April "First Friday" Breakfast - Guardian Sports
Name:
April "First Friday" Breakfast - Guardian Sports
Date:
April 12, 2024
Time:
7:30 AM - 9:00 AM EDT
Registration:
Sorry, public registration for this event has been closed.
Event Description:
Making the Leap: Taking a Business from the Kitchen Table to the NFL
With Erin and Lee Hanson, Guardian Sports Founders
- Launching a home-based business venture
- Pioneering innovative products that the market doesn’t know it needs
- Addressing the paramount role of safety in sports through protection and prevention
- Problem-solving to create new products and materials and protecting intellectual property
- Navigating the opportunities and trials in managing a family business
Erin and Lee Hanson launched Guardian Sports in 2011 with one goal in mind – innovating equipment to better serve athletes. Their 20+ years of experience owning and operating a material science and technology company enabled them to create the Guardian Cap – now used by over 200,000 youth, high school, and college athletes nationwide and mandated by the NFL. The purpose of the Cap is to reduce the force of impact upon collision experienced by football and lacrosse players and to prove that soft-shell helmet technology is superior to that of a hard shell. This project stems from our passion for player safety, our foundation in material sciences, and the generally accepted physics behind impact reduction.
The company also manufactures Pearl Lacrosse balls, the official ball of the NCAA, the Guardian/Xenith Loop, multi-sport headgear used for a variety of athletes including flag football, rugby, and field hockey, a new TPE infill for turf fields that is clean, bio-based, and longer-lasting. All American made.
Erin Hanson:• Erin founded Guardian Sports in 2011 at her kitchen counter and has since taken the company to an 8-figure business, with 20+ employees, and 90k sq. ft. of mixed warehouse and office space in Peachtree Corners, Georgia, all without the benefit of outside capital. Guardian’s portfolio is made up of:
1) The Guardian Cap, which is worn by over 300k athletes, including all 32 NFL teams
2) The PEARL Lacrosse Ball, which is the only ball made in the USA, and is the official ball of NCAA Lacrosse
3) Guardian Infill, which is a bio-based alternative to crumb rubber turf fields
• Before Guardian, Erin was a middle school mathematics teacher at Snellville Middle School and then stayed home to raise & and homeschool five children, four of whom graduated with High Honors from Georgia Tech, and one with High Honors from Georgia State.
• Education: BS, Georgia State University, Summa Cum Laude
Lee Hanson:• Lee founded the Hanson Group in 1996 in his basement and has since taken the company to an 8-figure business, with 30+ employees, and now occupies a 90k+ sq. ft. of production space in Peachtree Corners Georgia that he shares with Guardian - all without any outside capital.
• The Hanson Group provides material science expertise to corporations such as 3M, BASF, Sherwin Williams, and others, and creates formulated systems for bulletproof glass, golf balls, self-sealing fuel tanks, truck bed liners, and more. Lee also co-founded Guardian Sports with his wife Erin in 2011.
• Before his current role, Lee worked at Ciba & Rogers corporations in sales. Lee shares five children and his soon-to-be ninth grandchild with Erin.
• Education: BS in Chemical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
