
Baseball gear makers responded quickly to the shutdown of team baseball because of the coronavirus pandemic in spring 2020. Instead of simply hunkering down and pushing off product launches, they re-energized their connections to the baseball community, refocused their efforts on creating an improved core line of products and rethought the way products came to market.
With a baseball community largely held captive by quarantines, companies increased interactive opportunities, launched online discussions and shows with the game’s stars and influencers, developed training tips, pivoted to support players of all ages and even worked to create personal protective equipment to help healthcare workers.
Then, as players returned to the diamond, those updated products came with them, showing a purposeful approach to creating a library of gear with excess stripped away to provide baseball players what they needed in 2020: a chance to play.
CONNECTING WITH COMMUNITY
With baseball still in the minds of players across the country, even if tournaments and games were cancelled, it allowed companies like Easton and Baseball Lifestyle 101 to bring together a community of ballplayers.
From Delino DeShields Jr. to Justin Turner and so many more, Easton built connections by offering a home on its social media channels for a “Stay Ready” campaign that encouraged video and conversation about baseball and softball.
For Baseball Lifestyle 101, connecting with baseball culture was already part and parcel. But the pandemic really pushed forward what founder Josh Shapiro calls a movement.
With roughly 500,000 followers across social media, BL 101 has a sweetspot demographic of baseball fans aged 13 to 18 with more followers than 90% of Major League Baseball players and 90% of MLB teams. That means that when the pandemic hit, upping the entirely clean, family-friendly content to daily creation allowed BL 101 to bring in relevant players so young fans could hear directly from the people they wanted to see.
“It started out as one thing and really in an unexpected way has taken a lot of directions,” said Austin Hurwitz, vice president of marketing and e-commerce. “It is about keeping conversations
