Teams from across the country will be in Reno for the annual Volleyball Festival that runs July 1-7. For local company Molten USA it's an opportunity to showcase its products.
"Molten started in 1958 and is the largest manufacturer of sports balls in the world," Tae Kim, Director of Team Sports, said. "We're a wholly owned subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate."
Originally located in Southern California, the company chose Nevada for its friendly business climate. "We moved here in 1994, and from the business side, it's good to be a Nevada corporation," Kim said. "It wasn't unusual. Spalding did their warehousing here, as well as Tachikara, another volleyball company."
Located in the South Meadows area, the company's primary product lines are sports balls used in soccer, basketball, and of course, volleyball. "Our biggest impact is in volleyball as the majority of our sales staff are volleyball people and are active coaches in the area," he said.
"In the junior market, like the Festival, we're No. 1 and have 70 percent of the market, while in the NCAA we are No. 1 and probably own 80 percent of that market," he said. "When you get to the high school level, the pie gets cut up more."
Molten doesn't cover every sport and the larger, traditional companies can offer an inclusive package to a high school. "We're probably the smallest, and in the U.S. anyway, the youngest, so everybody has a head start on us," he said. "It's our job to change the business practices of those state associations on how they choose what ball to use, and right now we're probably No. 4 or 5 in the U.S."
To overcome this challenge Molten uses a form of guerrilla marketing. "Our previous president, Jason Sterrett, a coach at Bishop Manogue, would go to every tournament and talk with every coach," Kim said. "The volleyball people know us, but many high school administrators have never heard of us. I blame that on marketing, but this has changed since Leigh Ann Davis came on board."
Davis, director of marketing, says, "There's something to be said of this approach. It made incredible inroads and made things easier for me."
Added Kim: "We're able to do this in the grass-roots market as mostly we're volleyball people, speak that language and most people are friends of ours."
As the company gains market share, both know keeping up personal relations and service will be a growing challenge. "We pride ourselves on service, and that's gotten us where we are today," said Kim. "We never want to forget our roots, and the company wants to make every coach feel special. Our forte is in grass-roots, and if we walked away we wouldn't be the company we want to be."
Although Molten is small here, it's a different story overseas. "In the U.S. we're a blip on the radar, but internationally we're pretty much the top ball in the world," he said. "We want the Molten name to be synonymous with sports."
Being the Volleyball Festival's official sponsor helps sales as players get to use the product and the coaches see it in action. Still, the staff as well as Molten's president, Melissa Dawson, will spend long days at the convention center meeting every coach.
Davis summed up the effort when she said, "It's important, and we're expected to be there. If we weren't, people would ask questions."
