Amish Workers Tour Our Operations

You may have heard of high-quality furniture handcrafted by Amish people in well-known Amish communities such as Ohio and Pennsylvania. But one thing Amish are slowly becoming known for in the officials' community is that they also make high-quality referee and umpire apparel.

In Munfordville, Kentucky, about 45 minutes south of Louisville is a small Amish factory of about 15 seamstresses who make Ump-Attire umpire shirts, referee shirts, ball bags and referee accessories. If you are reading this, you may have one of these items in your closet or bag.

Yesterday, we had the privilege of hosting (most of) these very dedicated and skilled workers on a tour and an appreciation lunch.


Jeanne Nelson, operations manager, explains how our customer service center operates before turning it over to Anessa Arehart, customer service manager, for more details about our customers.


I introduce the Amish to the new warehouse space.


I (at far right) share our picking and packing process while Jeanne (middle background) shows off the destination of states and countries of that day's packages. I think the order to Japan surprised them.


I explain what we do with the products they make once they arrive including our bar coding process before a show-and-tell with other products and how they are used. Beulah Hester (far left), who works closely with them and helped orchestrate the tour, looks on.


After lunch (which our new space really gave us the room for), the Amish presented each of us with a homemade baked goods basket. The apple butter is to die for BTW. Any other apple butter fans out there? Perhaps, the best I've ever had...made in a large iron kettle bottom. Yummy!

But all in all, the day the Amish came to visit was a very nice day for them and for staff. It's certainly not something you can say happens every day.

Although I have been to their location more than once, staff have not. The plan is to shut down one day this summer and take the staff for a tour of their facility. Looking forward to it. We'll share more about their low carbon footprint facility at that time. Regardless, we are very fortunate to have a reliable source of quality American made goods right here in Kentucky.

Note: Some of you are familiar with the Amish might wonder if they drove their buggies here. They did not. A large van was rented for them to make the trek.