May
25
2010
It’s been a long time since we have seen the Combat Speed Wrestling shoe from adidas. The last time Worldwide Sport Supply had a Combat Speed in stock was March of 2006. 
We sold the last Teal Blue Combat Speed that month. Check out an old email we did on the Teal Combats from back in 2006! Sweet! 
Anyhow, after a few years of us asking Brute/adidas to redo that shoe, they have finally decided to release a new version. After seeing the new version I am a bit skeptical about how it will perform compared to its predecessors. Now don’t get me wrong, this shoe is still pretty cool…but, it just doesn’t have the same feel as the previous versions. They must have used lesser quality fabrics or materials to get the price down to $50 from the $80+ the older version was priced at. I think that this shoe will still sell like crazy, just do to the name. We have been showing this shoe to many wrestlers over the past couple of months and the response is mostly: “this shoe is very light” or “it’s only $49.99?”. So, what do you think?
Sounds like we’re still on track to get these in stock around the beginning of July. If that changes, we’ll let you know. Oh, and this comes in Youth sizes (10Kids-size 6) for $43.99.
May
12
2010
Brute has come out with a new kneepads this past year and launching another new one this summer too.
Quite Possibly the most technically advanced kneepad ever made. I know that most of you are wearing smaller sleeves and bubble type kneepads these days, but you may want to take a look at this one. The TORQ Kneepad came out late last year and is available and in stock now. They took the neoprene kneepad of old and beefed it up and put some nice new features in it that make this technically the best “wrestling” kneepad available.
Here is Brute’s description of the Torq:
Torq KneepadThe Torq kneepad is designed to aid in the support and protection of the kneecap. Using compression molded, energy absorbing materials, the Torq protects from impact to the knee while the mesh panel in back allows for greater flexibility and less moisture build-up. The neoprene panels add stability to the sides of the knee but are vented to allow moisture to dissipate.
Then Brute developed another new kneepad, called the Brute ICON Kneepad, that is closer to the size of the wrestling sleeves and bubble wrestling kneepads. This one is very close to the Asics Shooting Sleeve, but it looks much cooler than the plain Asics Sleeve. Available July 1, 2010, this one will come in 3 colors (Black, Blue and Red) and all will come with the black and grey on the sides. Pretty nice looking wrestling kneepad and it will be around $13 per knee.
Here is Brute’s description of the new Icon Kneepad:
Icon Knee Sleeve-NEW for 2010
For the athlete looking for a sleek, low-profile sleeve that allows the knee to slide over the mat surface. Also great for maintaining the heat around the soft tissue during activity. Lightweight mesh back helps prevent the pad from bunching behind the knee and allows sweat to evaporate. Flatlock stitching provides great strength and elastic seam tapes provide a comfortable feel that will keep you focused on the mat while sporting a technical and sleek look.
Either way you look at it, Brute has definitely done a really nice job coming up with new innovative ways to reinvent the wrestling kneepad. Nice Work!
Oh, and speaking of the old style neoprene kneepads, we have no stopped carrying the colors in the #0262 & #0260 (Lycra and Nylon) kneepads and will only be stocking Black in both of those styles going forward. I’m not sure if we will totally remove them from the line or not, but it looks like that may happen sooner than later.
May
10
2010
Yes, you heard it right, Cliff Keen Athletic has come out with a lineup of NCAA Fight shorts. They came out with the Iowa last Fall, but due to very high demand, we were not able to get our hands on any until March of this year. I am pleased to let you know that we now have these in stock and ready to ship. How long they will last is unknown, but I know we have stock in them right now.
We also have the Iowa State Fight Shorts that just came out last month. The stock on them is very limited for this Spring, but we are going to make sure we have them for the Fall. We are placing our order for them right now for this Fall, so you can expect us to have them ready for you anytime.
We also just heard from Cliff Keen that they will be coming out with an entire lineup of Missouri, Minnesota, and Army apparel to expand their line of NCAA products this Fall. Plus, there are more new Cliff Keen Wrestling products that we are going to be posting up here over the next couple of weeks, so keep your eyes open and make sure you grab our feed!
If you need Iowa Wrestling or Iowa State Wrestling apparel, check out all of the items we carry at Worldwide Sport Supply (wwsport.com). Until next time…
April
22
2010
Hey Everyone! Very exciting news today. We bought our tickets to the Beat the Streets Wrestling Gala on the Intrepid in NYC on May 13th!
