Mike’s Sports-Equipment Co-Op

Mike Westhead’s Sports-Equipment Cooperative

A cooperative (also known as co-operative, or co-op) is “an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned enterprise.”

Do you ever wonder, “If everyone just worked together, things would be so much easier”? I see it all the time in the sports-equipment space.

Just last week, I installed three residential basketball hoops for three separate customers. That is three separate purchases, three separate shipments, with three separate freight charges, three separate deliveries, and three separate installations.

What if all of these customers and I were able to work together? We could’ve had three separate customers combining for one shipment, one significantly reduced freight charge, three coordinated installations, and volume pricing. Everybody wins.

Why am I doing this? Due to supply chains and inflation, there isn’t really any money in selling sports equipment anymore. (As if e-commerce had not already cut into profits.) Because costs have increased, I have to pass that along to you. My take is rather than passing increased pricing along to you, let’s work together to reduce costs and I make my money on a more coordinated install strategy.

I have a variety of services I provide. For instance, I paint a lot of tennis courts. It’s a pain for me to jump back and forth from loading 500 pound 55-gallon barrels of paint on my truck and then jump to loading 1,500 pounds of concrete and digging materials to back to loading 55-gallon drums of paint. I refer to this jumping back and forth between services as logistics gymnastics.

How much easier would my three hoop installs have been if I were able to load my truck with digging materials and take care of all the basketball hoop footings in one day; go work on a tennis court for 2-3 days until the paint is off the truck; and then go back, with an empty truck to pick up the hoops and do the assemblies? Those customers would’ve saved $350-$500 on their product AND not had to have had a large pallet sitting in their driveway for a week. And I would not have wasted time, (a.k.a. money), and broke my back.

The only drawback to the co-op is timing. If you’re looking for a last-minute gift that needs to be delivered and installed within a few days, this isn’t for you. I can help you with that, but it won’t be a part of the co-op. You have to be patient enough to wait 2-3 weeks for enough orders to build in the cue to get discounted shipping and volume pricing.

My goal is to create a sports-equipment co-op that benefits both you and me.

The co-op includes the following items and services: