Quiet achiever scores goal

Obo director Simon Barnett with some of the company's popular award-winning goalkeeping gear. Picture / Brett Phibbs

Sportsgear-maker Obo already nets 60 per cent of the world's protective equipment for hockey goalkeepers.

And last night in Auckland, it allowed the top prize for Design in Business Awards through as well.

From its headquarters in Palmerston North, Obo has been a quiet achiever, dominating the world of field hockey goalkeeping equipment, to the point that winning goalkeepers at the Hockey World Cup and 77 per cent of those at the Athens Olympics wore Obo - by choice.

Obo is one of two companies in the world that caters exclusively for hockey goalkeepers, covering them top to toe with its range of helmets, leg guards, kickers, pants and upper- body protectors.

Company founder Simon Barnett said the gear was light and flexible, fitted the body better, and helped to make the players more agile and to move faster and more naturally.

Obo gear is made from a foam the company produces itself. Its cell structure is tighter than that used by other brands, and is stronger and more durable.

A thermo-bonding process results in the products' final shape. Leg guards are pre-moulded to fit the leg - rather than having to be bent around the player - which aids their speed.

Barnett, who lectures in marketing at Massey University, has been guided by his entrepreneurial instincts since he started making table tennis tables as a teenager.

He built the Barnett brand of tables and accessories up to be the main supplier for the sport in New Zealand before he sold it to import hockey equipment.

Although some would consider field hockey goal-protection equipment as an obscure market for a business, Barnett said he soon spotted an opportunity within that narrow niche.

He found field hockey goalies were the poor cousins of their counterparts in other codes, to the point they had to make do with equipment designed for ice hockey.

Barnett took the plunge to form Obo 11 years ago, mortgaging his house and using the money from the sale of his importing business.

A lack of any experience playing hockey hasn't stopped Barnett and Obo chief designer Rob Whitfield making themselves experts by observing and seeking feedback from players. They have also watched hours of videos of goalies in action to learn how the ball reacted as it came into contact with different gear.

This attention to detail has made the equipment highly specialised and helped to create their edge over the competition.

The pair realised the sport had evolved and goalies were using the equipment for offensive as much as protective purposes. Their response was to design different leg pads for each leg, allowing the goalie to use the left pad like a large bat while a narrower right pad provided greater manoeuvrability and ease of sliding to intercept the ball.

Leg guards were designed with moulded strips down the side to widen the defence area, a "skin" to provide greater sliding ability, and different rebound qualities on different areas.

A global goalies community has formed around the brand with the website providing a forum for players and a critical feedback channel for the company that keeps it close to its target market.

Obo outsourced its manufacturing for the first 10 years, but set up its own factory two years ago. Barnett said production control gave the necessary adaptability to deal with fluctuating demand.

Production volumes sit around 10,000 sets a year, with 95 per cent of sales going to 61 countries.

Prices for the whole kit range from $500 to $2000; turnover has reached $4 million, of which up to 7 per cent is reinvested in research and development.

The company has now extended manufacturing into cricket with Obo Cricket, set up last year. Barnett felt growth in hockey was almost exhausted while cricket afforded a market 30 times its size. Its gear, only for batsmen at the moment, is sold in Britain, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. Obo employs 24 staff.

Rather than finding it hard to build the business from small-town New Zealand, Barnett said it made it easier, allowing the company to focus on its own agenda and not be pushed around by competitors.

Barnett has not been content to let the business rest, opening it up to a design audit by the Better by Design programme this year.

As a result, prominent New Zealand designers Peter Haythornthwaite and Ray Labone spend two days auditing everything from vision and values and design team structure to the product offering and brand proposition.

One of the strongest pieces of guidance it took away was that Obo had relied too heavily on product design and needed to "turn up the volume" on its brand.

"That's especially important with the transition we're now in between hockey and cricket," said Barnett.

* The Design in Business Awards are held yearly by the Designers' Institute of New Zealand in association with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. This year the awards were sponsored by Lexus. Hastings business Furnware, which makes school chairs, won the award for design innovation.

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* Obo gear is made from a foam the company produces itself.

* Its cell structure is tighter than that used by other brands, making it stronger and more durable.

* A thermo-bonding process sees the products made in their final shape.

* Leg guards are pre-moulded to fit the leg.

ON THE WEB www.obo.co.nz