Successful Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign Celebrated

July marked the conclusion of our breast cancer awareness campaign, and by any measure it was a great success. We are proud to be a part of a community that embraces an important cause and is willing to not only raise funds with their donations, but awareness - by wearing pink and donning pink whistles - for a disease that strikes so many families.

Ump-Attire.com staff welcomes Amanda Caffe from Louisville's Susan G. Komen affiliate. From left: Sherry Spalding, Emily Crabtree, Amanda Caffe, Jim Kirk, Anessa Arehart, Amanda Tricase, Jeanne Nelson.

To celebrate the campaign's success, we invited Amanda Caffe from the Louisville affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure to join us for lunch at the office, where we presented her with a final check totaling $6,420 in funds raised, collected through the sale of over 1,000 pink umpire shirts and 1,500 pink whistles!

After touring the warehouse and enjoying a catered lunch, Ms. Caffe explained to staff how the money our customers helped us raise goes for research and to help women in the community who are in need of life-saving screenings, treatment options and extended care.

Jim presents Ms. Caffe with a check  to Komen for the Cure.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to Dalco Athletic, manufacturer of the pink umpire shirt, who donated over $1,000 of the above total, and to each of you who helped spread the word about BLUE for Pink: Umpires Against Breast Cancer and Blow the Whistle Against Breast Cancer!

With your help, we exceeded our original fundraising goal of $5,000 and raised significant awareness within the officiating community.

I am personally grateful to all our staff. Most notable include Anessa and Jeanne who spearheaded that we do a campaign involving the sale of pink items, Sherry who organized the joint effort between us and Komen and served as liason, Amanda who provided her magic touch to all of the campaign's literature and Facebook efforts and to those umpires and officials who provided input into our campaigns from help designing the logo to the shirt and more (you know who you are). It was a superb team effort all the way around.

Customers Choice Seal Awarded to Umpire Products

Every season we look at each item in each category and evaluate them on sales, returns and your feedback. Products that have the best sales for their category, the fewest returns, and the most positive reviews from our customers are awarded the distinction of Customers Choice. 

Majestic Therma Base Jacket: Truly in a league of their own, these one-of-a-kind heavyweight jackets kept a lot of umpires warm in colder climates during the early part of the season. Look for a black jacket with black and white stripes in 2012.

Wilson Titanium Mask with Natural Tan Padding: This is the second year in a row we’ve provided you with a Wilson Titanium mask that has a padding option you won't find anywhere else. Last year it was the all-black, and this year you are also choosing the natural tan leather in addition to the all-black. As of the date of this post, we still have a limited number available.

All-Star Pro Model System 7 Helmet: All-Star’s helmet upgrade  has competed well against the Wilson Shock FX. Owners of the All-Star helmet will say they like it better than Wilson's, but it’s a difficult comparison given the different features. The padding and shell features of this System 7 helmet are surely an upgrade in protection over their 2500 entry but without the higher price of the titanium frame version.

Champro Pro Plus Chest Protector: When we posted our Top 10 “What’s Hot for Umpires” in 2011, we mentioned this had quickly become our #2 best selling umpire chest protector. Thanks to its better design compared to the the Pro Nine CPU model, and the boost of a mid-summer sale, you have now made it #1.

Shock Doctor Compression Tights with Bio Flex Cup: I considered naming these a Customers Choice item last year when we introduced them, but I was waiting for some good (or bad) feedback. After seeing these continue to sell well in 2011, and receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback, our customers are clearly choosing them more than other tights.

View all Customer Choice items for baseball and feel free to tell us what your favorite product or products is.

Diamond Cuts Ultimate Umpire Bag to Right Length

Size does matter when it comes to equipment bags. When Diamond introduced the 36" Umpire's Equipment Bag, it quickly become a hot ticket item. I took it to Denver for a NASO Summit and found it a little too bulky for my taste, although it did fit the kitchen sink I brought along, in addition to an assortment of items for the yearly show-and-tell.

Then Diamond introduced a 30" version with a telescopic handle that I found I liked better. It was less cumbersome to me and easier to manage, although it contained about 20% less room.

By the inch, the 36" was still the better deal at only a few dollars more, if storage was what you needed.  Umpires ordered those more often than the smaller bags, but that left us with two options. More options meant more inventory, and these things take up more space in our warehouse than anything else we sell.

Enter the new 33" bag size from Diamond for summer 2011. The 33" bag will do away completely with the 30" and 36", and will thankfully have the telescopic handle. So the result: more in-bag room than the 30", better maneuverability than the 36", and eventually more storage space in the warehouse for us. In other words, it's the best of all worlds.

For now, pick what you want. We have only a few of the 36" left, a few more of the 30" and stock already of the 33".

Through July, readers of the blog can take $10 off any of the bag sizes when you use coupon code 3BAGS10 at checkout.

Named Exclusive Vendor for Derby City Umpire Clinic

We really like our local umpires, and Louisville has such a large cast of excellent umpires, including those with the Southeast Independent Umpires Association. So when they asked if we would be interested in becoming the exclusive vendor of the Derby City Umpire Clinic, how could we say no?

The Derby City Umpire Clinic is geared towards umpires who would like to umpire at the collegiate level. The weekend-long clinic will be held September 9-11, 2011, at the Derby City Baseball Complex in Louisville, Kentucky. Training at the camp will emphasize two man mechanics, situational awareness, handling situations, rule discussions and live game situations.

SIUA Umpires (from left) Scott Kennedy, Brandon Cooper and Nathan Huber.

The SIUA has organized a stellar cast of instructors, field personnel and guest speakers for the clinic, including College World Series umpires Perry Costello and Jim Jackson and other D-I umpires including Scott Kennedy, John Bennett and Brandon Cooper.

As the official vendor, we are proud to provide a complimentary Diamond HOTSPORT shirt for each participant.

Umpires interested in participating in this event can download a registration form here, or contact Chuck Barnett with the SIUA for more information at 502-291-5758.