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I couldn’t be more excited to go! Seriously? How can you not attend this event? Okay, it’s $150/ticket, but that money will go into the Beat the Streets program too! It’s a Win-Win!
Seriously, this may be the most exciting event in the history of wrestling. Look at the list of people who are going to be attending this event:
Olympic Champions Cael Sanderson-2004 Gold Medalist, Kendall Cross and Randy Lewis-1984 Gold Medalist will be joining 6 other Olympic Champions Bruce Baumgartner, John Smith, Henry Cejudo, Doug Blubaugh, Steve Fraser and Brandon Slay.
World Champions and Olympic Bronze Medalist Les Gutches, Clarissa Chun-World Champion and Dan Cormier- World Silver Medalist and a two time Olympian will also be making their first appearance.
World Champions Terry Brands and Zeke Jones – National Freestyle Team Coach will once again be in attendance as well as 2000 Olympic Team Coach Greg Strobel.
Lee Kemp, 3 time World Freestyle Champion and the 2008 Olympic Wrestling Coach.
Where else in this world would you ever see this group of wrestling people. It’s insane!
And, to add to the excitement…
We just found out that there will be an awesome re-match of the 2009 149lbs finals where Caldwell upset Metcalf. That should be crazy on the deck of the Intrepid!!!
Follow the Living the Dream Medal Fund on Facebook too as they will be updating us with news about the Gala.
Purchase a ticket to the 2010 Beat the Streets Wrestling Gala
Purchase your Cael Sanderson Limited Edition Laser Etched shoes!
April
19
2010
Hey Everyone! In case you haven’t heard yet, Worldwide Sport Supply’s Big Book of Wrestling catalog is now live and on-line in digital format. It’s just another way we make it easy to outfit your team!
Get everything from your new Asics Aggresor Wrestling shoes to your teams wrestling singlets. Everything you need is packed into these very easy to view digital catalogs. We even have the Wrestlers Edition set up to be able to click through directly from the product to the product page on the website so you can order it right away. The coaches version should be updated to support that very soon too. Try it out, let us know what you think. Leave comments for me. Thanks!
April
16
2010
Looking for the perfect event to get ready for the fall 2010 Wrestling season? Cliff Keen, Worldwide Sport Supply and NYSPHSAA Wrestling will be having a FREE Coaches Clinic on October 30th –31st in Binghamton, NY. Our 2009 clinic had close to 150 wrestling coaches in attendance. This year we have an extraordinary line of presenters and clinicians to make the event even bigger and better than last year. The 2nd Annual Cliff Keen Athletic Coaching Clinic will include Intermat 2010 NCAA Coach of the Year Rob Koll from Cornell Wrestling, CAA Coach of the Year Pat Popolizio from Binghamton University Wrestling, and the coach of the Apple Valley High School, 2010 National Champions, Jim Jackson. Youth wrestling Coach Mike Krause with NXTLVL Wrestling Academy and Mike Kulczycki, University of Michigan Assistant Coach and NCAA all-American, will also be presenting.
The weekend will be packed with educational sessions from all of the presenters. Some sessions will focus on wrestling specific strength training, healthy recipes for wrestlers, and social networking strategies as presented by Dickie White & Laura Monroe from Ironworks Gym, and Jim Harshaw respectively. The New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHAA) will be holding two breakout sessions to go over any new rules and regulations for the 2010 season.
We would like to thank our sponsors Cliff Keen, ASICS, Clinch Gear, Defense Soap, Ironworks Gym, Team Rhino LLC and Riot Sports Marketing for making this years clinic possible.
April
15
2010
Apr 09, 2010 04:22 pm
10. RSM has been called “The future of sports marketing.” The future is here. You’re on board or you’re not.
9. Because you know you want it.
8. Marketing is the solution to many of the challenges you face in your program.
7. Because you want a real home field advantage!
6. It’s easy.
5. You’ll be famous! We’ll get you the media coverage you deserve.
4. It’s a fundraiser that sells something worthwhile. (You’re program, not cookies)
3. To entrench your program in your community.
2. To show your administration how important your program really is to the community.
1. You’ll look like a genius. (Give us some freaking credit will ya’?)
Visit riotsportsmarketing.com for more Videos
RSM was founded by Jim Harshaw, an All American in wrestling at the University of Virginia. With a background in small business management and as a Division I wrestling coach, he developed RSM systems with the goal to increase attendance, media coverage and fundraising for wrestling programs as well as other Olympic sports programs. The RSM system was developed with input from college and high school coaches, marketing and small business consultants and other leaders in the athletics community. Built on either your own website, the popular Flo Network platform (Flo Wrestling, Flo Swimming, Flo Track etc), or TheOpenMat.com platform, this primarily web based system is automated, systematic and effective.
