November 6, 2008 in Sports

Teenager’s ball carrier catches on

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As a 12-year-old, Adrian Lindsey got tired of having to balance a basketball while riding his bicycle to his Akron, Ohio, neighborhood courts. He didn’t like riding one-handed, but he didn’t want to carry a gym bag, either. Instead, he just complained.

His mother, Cherrlyn Lampley, encouraged him to use his energy to figure out a solution.

Scribbling on his notepad, Adrian did just that, turning an ordinary basketball net into a practical bag for carrying a ball.

“My mom told me to think of something unique,” said Adrian, now 17. “A net that resembles the one basketballs go through distinguishes it from other bags.”

These days, the teenage entrepreneur is scoring big. Two weeks ago, the Cleveland Cavaliers Team Shop started selling his $20 All-Net Sak. The carrier comes in the Cavs’ colors, wine and navy, and bears the team’s logo. Information: allnetsak.com

“Depending on the success, we will try to put it on our Web site if the test in the Team Shop goes well,” said Michael Thom, the Cavs’ director of merchandising. “It’s definitely a product for kids or teenagers. … It’s a functional product.”

Last year, Adrian sent an e-mail to Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, calling his attention to the product. A Gilbert assistant introduced Adrian to the director of an entrepreneurship program Gilbert started in Michigan. That eventually led to a giveaway of 60 All-Net Saks during a Cavs game last spring and, eventually, to getting the product on the shelf at the team shop.

The Cavs’ shop isn’t Adrian’s first retail outlet, though. A local Wal-Mart started selling All-Net Saks early last year. But making that first placement happen took a few years of hard work.

“My mom and I would go to lots of retailers. All of them liked the idea, but nobody would take a chance,” said Adrian, a senior at Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy in Cuyahoga Falls.

“It didn’t feel too good. Most of them did say it was a nice product, which made me feel a little better. But the bottom line is, they didn’t want it.”

In the early days, as Adrian refined his design into something he believed could be a functional, lightweight nylon carrier, a family friend with sewing skills made a prototype.

After some legal work was out of the way, Adrian was ready to go to market. Still, challenges remained.

Quotes for package design and production started at around $20,000, so Adrian and his family came up with their own design. A small Akron marketing firm charged just $75 to make it look more professional. Family members chipped in $500 to set up a Web site (allnetsak.com). American Made Bags in Akron signed on to handle production and so far has turned out about 1,500 All-Net Saks. Adrian has sold about 1,000 of them.

To get exposure for the product, Adrian gave away his first 24 bags – along with basketballs donated by retailers – at a breakfast with Santa program put on by the Akron Urban League four years ago.

Over the next couple of years, Adrian sold about 30 bags to family and friends from the trunk of his mother’s car. Then, at a basketball tournament in Akron two years ago, he sold 80 in one day.

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