Company type | Public company |
---|---|
Industry | Bowling products |
Website | stormbowling |
Storm Products Inc. is an American company involved in the manufacture and sale of bowling balls and bowling-related accessories. The company headquarters and main manufacturing facility are in Brigham City, Utah, [1] with two smaller facilities in California and Texas. [2] Storm has produced many bowling balls used in the sport by competitive players, [3] and has numerous sponsorship agreements on both the PBA and PWBA Tours. [4] [5] Storm currently employs about 165 people (about 120 in Utah). The company manufactures about 500,000 balls a year, and ships to 70 countries. [2]
Storm Products also owns the Roto Grip and 900 Global bowling ball brands. [6]
Storm Products was founded by Bill and Barbara Chrisman in 1985. The company originated as High Score Products, a chemical company that developed bowling ball cleaners. [7] In 1991, with assistance from Bill's friend and fellow bowling enthusiast Keith Orton, the company began manufacturing high-performance bowling balls, creating a subsidiary called Storm. At the time, High Score Products was still the parent company, but by 1994, the company changed its name to Storm Products Inc. [8]
In 1997, Storm acquired the Roto Grip brand of bowling balls. Storm has also acquired the Master brand of bowling accessories. [9] In 2000, Storm Products Inc. patented a process to add fragrances to bowling balls. [7]
In 2014, Storm Products announced it had made an investment in Global Manufacturing LLC of San Antonio, Texas, makers of the 900 Global brand of bowling balls and 3G bowling shoes. However, Storm stated that 900 Global will operate as an independent company with separate research and design teams. [10] Further, bowlers with Storm sponsorships on the PBA Tour could not use 900 Global equipment, and vice versa. In April 2020, 900 Global's manufacturing moved from Texas to Storm's Utah facility, due to executive orders by the Governor of Texas related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The design, research, development and marketing teams remained in San Antonio. [11]
On September 29, 2020, Storm fully acquired all assets of Global Manufacturing, adding 900 Global and 3G products to the Storm marketing portfolio. As a result, Storm and Roto Grip sponsored players on the PBA and PWBA tours can now use 900 Global equipment, and vice versa. [6] [12]
In 2021, both Bill and Barbara Chrisman were inducted into the USBC Hall of Fame for meritorious service. It marked the first time ever that a husband and wife were inducted into this Hall of Fame in the same year. Bill had previously been inducted into the Utah State USBC Hall of Fame in 2005. [13]
On September 28, 2023, Storm co-founder and CEO Bill Chrisman passed away at the age of 74. [14]
In February, 2024, Bill and Barbara Chrisman were voted into the PBA Hall of Fame for meritorious service. They were officially inducted at a ceremony in Akron, Ohio on April 27, 2024. [15]
Bowlers sponsored by Storm brands as of June 30, 2023. [16]
Ten-pin bowling is a type of bowling in which a bowler rolls a bowling ball down a wood or synthetic lane toward ten pins positioned evenly in four rows in an equilateral triangle. The goal is to knock down all ten pins on the first roll of the ball, or failing that, on the second roll. While most people approach modern ten-pin bowling as a simple recreational pastime, those who bowl competitively, especially at the highest levels, consider it a demanding sport requiring precision and skill.
Norm Duke is an American professional bowler who previously competed on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour and now competes on the PBA50 Tour. He has won 40 titles on the PBA Tour, including seven major championships, and another six titles on the PBA50 Tour. A member of both the PBA and USBC Halls of Fame, Duke is one of only three players in history to reach 40 career PBA Tour titles. He has bowled 73 perfect 300 games in PBA competition, including the 16th televised 300 game in PBA Tour history on January 5, 2003. Duke is a member of the Storm pro staff.
A perfect game is the highest score possible in a game of bowling, achieved by scoring a strike with every throw. In bowling games that use 10 pins, such as ten-pin bowling, candlepin bowling, and duckpin bowling, the highest possible score is 300, achieved by bowling 12 strikes in a row in a traditional single game: one strike in each of the first nine frames, and three more in the tenth frame.
The United States Bowling Congress (USBC) is a sports membership organization dedicated to ten-pin bowling in the United States. It was formed in 2005 by a merger of the American Bowling Congress—the original codifier of all tenpin bowling standards, rules, and regulations from 1895 onwards; the Women's International Bowling Congress—founded in 1916, as the female bowlers' counterpart to the then all-male ABC; the Young American Bowling Alliance; and USA Bowling. The USBC's headquarters are located in Arlington, Texas, after having moved from the Milwaukee suburb of Greendale, Wisconsin, in November 2008. The move enabled the USBC to combine its operations with the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America (BPAA).
Diandra Hyman Asbaty is an American bowler who represented Team USA for fifteen years and was United States Amateur Champion in 1999 and 2006. She is also an official youth bowling spokesperson for the United States Bowling Congress (USBC). She competed in the PBA Women's Series from 2007 to 2010, winning two titles in that span. She also won the 2012 USBC Queens major tournament and continues to compete in PWBA tournaments. Asbaty has been elected to the USBC Hall of Fame.
