Adams? Schutt?

[SeeingEyeDog]

I see a lot of their gear is branded as both Adams and Schutt. Are there any fundamental differences between Adams gear and Schutt gear?

~Dog

[BT_Blue]

6 minutes ago, SeeingEyeDog said:

I see a lot of their gear is branded as both Adams and Schutt. Are there any fundamental differences between Adams gear and Schutt gear?

~Dog

No. Same company. As stated elsewhere. Schutt's major brand is their football gear. Adam's is the backup brand. So Schutt will be focusing on football. While everything else will  be done under Adams.

[JimKirk]

Good question. Adams (and Neumann) is a brand of Schutt. Schutt is moving all their officiating related gear/apparel away from the Schutt name to the Adams name.

Just noticed our only Schutt product has Adams on the CP. We need to change our reference: https://www.ump-attire.com/Baseball-Umpire-Equipment/Gear-Footwear/Chest-Protectors/XV-HDX_Schutt-XV-HDX-Umpire-Chest-Protector

It's just that everyone knows that as the "Schutt CP".
 

So for your purposes, Schutt = Adams and Adams = Schutt. There is also Neumann gloves in that family: https://www.ump-attire.com/Neumann-Officials-Gloves

[MadMax]

@JimKirk and @BT_Blue are correct, @SeeingEyeDog. Adams and Neumann are subsidiary brands under the Schutt parent brand. While some companies, in other technologies and industries, such as electronics or services strive to consolidate everything under one brand, carmakers, tool-makers, and indeed (in this case) gear manufacturers often have to create, prop-up, or redefine sub-brands to skirt around tariffs and marketing restrictions.

In Schutt’s case, their predominant products are in the football category. Various retail and wholesale outlets have restrictions on type and quantities they can carry and sell of a particular brand. So too, Schutt itself is restricted in how many units of Schutt -brand gear it can transport and import at such-and-such a regulated fee/tax. By splitting off the officials gear into a separate entity (Adams, in this case), Schutt can better maximize its production process for football and team sports gear, while making the officials gear more responsive and relative to market trends. 

I explain all this so we can better understand why certain companies (which I won’t name, but you can guess) make the decisions they do, and how some serve us (as umpires / customers) and some fail us. 

[BretMan]

And isn't Smitty a subsidiary of Adams? Keeping it all in the family!

[BT_Blue]

4 hours ago, BretMan said:

And isn't Smitty a subsidiary of Adams? Keeping it all in the family!

To quote the great philosopher, William Wonka. "Strike that, reverse it."

Smitty is the parent company. You can find the while breakdown in Max's post right above yours. 

[BretMan]

3 hours ago, BT_Blue said:

To quote the great philosopher, William Wonka. "Strike that, reverse it."

Smitty is the parent company. You can find the while breakdown in Max's post right above yours. 

 

I think that you misread what I wrote, and what Max wrote (and, yes, I had already read Max's post before posting).

I said "Smitty". Max's post doesn't mention the Smitty brand at all.

Smitty is the brand that sells umpire and sports official uniforms. Didn't they start out as a division of Adams?

[BT_Blue]

On 7/20/2020 at 10:08 AM, MadMax said:

Adams and Neumann are subsidiary brands under the Schutt parent brand.

@BretManhe does... first sentence.

And the Schutt brand's main focus is on football and team gear. So they split off the officials stuff to Adams.

[JimKirk]

6 hours ago, BretMan said:

 

I think that you misread what I wrote, and what Max wrote (and, yes, I had already read Max's post before posting).

I said "Smitty". Max's post doesn't mention the Smitty brand at all.

Smitty is the brand that sells umpire and sports official uniforms. Didn't they start out as a division of Adams?

Smitty actually started out originally as the Smitty Lanyard Co. Smitty was the nickname of the owner with last name Smith who was a basketball official.

NBA referee (now retired) Joe Derosa bought them and kept the name, considering it was somewhat established, to develop a line around that.

