Warrior Sports, Inc., doing business as Brine, is a sporting goods manufacturer in the United States. It manufactures lacrosse,

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

, volleyball, and field hockey equipment. It markets its products under its own brand as well as In The Crease for goals and goal accessories. The company was founded by W.H. Brine in 1922 as the W.H. Brine Company. It was privately owned by the Brine family and named Brine, Inc. before it was acquired by New Balance on August 4, 2006.

History

Foundation

Brine was founded in 1922 by W.H. Brine as the W.H. Brine Company. It started as a small sports equipment and uniform

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...

. They sold to private schools and regional camps, quickly growing to a major manufacturer of lacrosse and

equipment. The Brines the founder's family have been sports goods vendors first as retailers since 1867. James F. Brine's founded in 1867 in Cambridge, Massachusetts is currently located in Concord, Massachusetts.

1950s

During the 1950s Brine focused on lacrosse. Lacrosse sticks were all wooden at the time and the only company producing them was Chisholm Lacrosse which was located on the St. Regis Reservation, Cornwall Island, Canada. With the encouragement and assistance from A. MacDonald Murphy of

Governor Dummer Academy The Governor's Academy is an independent school north of Boston located on in the village of Byfield, Massachusetts, United States (town of Newbury), north of Boston. The Academy enrolls approximately 412 students in grades nine through twelv ...

, Ferris Thomsen, coach of Penn and Princeton and Mort LaPointe of

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...

, the Brine family began to explore the possibilities of manufacturing lacrosse sticks.

1960s

Brine started to manufacture soccer balls and equipment in the 1960s. It was the first company to cover the ball with synthetic leather to make it more durable. It was also the first to make a perfectly round bladder and the first to unconditionally guarantee a ball.

1970s

Attempting to make a lacrosse stick that was durable and easy to make, the Brine family experimented with laminated wood, plastic, fiberglass and aluminum but could not find a material that met the performance standards. They continued to experiment and eventually found Surlyn, a

DuPont DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...

plastic, to have the necessary properties to survive the intensity of lacrosse. Brine then developed a molding technique that was the basic draft shape of the standard in modern sticks.

Cascade

In 1986 Bill Brine left the family's company and founded Cascade, now the largest lacrosse helmet and eyewear company in the world.

Recent years

Brine started an

apparel Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural ...

line and a line of volleyball equipment in the 1990s. In 2000, it released a full line of field hockey equipment. Brine began to make lacrosse helmets and eyemasks in 2003. Also in 2003, Brine acquired In The Crease, a lacrosse goal and accessories company based in

Penn Yan, New York Penn Yan is an incorporated village and the county seat of Yates County, New York, United States. The population was 5,159 at the 2010 census. It lies at the north end of the east branch of Keuka Lake, one of the Finger Lakes. Penn Yan, New York ...

and in 2004 it began making

athletic footwear Sneakers (also called trainers, athletic shoes, tennis shoes, gym shoes, kicks, sport shoes, flats, running shoes, or runners) are shoes primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise, but which are now also widely used f ...

. On August 4, 2006, New Balance acquired Brine and shortly after that the name was changed to Brine, Corp. from Brine, Inc.

Video Game

In 2005, they released the first mobile lacrosse video game, titled Brine Lacrosse.

References

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External links

Brine Official WebsiteBrine Sporting Goods Official Website
Brine Sporting Goods is a retailer founded by W.H. Brine's grandfather Sportswear brands Manufacturing companies established in 1922 Manufacturer Shoe companies of the United States Sporting goods manufacturers of the United States Companies based in Massachusetts Clothing companies established in 1922