The Best Seats
In The House

With literally millions of gymnasiums, athletic complexes and other facilities here in North America, designing athletic equipment with a one-size-fits-all approach would be useless.  Ranging from facilities built 30 or more years ago to the high-tech and architecturally stunning facilities we are slowly becoming accustomed to today, no two gymnasiums are alike.

When it comes to basketball systems, in particular, much of the configuration and installation methods are heavily dependent on the space allotted, ceiling height and other architectural nuances.  With that in mind, a lot of facilities today opt for either a wall-mounted basketball system, a ceiling-suspended system, or both.

During the fall of 2016, an opportunity presented itself that would allow us to work closely with a school district in the picturesque Canadian Maritimes.  The opportunity was sent to tender by the Anglophone South School District, a district that operates 79 public schools serving over 10,000 students in Kings and Queens Counties in New Brunswick.  The school district was looking to acquire bleacher seating systems for a few gymnasiums in three different schools in the district.

Depending on the intended use and proposed space allowances, our line of gym divider curtains can come equipped in a number of different variations.  As no two facilities alike, the same can be said for our five main gym divider curtain models, each engineered and manufactured to conform to different designs and situations.

Used to safely and effectively separate areas in large spaces such as gymnasiums and other facilities, these curtains are constructed with heavy-duty vinyl and mesh (depending on configuration) and are built to withstand abuse.

What might be more significant than their rugged appearance is the power that safely drives these curtains.  With busy schedules, multiple-use facilities need a curtain that can be either opened or closed within a matter of minutes.  The average height of the majority of school gyms, for example, start at around 25-30 feet so as one can imagine, these curtains require a fair bit of power to move them around.

It certainly feels like just yesterday we were reviewing our projects from 2015 and thanking our suppliers, customers and partners for everything they helped us achieve during what was a banner year for our organization.

Once again in 2016, the story remains the same.  We again had a historic year in 2016, marking tremendous growth, new opportunities, expanded operations and a robust customer base.  As wonderful as all of those are, we still could not have done it without each and every member of our esteemed team, those with whom we have conducted business with during our 35+ year history and all of our partners around the world.

We once again were named among Canada’s Fastest Growing Companies in 2016’s PROFIT 500 – a feat we have achieved three out of the last four years.   We want to thank everyone, once again, for their support this past year and we sincerely look forward to connecting with you and many new organizations in the coming year.

As promised, here are a few of our most notable projects we had the pleasure of completing in 2016:

Comprising of four divisions, one of our more recent projects had us working closely with key stakeholders from the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in conjunction with our esteemed colleagues at Tri-State Folding Partitions.

The 135-year-old educational institution’s divisions are made up of the Ethical Culture, Fieldston Lower, Fieldston Middle and Fieldston Upper divisions spread across two distinct campuses.  The midtown Manhattan campus is the home of the Ethical Culture program which helps students develop a level of understanding across multiple perspectives, developing imagination and fostering habits such as justice, fairness and empathy.

In nearby Bronx, New York, lies the 18-acre campus that is home to the remaining three divisions of the academic organization.  Here, the Fieldston Lower program fosters students from Pre-K to 5^th grade, the Fieldston Middle offers programming for middle school-aged students and is completed with the high school curriculum of Fieldston Upper.

Our custom padding department may very well be one of our more far-reaching departments within our company.  Aside from the traditional athletic applications we have been known for over 35 years, our padding product selection and capabilities go far beyond that.

While we still provide custom padding for gym walls, columns, stages and rinks, our out-of-the-box thinking and training systems have allowed us to enter a variety of other markets. 

One such area of development from which we have experienced tremendous growth is from within the animal care and transportation sector.  As many us can relate, animals big and small mean a great deal to those of us who care for them as pets, in a commercial environment or as a hobby.  We recently launched our line of padding solutions, each custom designed for veterinary practices and applications containing solutions for animals both big and small.

While generally left for our padding department professionals, many of our customers and end users actually opt to perform their own custom cut-outs on their newly-ordered wall padding.  In the event of forgotten electrical switches, altering existing padding is a very viable option for many and not terribly difficult to undertake.

The name of the game is patience.  As with any custom work, slow and steady typically wins the race and in this case, saves you from having to order additional pads or replacement vinyl for improperly cut holes.   As many contractors will tell you, measure twice, cut once. 

Located in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, The Tech Academy is an educational facility founded on artistic, athletic and academic excellence, offering students a unique opportunity to prepare for further education. 

The institution is housed in a historic building, adding to the educational establishment’s charm and prestige.  The academy serves students ranging from grades 9-12 with courses offered in the arts, music, business, Canadian and world studies, English, French, mathematics, health and physical education, science, social science and more.

With goals of increasing physical activity in Ontario, the province created the Ontario Sport and Recreation Communities fund in 2013.  Since the program’s inception, it has supported over 400 projects province-wide, aiding over 425,000 residents in getting involved in physical activity.

The backbone of the program is predicated on embedding physical literacy as a foundation for lifelong physical activity among individuals of all ages.  In addition to strengthening the community sport and recreation sector by providing training in key areas such as coaching, youth development and volunteer development, the program provides residents with additional opportunities to remain physically active.  This also applies to those who experience barriers to participation and those who might be traditionally less active.

Once again, we were hard at work at the prestigious Julia Dyckman ANDRUS Center in Yonkers, New York.  Earlier in the fall, we were involved in padding two other rooms located in the facility with the help of our partners at Tri-State Folding Partitions.

In that project, our team designed a complete padding solution for a small support room in the facility that had to accommodate an existing playhouse and structure previously installed in the room.

With that project in the rear view, our team once again got to work for ANDRUS, this time on a much larger sensory room.  These rooms are used to create an environment completely removed from outside distractions and come complete with audio and visual aids, promoting extreme relaxation.