2023 Startups to Watch: Sandlot stitches new plays, taking non-tech startup into extra innings

Editor’s note: Startland News selected 10 Kansas City scaling businesses to spotlight for its annual Startups to Watch list. Now in its eighth year, this feature recognizes founders and startups that editors believe will make some of the biggest news in the coming 12 months. The following is one of 2023’s companies.

Click here to view the full list of Startups to Watch — presented in partnership with Social Apex, supported by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and independently produced by Startland News.

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Although Sandlot Goods has been manufacturing products in Kansas City since 2014, founder Chad Hickman still considers the company to be in its startup stage.

“Up until the pandemic — when we really put like a ton of work behind growth — it was something that was purposefully small,” he explained. “So it does feel like right now that we are essentially starting down the path of where we really want to go.”

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Elevator pitch: Exceptional people making exceptional products, specifically manufactured soft goods. We are entrepreneurial. We’re a startup, but we are not a tech-based fast-growth company. We are back-to-old-school manufacturing in the U.S. in Kansas City. But doing it in a cool creative way, adding innovation whenever we can.

• Founder: Chad Hickman
• Founding year: 2014
• Current employee count: 48
• Amount raised to date: Undisclosed
• Noteworthy investors: Undisclosed

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What first began as a creative services business has evolved from baseball-inspired leather goods made in Hickman’s garage to masks during the pandemic to hats designed and made in KC to Yardballs — the latest project. 

The pandemic and pivoting to making masks was a turning point for Sandlot, Hickman said.

“We went from seven people all the way up to, I think, we went to 65 people,” he continued. “It was such an exciting time, such a scary time. But it proved to us that there’s this workforce in Kansas City that was there and we just had no idea. It inspired us to do what I had always wanted to do, which was make hats. There’s just an immense pride in making the thing I love in Kansas City.”

Sandlot — KC’s only local hat maker — kicked off 2022 with a big league endorsement from and collaboration with Kansas City Royals infielder Nicky Lopez.

“That really was fun to get that going off in the spring,” said Garret Prather, vice president of strategic partnerships, who joined Sandlot in April. “I think really key for us is we just got really good at what we do. It took about two years to get there — switching from mask making to start the pandemic to then hat making and using the same personnel and same machinery. We really hit our stride this year in just making a really good hat.”

But it’s more than just about the hats, Prather added. It’s about the connections.

“We really see this as something different,” he continued. “Yes, we’re a manufacturer, but we want to partner. We want to see how we can take something that is as simple as a hat and make it essential for their brand (and) make it key for their identity.”

Yardball by Sandlot Goods

This year also brought a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign for the Yardball — ​​a baseball-esque ball sewn by hand with a soft, premium leather that is so lightweight that there is no need for a glove. The project was fully funded in less than six hours and finished nine times above goal.

“It’s not a revolutionary idea,” Prather explained. “But it’s a pretty cool product that we saw over 2,000 people think the same thing sight unseen. So that helped build some momentum.”

To continue the strategy for growth, Hickman said, Sandlot brought in Thomas McIntyre — one of the co-founders of Made in KC (which owns a minority stake in Sandlot Goods and also helped to launch the Yardball) — as CEO.

Garret Prather, Sandlot Goods

Thomas McIntyre, Sandlot Goods

“We have a unique person over here that finds joy in finance and growth,” Hickman noted. “He’s been there before. He’s taken Made in Kansas City from one shop to definitely a force in the city. … He’s really helping craft the vision for the future, which is something that has always been talked about.”

While Sandlot is hitting its stride with manufacturing, Prather added, McIntyre will do the same for the business side.

“Thomas is a cheat code for business acceleration,” he noted. “Thomas brings that experience and wealth of knowledge, just to help us basically get to a point where we wouldn’t normally without him. It would take three years to get to a point (yet) he’s gonna get us there in less than a year.”

McIntryre is excited to join the Sandlot team and see his role as getting the company to where its leaders want to be five to 10 years down the road, he said.

“Obviously, next year is the most important part of that step forward,” McIntryre added. “We’re a manufacturing company. We’re not a tech company, and so growth looks a little bit different for us. That’s what we want to see over the course of the next few years is healthy sustainable growth. That growth is going to come from innovating on new products, letting as many people see our name and our products as we possibly can, and growing our actual manufacturing team here in Kansas City.”

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Startups to Watch presented in partnership with Social Apex, supported by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and independently produced by Startland News.

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Kansas City Startups to Watch in 2023

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Startups to Watch is possible thanks to support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a private, nonpartisan foundation that works together with communities in education and entrepreneurship to create uncommon solutions and empower people to shape their futures and be successful.

For more information, visit www.kauffman.org and connect at www.twitter.com/kauffmanfdn and www.facebook.com/kauffmanfdn