Hello there

I recently found information on the web as to Laich Industries that stated that Walter Laich opened his plastics company in 1965. The main facility was based out of Cleveland, Ohio, and ran until its closure due to bankruptcy in 2005. The Sports Products Corp. was a sub group of the larger Laich Industries and it made sports souvenirs. Other parts of the company dealt with making items ranging anywhere from furniture to kitchen products. That information there really throws things into a loop as I go back to my Kansas City Athletics helmet. Inside of it is stamped Bobbie Enterprises, so were there two companies out there at the same time making souvenir batting helmets? Did Sports Products make helmets at the same time as Bobbie Enterprises and was Sports Products a part of Laich Industries at the time? The jury is still out on that one as I look for more information regarding both of these companies.

[I have recently been contacted by a man named Peter Boyko. He has filled me in on information regarding the Adjustrap and souvenir helmets in general. This is what he wrote:

The original promotional helmet was made of styrene with foam strips. In 1968 I designed an adjustable strap to replace the foam strips and changed the material from styrene to polypropylene. [I did] all [of] this while working under an understanding I would be able to acquire equal interest in sports products. When the deal didn't materialize I competed with Sports products as the Seventy Corp also out of Cleveland. This competition forced Sports Products to sell its company to Laich Plastic who at that time was a small plastic molder who was molding the helmets. The original owner of Sports Products was George Dickstein, a concessionaire at the Cleveland Indians' Stadium. I also promoted the first helmet day and from there came all of the wonderful baseball promotional events.

Peter Boyko

You can find more of Peter Boyko's current day products by clicking here.]

It should also be noted that somewhere in the middle of the Laich/Sports Product Corp. run that there were other helmets that appeared on the market with a marking stamped U.S. Cap Company. Now, I don't know if this is a separate company from Laich because the address is in Cleveland for this company. You can find these helmets on my website listed as "duck-billed" on various team pages (see helmet at right).

A change came after Laich shutdown and a new helmet maker emerged named Fotoball. Fotoball was not actually new to the field of marketing souvenirs because the company was actually founded in 1986. After the collapse of Laich, Fotoball acquired the rights to take over marketing souvenir helmets for MLB teams.

Fotoball, however, had a very short-lived life when it came to the souvenir batting helmet as compared to Laich because K2 came along and bought out Fotoball in early 2004. K2 then made a separate group named K2 Licensed Products which is now the premier sports giant when it comes to souvenirs for any sport. K2 also owns Rawlings (and you will see Rawlings packaging and the company name stamped inside helmets) which it purchased in a stock swap in 2002. Besides Rawlings, K2 also controls 35 different other brand names that it now markets sports products through.

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