Steve Milton: These Hamilton hockey guys turn out up to 20,000 Muskoka chairs each year
It was a hockey thing at first - they've been playing since they could walk - but it hasn't stopped there.
Five years in, they're still chair-men of the (rink) boards. But if you'd prefer to drop your butt into a stock car or football theme, a national flag, or even a scene of your own design, Ricky Walton, Mike Ruberto and Matt Ruberto will create the perfect landing spot.
Walton and the Ruberto twins own My Custom Sports Chair, a Stoney Creek company manufacturing high density polyethylene Muskoka chairs decorated with a tight vinyl wrap. You can choose the jersey of your favourite sports team, but you could also relax into the Hamilton skyline, a wine bottle, or numerous other lifestyle images. Or you could specialize a chair to promote your business.
Sports is what originally drew us to a product where we saw a huge potential," says Matt Ruberto, who is vice-president of production, while his brother is vice-president of sales and Walton is president. But, what we didn't see was all the corporate branding. It's probably 50 per cent of our business now."
And it's a strong business. They turn out 15,000 to 20,000 chairs a year and have shipped to every province and territory in Canada and every U.S. state.
Licensed chairs - there are rights agreements with the NHL, NHLPA, NFL, Major League Baseball, NASCAR, Molson-Coors and perhaps, eventually, the NBA - start at $349 each. Lifestyle and other nonlicensed images begin at $319, and unadorned furniture goes for $299. Every chair comes with the option of adding a personalized name and number on the back for an extra $50. They fold up for portability, but are heavy enough they can't be windswept from a dock or patio.
While the business has broadened significantly, its heartbeat has always been hockey. Walton and the Rubertos, all 37, played Hamilton triple AAA rep hockey together, then played against each other in junior: Walton as captain of the Kilty Bs, Matt as a top rearguard and Mike as a scoring forward for Oakville. The Rubertos always played together, through U.S. college, minor pro and eight years of Allan Cup Hockey, while Walton played some pro in Europe.
Eventually, the trio got into business together in late 2015 after Walton was shown an idea about stretching an image of NHLer Phil Kessel over a chair.
They built a website, creative vision, and marketing plan and soon secured an NHL licence agreement. They started wrapping chairs they'd purchase from another company in Walton's garage, but have since moved three times to accommodate expanding orders. In their first full year, they were up to 7,000 chairs and a year ago, to improve quality control they began manufacturing the chairs themselves at their large facility on Glover Road They've continued operating during the pandemic.
The most popular purchases in this area are, naturally, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Blue Jays, while the Patriots, Packers and Raiders lead the customized NFL purchases.
And about 50 NHLers have placed orders.
A couple of years ago we sent about 150 to Ray Bourque for his golf tournament in Boston, customized for every entrant," Matt Ruberto says. We did a Bruins chair for raffling at Zac Rinaldo's charity tournament. Brent Burns got 10 for his ranch in Texas, and Tyler Seguin's mom ordered 10, one for each of his teams from the GTHL on up.
And we did chairs for Drake's producer (Noah James Shebib). He played hockey with Mike and me."
Of course.
Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com