Business Opportunities Weblog

August 18, 2006 by Rich Whittle | 1 Comment

KnoxNews:

When the Providence Grays formed in 1998 in Rhode Island, replica 19th-century baseball equipment was hard to find. For a while the team even made its own baseballs, winding the yarn by hand and stitching on the cover.

But that has changed.

Over the past decade, the growth of vintage baseball – in which players reenact the look, feel and sound of 19th-century baseball has given birth to several niche businesses.

K&P Weaver and the Vintage Base Ball Factory are two of those businesses.

About 12 years ago, Ken and Paula Weaver started working out of their home making uniforms for Civil War reenactors. A couple of years later, they went to a vintage baseball game, and a new product line was born.

K&P Weaver now makes four styles of 1800s uniforms and has expanded into replica balls and bats. The Weavers started with about 30 to 40 teams, and today supply about 70 teams from around the country, as far away as California and Florida.

Greg Martin founder of Vintage Base Ball Factory has taken more of a mass-production approach. About half to two-thirds of his business deals with supplying about 100 vintage baseball teams. Uniforms, for collectors or players, are the bulk of his business.

Martin thinks vintage baseball is only going to keep growing. “It’s considered a niche industry, but it’s got a lot of growth potential,” he says. “I think the opportunity is there for 2,000 to 5,000 teams.”

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Tags: Startup