Runner Rodgers, Skier Vaughan : Athletes Running Up Big Sales in Apparel Business
Bill Rodgers, a former marathon champion who works from a store outside Boston, has his initials on a line of a running apparel that propelled Bill Rodgers & Co. to multimillion-dollar sales.
Charles Vaughan, a former U.S. Ski Team member known to everyone as C.B., says the skiwear his CB Sports makes will sell at a pace of better than $30 million this year.
Rodgers and Vaughan both believed there was plenty of room to make clothing more functional than the things a lot of people were selling to runners and skiers.
But their logos also evolved into something close to status symbols.
Vaughan, who spent his St. Lawrence University years majoring in physical education, calls the shots at CB Sports when it comes to business and design. His skills used to run the company came through trial and error starting in 1969.
Vaughan’s first stab at design bore no resemblance to elegant fashion. He drew a pattern for ski pants, cut the material himself and took it to a seamstress near his Bennington, Vt., home.
Though the first try was a disaster, subsequent attempts were good enough for the 36 ski shops he talked into carrying his Super Pants. The company he started with $5,000 opened its sixth factory this year and employs about 570 people.
“I guess I still look at business as a competition. Being good at anything, there’s really no substitute for first place,” said Vaughan, who once set a speed record by skiing down a mountain at 106 m.p.h.
Growth in leaps and bounds has caused some problems at CB Sports. Vaughan said the pace had made for frustrating problems in delivery, service, data processing and other areas.
One way to maintain growth and manage its pains is through acquisition. CB Sports this year bought a small ski apparel company in Colorado called Lescan and Vaughan said a second deal is near.
Vaughan has hopes of running a $100-million company and anticipates he will reluctantly have to give up part of the control at some time. “I think there will certainly be a time in the future CB Sports will be forced to join ranks with someone or go public,” he said.
Not a Businessman
While Vaughan is immersed in the operation of his company, Rodgers isn’t a businessman and has no inclination to become one. But he could see the benefits of going beyond the routine athletic practice of endorsing another company’s products.
“I just play a peripheral role,” said Rodgers, who owns a 30% stake in the business. “I wanted to start a clothing line, but I didn’t know how to do it.”
The person who did was Rob Yahn. He had been doing something similar for Frank Shorter, another well-known runner, and decided to make a change in the late 1970s.
Yahn’s business skills and Rodgers’ promotion have pushed the company’s sales from $158,000 in 1979 to $6.5 million last year. Inc. magazine recently ranked Bill Rodgers & Co. the 26th-fastest growing privately held firm in the country.