April
13
2010
We may be the luckiest supplier in the world. We just got our hands on a rare find of wrestling shoes this week. Two years ago, Asics released these two laser engraved wrestling shoes for the ASICS/Vaughan Cadel & Junior National Championships in Fargo and for some reason they had a small batch of extra shoes after the event. Well, two years ago, we were alloted one hundred pair of each of these (Cael Sanderson and Dan Gable). They were sold out within two weeks. After going back to Asics to get more, they informed us that they were gone for good. Well, fortunately for us and you, a few weeks ago we caught word that some of these were lying on the shelves of another supplier and we went after them. After intense negotiations, we were able to lock them all in. We have around 300 of each of these in stock right now.
#JJ803 is the Asics Special and Limited Edition Dan Gable Wrestling Shoes and the #JJ804 is the Asics Special and Limited Edition Cael Sanderson Wrestling Shoes.
As you can see, each one of these is numbered on the box and on the tongue of the shoes:
This is just another opportunity for Worldwide Sport Supply loyal customers to get their hands on rare wrestling shoes. If you are interested in these shoes, I would highly recommend that you jump on wwsport.com and check them out. I suspect that these will not last long.
Don’t forget to check out the 4 new colors in our Rare & Exclusive Dan Gable Wrestling Shoes that we have coming out in October.
Shop all Cael Sanderson and Penn State Gear!
April
12
2010
The NHSCA National Wrestling Championships in Virginia Beach was great! Nine of us drove down and set up the Worldwide Sport Supply & Asics store at the convention center a couple of weeks ago and we had a blast. We were very fortunate to have Cael Sanderson in our booth signing autographs for about two hours. He was great! Gave everyone time to talk and signed anything anyone brought up to him (shoes, bags, tees, singlets, etc.) and took photos with a bunch of people too.
Here’s a picture of Cael signing a Wheaties Cereal box for the Brentwood Wrestling coach. Keep in mind this box of cereal is about 4 years old. We have one in our conference room that we got as a gift from Cliff Keen Wrestling a few years ago, so it was cool that their coach brought the box from NY down there to get signed.
Anyhow, great to catch up with Cael, taste his new Undefeated Cookies, sell a bunch of Penn State and Asics product and watch some of the best wrestling you will see all year!
March
19
2010
Year after year Asics has brought us wrestling headgear prototypes and year after year they continued to miss the mark. Their last major release was the Quantum Headgear, which actually had nice elements to it, but it just didn’t sell. Has Asics just given up on the headgear market? No advertising? No promotions? Are they seeding these into the high profile colleges? What is wrong? Why don’t Asics Headgear sell?
This brings me more frustration than almost everything else in my business. Asics shoes and kneepads continue to grab huge market share every year, but their headgear and singlets (don’t get me started on singlets!) just haven’t done anything. Is it the advertising? When is the last time you saw an advertisement for asics headgear or singlets? I’m really hoping that we can start changing this perception across the industry and bring the rest of Asics Wrestling lineup to coaches and wrestlers across the country. Let’s start right now!
Okay, I have the new Asics Conquest Earguard in my hands and I have to say that this may be the best Asics Headgear that I have ever seen.
This effort may actually allow them to gain a little ground on Cliff Keen, who by the way has been cleaning house with all of their models (Tornado, Twister and Signature). This Conquest sort of looks like the Cliff Keen Tornado Headgear. Interchangeable pads, shells, and straps, make this their second attempt at taking down the Tornado. Their straps are now adjustable from the outside, so you can fit it while it’s on your head (not true on the old Quantum). The pads are not vinyl dipped foam like the Tornado, but actually feels like it could slip a little while it is on your face (even with the groves in them). The shells are very similar to Keens too, with many holes in them for easy listening to your coach. We’re going to be stocking all 9 colors that asics is releasing in May of 2010.
All in all, a very nice effort by their Team Accessory manager. Let’s hope this Asics Headgear puts some excitment back into the market.
Question: If you wear a Cliff Keen or Brute Headgear, would you switch to this new Asics offering? What would it take to get you to buy it or even try it?
