Colestt.com is run by Cole Ely, a school teacher in Kansas USA.
His mission to support table tennis is to make it really affordable, so players can enjoy EJing on the cheap, but the most important mission Cole fulfills is to make the entry cost to TT very inexpensive. This is big tim important as newer players generally want to spend zero or very minimal money when they start playing, often to an extreme. When a new player learns an average quality blade from a big time company is $130-$160 USD, then they see they can get a workable bat for $35 ish delivered in USA Priority Parcel 2-3 days... Then they will buy from him and play the game. Once players enjoy the game and get on Table Tennis forums and discover a whole new world... it is GAME OVER for defense against EJ VIRUS and they buy up entire online TT store stocks.
My own Der_Echte Special is using a blade he sells. (Don't anyone tell the CEO I talk good about another vendor) Ditto for my longtime BH rubber to test blades - XP2008.
Basically, Cole is doing a great service to TT by providing a means and motivation to enter the sport inexpensively. without a Dude like Cole helping out TT, there would be almost no way new players in USA enter the sport, although SOME new players will go goo-goo Apeshyt buying the most expensive of the the most expensive exotic stuff they can get their pawz on, but they are minority. Obviously, we are a premium company, specializing in blades and apparel/accessories. Our stuff is high quality and not in the bargain clearance shelf category. The newer players might hear about us on forums or someone like Carl tells them, but new players are not interested in buying one of our great blades priced between $80 and $180, even if they get a discount. That is why Cole is big time important to the new player, as well as existing ones. He also tossed in free stuff for Soldiers on my orders as I was military and he supports the military.
NexyUSA has a different approach. We don't want to fight for gain and maintain a huge chunk of the existing market, there really isn't a whole lot of current customers in USA to make it a REAL money making operation for more than several companies... and there are more than a dozen TT vendors in USA.
You can visualize a huge pack of hungry dogs trying to fight for a chance to gnaw on one bone that is not very big. Our idea is to make that bone BIGGER, in fact so big that MANY dogs can get their bite and like it too.
Unless we can make the current TT equipment buying possible crowd of 25,000 bigger (maybe 5000 active USATT tourney players and another 20,000 from the community centers and the rare few who actually research equipment to buy for their basement) that level of customers who average on the who a few hundred dollars of purchases per year (some buy once some buy a lot) this all comes out to something under 100 million dollars of sales before overhead and what not. It might be a stretch to say that collectively, the TT market in USA makes 20 million USD after it is all said and done. That just isn't enough money for a dozen or two outfits.
What NexyUSA wants to build the playing base of USA in an entirely different way NO ONE has ever tried before. We want to invest a little in CHILDREN... to make them TABLE TENNIS LEADERS. We offer a partial sponsorship, get the kid a sharp looking professional uniform. many of these kids are already improving players and do a lot of tourneys and club play. Others in the club notice them, so the existing TT crowd sees Nexy as a professional outfit growing the sport, but the big deal is the kid has a lot of cred at SCHOOL. they all talk and Facebook and whatever. They know what is going on with the improving kid and how much he loves TT and how much a blast it is and it is contagious. The kid generates interest in TT, can approach the school and get something with TT rolling.
Once enough schools start doing this, we literally MULTIPLY the playing base. Then, when the MOM throws in her support, it is really game over for holding back on equipment purchases.
When we get tens of thousands more players in and more later, and the whole crowd knows Nexy has been pushing the growth by giving children an opportunity to show their LEADERSHIP, then sales come to us later, but they also come to everyone, both existing outfits and newer ones that the market could now support.
This way to grow TT is EPIC and no one before has had the mindset to go about it this way. All the TT investment you have ever seen by big outfits is to toss money and gear to top players and run huge expensive tourneys... that doesn't cut it to grow a sport.