Somewhere in there (circa 2012-2015?) Smitty private labeled products to Adams. (So you’d see “Adams by Smitty” on packaging/pics).

That ended, and even though you might see product out there with that still, Smitty and Adams no longer work together (even though Smitty is erroneously listed on one of Schutt or Adams site pages).

An interesting addition is that Joe started out as a retailer in Paducah, Kentucky called “Purchase Officials Supplies”. That area is called the “Purchase” area of KY, hence the name (not a verb).

Joe sold POS (not to be confused with Parsons Officials Supplies or +POS) to Pat Madine who moved it to Akron, Ohio. (Very good guy & good/fair competitor BTW.)

Confusing, I know.

 

[wolfe_man]

52 minutes ago, JimKirk said:

Smitty actually started out originally as the Smitty Lanyard Co. Smitty was the nickname of the owner with last name Smith who was a basketball official.

NBA referee (now retired) Joe Derosa bought them and kept the name, considering it was somewhat established, to develop a line around that.

Somewhere in there (circa 2012-2015?) Smitty private labeled products to Adams. (So you’d see “Adams by Smitty” on packaging/pics).

That ended, and even though you might see product out there with that still, Smitty and Adams no longer work together (even though Smitty is erroneously listed on one of Schutt or Adams site pages).

An interesting addition is that Joe started out as a retailer in Paducah, Kentucky called “Purchase Officials Supplies”. That area is called the “Purchase” area of KY, hence the name (not a verb).

Joe sold POS (not to be confused with Parsons Officials Supplies or +POS) to Pat Madine who moved it to Akron, Ohio. (Very good guy & good/fair competitor BTW.)

Confusing, I know.

 

I work with Pat's dad.   I had an umpire shirt on one day (OHSAA umpire logo t-shirt) and Pat's dad saw it and started talking to me about officiating. The conversation eventually got around to his son owning Purchase Officials in Akron.  It's a small world. 

[BT_Blue]

18 hours ago, BretMan said:

And isn't Smitty a subsidiary of Adams? Keeping it all in the family!

My bad. I didnt realize you wrote Smitty.

[stevis]

6 hours ago, JimKirk said:

Smitty actually started out originally as the Smitty Lanyard Co. Smitty was the nickname of the owner with last name Smith who was a basketball official.

NBA referee (now retired) Joe Derosa bought them and kept the name, considering it was somewhat established, to develop a line around that.

Somewhere in there (circa 2012-2015?) Smitty private labeled products to Adams. (So you’d see “Adams by Smitty” on packaging/pics).

That ended, and even though you might see product out there with that still, Smitty and Adams no longer work together (even though Smitty is erroneously listed on one of Schutt or Adams site pages).

An interesting addition is that Joe started out as a retailer in Paducah, Kentucky called “Purchase Officials Supplies”. That area is called the “Purchase” area of KY, hence the name (not a verb).

Joe sold POS (not to be confused with Parsons Officials Supplies or +POS) to Pat Madine who moved it to Akron, Ohio. (Very good guy & good/fair competitor BTW.)

Confusing, I know.

 

THIRD BASE!

[BT_Blue]

20 minutes ago, stevis said:

THIRD BASE!

Pretty sure that was I Don't Know over at the hot corner.

[eagle_12]

On 7/23/2020 at 7:47 PM, BretMan said:

And isn't Smitty a subsidiary of Adams? Keeping it all in the family!

I think Smitty is selling rebranded Douglas chest protectors and then also has the style of the old new balance plate shoes. 

[MadMax]

10 hours ago, eagle_12 said:

I think Smitty is selling rebranded Douglas chest protectors...

They are.

10 hours ago, eagle_12 said:

also has the style of the old new balance plate shoes. 

It’s the same planform, but isn’t exactly the same. Obviously, it has Smitty embellishments, but it feels to me that there’s less material and bulk than the New Balance ancestors it’s based on.