MI-based Addix Joins MHSAA Team
November 1, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
During its first decade in business, Lowell-based Addix has emerged as a major supplier of high school and youth sports uniforms and gear, while maintaining an emphasis on serving local communities – a value held in common with the Michigan High School Athletic Association.
As it looks to expand as a supplier to schools all over our state, Addix has signed on as the MHSAA’s official custom uniform and wrestling gear provider, extending a relationship that began in 2014 when Wrestling Addix became a sponsor of the association.
Addix was founded in 2006 and currently manufactures uniform products for football, volleyball, cross country, wrestling, basketball and track & field, with additional sport offerings planned for the near future.
“Addix has built a great reputation in the wrestling community and is moving to extend its standing in Michigan’s high school sports community by serving all school sports,” said John E. “Jack” Roberts, executive director of the MHSAA. “We are proud to promote a Michigan-based company and impressed that Addix is committed to providing high school and younger levels of sports the beneficial service and pricing that larger athletic brands reserve for college and professional sports.”
All Addix products are designed and manufactured in Michigan. The company prides itself on using the best in sublimation technologies and following up production with controlled supply chain and superior customer service.
Addix supplies uniforms to teams at all levels of high school and junior high/middle school, as well as youth sports. The company aims to deliver orders in under three weeks.
"We owe tremendous thanks to the wrestling community in the state of Michigan, which has supported our business for the last 10 years,” Addix owner and CEO Ryan Henderson said. “With the expansion of our partnership, we will continue to utilize our in-state manufacturing facilities to service athletic programs at the highest level. For a company competing against the largest athletic brands in the world, this is a big win."
"We are thrilled to expand on our relationship with the MHSAA,” added John Kargbo, Addix’ vice president of sales & marketing. “It is one of, if not the best-run high school athletic association in the country, and we are excited to have the opportunity to grow our business alongside them."
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Michigan Steady In National Participation Figures
September 14, 2012
For the fourth straight year, Michigan ranked seventh nationally in high school sports participation, according to statistics for the 2011-12 school year released recently by the National Federation of State High School Associations. That level of participation continued to best Michigan’s national ranking for total number of residents of high school age.
Michigan’s participation ranking was based on a number of 308,080, with 131,346 girls and 176,734 boys taking part, and included sports in which the Michigan High School Athletic Association does not conduct postseason tournaments. The totals count students once for each sport in which he or she participates, meaning students who are multiple-sport athletes are counted more than once.
Michigan girls participation fell one spot to seventh nationally after two straight years at sixth, while the boys participation figure again ranked sixth. According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau figures from 2011, Michigan continues to rank eighth in both females and males of ages 14 through 17. Girls participation also ranked seventh in 2008-09.
Three sports moved up in their rankings, while seven fell – but none more than one spot. Total, Michigan ranked eighth or higher nationally in participation in 24 of the 28 sports in which the MHSAA conducts a postseason tournament (not counting separately 8-player football).
Girls basketball and golf both rose in 2011-12, basketball to sixth and golf to fifth. Girls tennis held steady in third place, with participation in bowling, volleyball and skiing again ranked fourth. Softball and track and field remained seventh, soccer and swimming and diving both stayed at eighth, and lacrosse stayed at 12th nationally. Girls cross country, gymnastics and competitive cheer all fell one spot – cross country to seventh, cheer to fifth and gymnastics to 12th.
Nine boys sports remained in the same spots nationally, and one – wrestling – moved up one spot, to fifth. Boys bowling stayed constant at third, as did skiing and ice hockey in fourth, 11-player football and tennis in fifth, track and field and golf in sixth, baseball in seventh and cross country in ninth in their respective sport rankings. Boys Basketball fell one spot to sixth, with boys lacrosse falling one to eighth and boys soccer and swimming and diving both moving down one spot to ninth on those lists. Last school year also was the third the MHSAA has had 8-player football, and Michigan ranked 14th of 16 states for participation in that spot.
National participation in high school sports in 2011-12 set a new record again with 7,692,520 students taking part. While boys participation nationally fell 9,419 students from 2010-11, girls participation rose 33,984 students for a record total of 3,207,533.