A new Vermont company, Touch ‘Em All, just announced that it has launched a crowd-source funding effort to bring baseball manufacturing back to Haiti. As part of this campaign, Touch ‘Em All has posted a short documentary film about its efforts in Haiti on YouTube: link to film.
Initially, Touch ‘Em All will raise $50,000 on IndieGoGo.com in a 60-day campaign. Those funds will enable acquisition of equipment to immediately start hiring Haitian workers in Port Au Prince to make Touch ‘Em All’s premium baseballs. A follow-on fund raising effort will seek another $250,000, the funds needed to (A) fully staff manufacturing operations with 100 positions in Port Au Prince, (B) implement high-volume manufacturing, and (C) develop U.S. markets for Touch ‘Em All’s products.
‘Nearly all American baseballs were made in Haiti until the early 1990s, when Rawlings left due to political instability,’said Will Forest. ‘Today, baseballs are made mostly in China, and that’s a trend we’re determined to reverse, as we bring good-paying jobs with dignity back to Haiti.’Leading up to this effort, Will Forest, Touch ‘Em All’s founder, recently traveled to Haiti to engage the Haitian experts that used to manage Rawlings’baseball-making operations, including the master baseball maker named Marc Peyan, who is featured in Touch ‘Em All’s documentary. Peyan’s baseball design is the one used today in all Major League baseballs. While in Haiti, Mr. Forest sourced the premium goatskin leather to use in Touch ‘Em All’s new baseballs. He also engaged Max Conde as a consultant; Conde used to run Rawlings’Haitian baseball making operations.
Link to IndieGogo: http://bit.ly/13D7SHF
Link to Touch ‘Em All’s documentary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERKHecTz5O0
Vermont Company wants to bring baseball manufacturing back to Haiti, launches crowd-source funding
Submitted by tim
on