Bison Inc

A National Leader That Wins the Game

A Goal for Every Game

In 1985, a Midwestern manufacturing company set out to solve a simple problem. Youth baseball teams were hauling bats and balls in army duffel bags, leaving equipment dirty and disorganized. The solution was a wire baseball equipment caddy, a product that would ultimately pave the way for what would become Bison Inc. “That was our beginning,” recalls Co-Founder and CEO Nick Cusick. “Like a lot of companies, we started really small and then built from there.”

Today, Bison is a national manufacturer of sports equipment with a product line that spans basketball, volleyball, soccer, football, tennis, pickleball, lacrosse, field hockey, badminton, tetherball, and more. Its marketing tagline, “A Goal for Every Game,” captures the extent of its reach in the sports equipment manufacturing market. The company sells exclusively through dealers and independent reps and works with about 750 dealers nationwide.

But the story of Bison is not just about goals and games. It is about domestic manufacturing, long-term relationships, steady ownership, and a culture that blends innovation with what the company calls “Nebraska nice.”

From Job Shop to Sports Equipment Leader

At the beginning, Bison had no background in sports, but that first product would soon lead to a much larger opportunity. While promoting the equipment caddy, the company relied on its independent sales representatives who called on dealers across the country. “We knew there were other opportunities out there,” Cusick relays. “One of our reps asked if we could make basketball rims, and we could.”

At the time, breakaway rims were largely confined to high-end college programs and the NBA because they were expensive and still emerging in the marketplace. For Cusick, this was an opening. “We came up with a breakaway rim that could be sold at a price that got affordability down to the high school and pretty much all college levels,” he says. “And we still make that same rim today, 40 years later.” This success helped to establish basketball as the Bison’s mainstay. “Baseball was our beginning, but basketball was our more active beginning,” he remarks.

From there, the company expanded steadily. “We indeed have most of the team sports covered. If you’re looking at reasons why we’ve grown over the years, one of them is because we’ve expanded our product line,” Cusick reflects.

Made in America, By Design

One of Bison’s defining characteristics is its commitment to domestic manufacturing. Cusick details, “90 percent of our sourcing is done domestically, and 80% of our manufacturing is done in our own facility here. We are the manufacturer. We’re not a reseller.”

He notes that this approach brings many advantages. “We absolutely control our own quality. It’s our own staff, our own machining, our own welders, fabricators, powder coating line, all of those things. We control that here, close to home.”  This also allows the company to experiment, pivot, and change course more easily. “We are in a position to develop new products or make design changes or improvements more efficiently than if we were outsourcing stuff internationally,” he continues.

“We have a lot more control over our own destiny using domestic sources and domestic labor,” President Jennifer Rawlinson adds. “During COVID, when a lot of our competitors weren’t able to bring in equipment from overseas, we had an advantage, because we had a large warehouse full of finished goods and work-in-process inventory. Even when we got a little bit behind, we were able to bring in extra labor to get some of our backboards, for example, built and out the door before the basketball season started.”

Innovation on the Court

Bison’s growth has been driven not only by expansion into new sports but by consistent innovation. In 1990, the company introduced a durable, mountable backboard safety padding that replaced the glue on foam models that often failed mid-season. It also developed outdoor basketball systems designed for heavy use in unsupervised settings. “We knew there had always been an issue of durability because of hanging, dunking, and unsupervised play. So we invented something we call the Ultimate™ Basketball System,” Cusick shares.

“It’s a six-inch square pole, with a long extension arm for safety. It has an unconditional lifetime warranty on the rim, pole, and backboard.”

In volleyball, Bison was the first to introduce carbon fiber systems, which were brought to market in 2006. “A volleyball court is set up and taken down almost every day, particularly in high schools, because the facility is used for multiple things,” Cusick explains. “Carbon fiber was not only as durable as steel or aluminum, but also lighter weight.” Bison was also the first to introduce a portable, ballasted competition volleyball system that did not require extra cables or wall attachments.

Safety is also at the core of Bison’s innovative product offerings. Rawlinson emphasizes, “Some of these design changes actually are benefits, not just to the competition game, but they also make it easier and safer for people to play on these equipment devices.” No-Tip™ soccer goals are one example, offering stability without needing to be attached to the ground.

“We believe that we have a responsibility as equipment manufacturers that are played on by youth and others, to make sure when they’re playing on Bison equipment, it’s safe and durable, for the owner of the equipment, for the school or the YMCA, or the park and rec department,” asserts Cusick. “They want durable and safe. And those are certainly core values of our manufacturing strategy.”

Bringing It All Under One Roof

As Bison grew, so did its footprint across multiple buildings in its home base of Lincoln, Nebraska. At one point, operations were spread across more than a dozen structures. “With growth came the inefficiencies of operating in different buildings,” says Cusick.

To address this challenge, the company recently consolidated everything under one roof.

In early 2025, Bison opened an 85,000 square foot addition, adding onto its existing 40,000 square foot warehouse and assembly space. “Our current plant allows for significant growth. There is a lot more even flow from one department to another in a single building. It’s working out really well. It was a great investment,” he acknowledges. The next step is to move administrative offices to the new site, as outlined in the company’s long-term master plan.

A Culture of Service and Stability

Bison employs roughly 100 people, many of whom have been with the company for decades. “At every level of the organization, we have 20-plus-year employees,” Rawlinson expands. “We’re grateful that they’ve lent their expertise to us for that long, and of course, they’re very knowledgeable about the product line, how to manufacture, and what the customer is looking for.”

The company operates under a customer service-focused philosophy. “We tell our staff that the customer is always right. We always give them the benefit of the doubt,” says Cusick. “Our customer service people are what we call ‘Nebraska nice.’ We’re not always perfect, but we believe that our dealers and our customers rely on us. When we do have some problem with delivery, or a damaged freight, or some sort of quality problem, we are dedicated to fixing it.”

Strong community involvement is also a cornerstone of Bison’s culture. “Lincoln is my hometown, it is Jennifer’s hometown, and we both, and many of our employees, are active in the community,” Cusick recounts. This service spans sitting on boards, company-wide United Way fundraisers, and involvement in the TeamMates mentoring program. “We feel that part of our corporate responsibility is giving back, and we feel that our employees buy into that.”

Bison’s longevity and family-owned structure are other advantages. “My wife and I are 87% owners. We have a few employees who have small shares of stock, but the fact that we’ve not gone through any ownership transitions since our founding is somewhat unusual in our industry,” he details. “We’ve stayed true to our dealer base and to our independent reps who call on our dealers. So I think the combination of all those has served us well from a growth perspective.”

Looking Ahead

As Bison faces the ongoing challenges of tariffs, interest rates, and tighter school budgets, the focus remains on growth. “We have the capacity to grow with our efficiencies,” Rawlinson highlights. “We have looked at some possibilities of doing some contract manufacturing, looking into some new markets, and are seeking appropriate acquisitions in our market space.”

The company is also investing in its sister company, IPI by Bison, which focuses on new construction and major renovation projects such as schools and YMCAs. “We’re a medium-sized player in that market,” Cusick maintains. “There are three or four companies that are larger than us in that space, so we think there’s some room to grow.”

After four decades, Bison’s story reflects one of steady evolution, which started with a simple baseball caddy, grew by making breakaway rims affordable, and expanded by listening to its customers. Through it all, Bison has remained a family company, with a commitment to quality, relationships, and American manufacturing.

AT A GLANCE

Who: Bison Inc

What: A leading domestic manufacturer of sports equipment

Where: Lincoln, Nebraska

Website: www.bisoninc.com