Clara Juliana Guerrero Londoño is a right-handed Colombian ten-pin bowler who has won Colombian championships and multiple international championships. She has been a member of Team Colombia for twenty years, and another half dozen years on Junior Team Colombia. She has one title on the PWBA Tour since the rebirth of the Professional Women's Bowling Association in 2015.
The International Bowling Museum is a sports museum located inside the International Bowling Campus in Arlington, Texas. It opened on January 26, 2010, after previously being located in St. Louis, Missouri. The design and fabrication of the new facility was awarded to Museum Arts Inc., a Dallas company. There is also an IBM satellite campus located in Reno, Nevada at the National Bowling Stadium.
Kelly Kulick is an American professional bowler, bowling coach and sportscaster. She has won ten professional women's bowling titles, one PBA Tour title and a professional mixed doubles title. Kulick is the first woman ever to win a regular Professional Bowlers Association tour title and the only woman to win a major PBA Tour tournament. She is a 16-time member of Team USA. Kulick is currently a pro staff member for Storm Bowling, Vise grips and High 5 gear. In 2019, Kulick was inducted into the USBC Hall of Fame, Superior Performance category.
The Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) organizes and oversees a series of annual tournaments for the top competitive women ten-pin bowlers. The series is often referred to as the "women's tour" of bowling.
Carolyn Dorin-Ballard is one of the top female ten-pin bowlers in the world. She is a member of the Professional Women's Bowling Association and has bowled in PBA Tournaments as well. She was an exempt competitor in the 2008–09 and 2009-10 PBA Women's Series seasons, which were sponsored by the United States Bowling Congress (USBC). Between the PWBA and the PBA Women's Series, she has won 22 professional titles. Carolyn was a 2008 inductee into the USBC Hall of Fame, and a 2020 inductee into the PWBA Hall of Fame.
Delmas Perry "Del" Ballard Jr. is a professional ten-pin bowler and member of the Professional Bowlers Association. He was a 2009 inductee into the PBA Hall of Fame, and a 2011 inductee into the USBC Hall of Fame. Ballard is the husband of top female bowler Carolyn Dorin-Ballard with whom he has one daughter. The Ballard family now resides in North Richland Hills, Texas. He is also the brother-in-law of another top female bowler, Cathy Dorin-Lizzi.
Elizabeth Ann Johnson is an American professional bowler who currently competes on the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) Tour, and in some events on the PBA Tour and PBA50 Tour. She initially became known as an 11-time winner on the PWBA Tour, which included the first of her six U.S. Women's Open titles in 1996, before that organization suspended operations in 2003.
Leanne Barrette-Hulsenberg, from Roseville, California and currently of North Ogden, Utah, was one of the top female professional bowlers on the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) Tour. In a career that spanned 17 years, she won 27 PWBA titles and was a three-time PWBA Player of the Year. In 2007, she was elected to the USBC Hall of Fame for Superior Performance, and was inducted with the 2008 class. She was inducted into the PWBA Hall of Fame in 2019, as a member of the first Hall of Fame class since that organization suspended operations in 2003.
Wendy Macpherson is an American ten-pin bowler. She was born on January 28, 1968, in Walnut Creek, California, and currently lives in Henderson, Nevada.
The USBC Queens is an annual ten-pin bowling event for amateur and professional female bowlers, sanctioned by the United States Bowling Congress. The event is one of four women's professional majors since the PWBA tour returned in 2015 and the female equivalent of the USBC Masters, now one of the four majors on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour.
Anthony Walter Simonsen is an American professional ten-pin bowler. He has been a member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) since 2014. Simonsen became known in bowling fan circles early in the 2016 season, when he earned the distinction as the youngest player in history to win a PBA major championship. He is now the youngest player in history to own five major PBA Tour titles. He uses the two-handed shovel-style delivery with a dominant right hand. At age 25, Simonsen eclipsed $1 million in career PBA earnings during the 2022 season. Simonsen has also bowled internationally as a multi-year member of Team USA.
Tom Hess is a right-handed American professional bowler from Urbandale, Iowa, and is a member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA). He now bowls out of Granger, Iowa. Hess is a member of the PBA Hall of Fame in the Veterans/Senior category.
Daria Pająk is a competitive bowler on the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) Tour in the United States. Following early bowling success in Poland, Pająk moved to the United States in 2012, eventually going professional and earning PWBA 2017 Rookie of the Year.
MOTIV Bowling is an American company involved in the manufacture and sale of bowling balls. The company headquarters are in Spring Lake, Michigan, with the main manufacturing facility in nearby Muskegon Heights.
Aleta Sill is a retired American professional ten-pin bowler and current bowling coach from Dearborn Heights, Michigan. She competed nationally on the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) Tour from 1980 through 2001. In her career, the left-handed Sill won 31 titles, including six major championships. She was the first female bowler to eclipse $1 million in career earnings. Aleta is a 1996 inductee into both the PWBA Hall of Fame and the USBC Hall of Fame.