Sportswear maker focuses on local sales

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This article was published 16/03/2009 (6080 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A North End sportswear manufacturer that eagerly chased the Yankee dollar only to get cross-checked into the boards when the loonie soared is looking to boost its domestic sales once again as it reorganizes its business.

Harv-AL Sportswear Ltd., which once outfitted the WHA Winnipeg Jets and the Harlem Globetrotters and now makes fan jerseys for the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), is seeking greater balance in its sales, said account manager Dieter Hoch.

“I think what’s happened in going after the larger contracts, like world wrestling and your business off the Internet, some of the local customers have been neglected,” Hoch said in an interview.

So Harv-Al, which has been making hockey, football, basketball and baseball uniforms and other sportswear since 1947, is redoubling its efforts to outfit local school teams and attract other local business.

The small company, with about 25 employees, is a niche player in an industry that’s been devastated in North America by cheap imports from China and other low-wage countries. Its strengths are that it can do high-quality, low-volume custom orders with a quick turnaround.

“Harv-Al is one of the few companies left that makes everything right from scratch,” said Hoch.

“You can bring in a jersey from the Far East, but by the time you add the value to it with your numbers and your cresting and so on, it’s almost cheaper to make it here,” he said.

Harv-Al was started more than 60 years ago by Harvey Lipkin and Al Rimer, two friends who worked in the city’s once-thriving garment business as “cutters” for a large factory.

“They were both sports guys. Al’s specialty was baseball, mostly, and Harv’s was basketball,” said Yale Singer, who now owns the business along with his brother Mark. Harv-Al’s “Al” was their uncle.

Starting with just a few operators, Harv and Al made team uniforms and developed a national mail-order business.

Over the years, the company became a Winnipeg institution — its jerseys worn by countless high school athletes, the Bobby Hull-era Winnipeg Jets, and, for more than 20 years from 1967 to 1989, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

The business of outfitting pro sports teams eventually fell off, however, as big companies like Reebok started supplying clubs with jerseys for free in exchange for licensing rights.

In the mid-1990s, Harv-Al began a big push into the U.S. market, attracted by the advantages of a then-low loonie and potentially high sales volumes.

The company did a considerable online business there, although eventually competitors crowded the market and shipping costs rose, especially after 9-11.

When the loonie soared more than a year ago, making its goods less competitive south of the border, Harv-Al was doing over 60 per cent of its business in the States. That ratio is now lower, but American business still accounts for over half the company’s sales.

With the U.S. in recession, some of the company’s American buyers have become more cautious.

While America is enticing to Canadian manufacturers because of its sheer size, exporters’ profits are generally reliant on the whims of currency markets.

“We got badly burned when the Canadian dollar went high, and we were all selling so much in the U.S.,” said Mark Singer. “That hurt us, so we have to bring up our Canadian sales and be more of a presence (here). While we were chasing the Yankee dollar, people took away a lot of our local business.”

The company’s future will likely involve the use of more cutting edge, dry-fit, breathable fabrics, more automated equipment and a more diversified, and more Canadian, clientele.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca

Wearing success on its sleeve

HARV-AL SPORTSWEAR LTD.

What it sells: Specializes in hockey, football, baseball and basketball jerseys, T-shirts and a wide variety of other sportswear.

Customers: School, amateur and professional sports teams as well as companies.

How it got its name: Begun by Harvey Lipkin and Al Rimer, two garment workers who opened their own business in 1947.

Owners: Yale and Mark Singer, two brothers whose Uncle Al was one of the company founders.

Claim to fame: Once outfitted the Winnipeg Jets of the World Hockey Association, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the national roller hockey team and even the Harlem Globetrotters. Named a year ago to the Manitoba Basketball Hall of Fame, where the original owners were recognized as builders.

New claim to fame: Counts Vince McMahon’s WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) among its clients. It supplies the conglomerate with thousands of fan jerseys for the likes of John Cena and Dave “The Animal” Batista as well as special orders. “Shane McMahon (the boss’s son) needed four jerseys for himself and he needed them in a week and if I didn’t get them done this girl was going to lose her job,” Yale Singer says with a laugh, referring to a recent request.

Challenges: Recapturing the local amateur sportswear market it partly ignored in its bid to maximize high-volume orders in the United States. That came back to haunt the company when the loonie exceeded par with American greenback, making its products less competitive in the U.S.

Game plan: Developing a new business plan, with the aid of an adviser from the Business Development Bank; investing in new cutting-edge fabrics; cultivating local and Canadian markets to ease reliance on U.S. sales.