A Major League Operation at Louisville Slugger®
featuring the E-Class printing solutions
barcode labels for retail
The first Louisville Slugger Baseball Bat was created
in 1884 by the legendary Bud Hillerich. For more
than 100 years, in Louisville, Kentucky, Hillerich
& Bradsby Co., one of the longest running, family
owned and operated sporting goods
manufacturer thrives on “the crack of
the bat”. Hillerich & Bradsby Co. is the
manufacturer of Louisville Slugger®
baseball bat, PowerBilt® golf, and
Louisville Hockey® equipment. Like
any other supplier that sells to the retail
industry, retail compliance labeling on
packaged sporting goods is a must.
Louisville Slugger® initially selected
the Datamax-O’Neil E-4203 label
printer for a beta test in conjunction
with a unique, mobile, RF, cart system
designed by Rosemary Rogge and
Larry Grubbs of Hillerich & Bradsby
Co., and engineered by Jerrold
Sherrold and Thomas Comey of Walker
Technologies, a Datamax-O’Neil
dealer located in Cincinnati, Ohio.
“The RF system was designed to add
efficiency to the picking process and
to streamline compliance labeling and
carrier labeling for Louisville Slugger
products going to retail department
stores,” said Thomas Comey, President
of Walker Technologies.
The battery powered, “BatMobile”,
as the computer cart has been
nicknamed, supports the DatamaxO’Neil label printer, and an RF Glacier Computer, with
touchscreen monitor. The cart hooks up to a second,
stock cart for product picking and labeling. In recent
months, the Datamax-O’Neil I- 4208 was integrated
into their existing shipping system at their largest
distribution center for shipping labels. “The I-Class
was selected for durability and high volume printing,
and the computer cart was
redesigned to accommodate the
Datamax-O’Neil I-Class Printer,”
adds Thomas Comey.
While it is important for each
product to be labeled with specific
customer UPC barcodes, it is
also vital for shipping carriers
to have their unique Maxicode
on the Louisville Slugger
packages. “It was the need to
add more efficiency to the supply
chain flow that prompted our
design of the mobile cart and
printer combination, and our
customer’s label requirements
that initiated the selection of the
Datamax-O’Neil. The DatamaxO’Neil I-Class printer has been
successful at meeting our
barcode labeling needs and the
needs of our retail customers,”
said Larry Grubbs, VP of
Information Systems at Louisville
Slugger.