Brine is an American sporting goods company that manufactures

lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

, and

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

equipment. It markets its products under its own brand as well as In The Crease for goals and goal accessories. The company was founded by W.H. Brine in 1922 as the W.H. Brine Company. It was privately owned by the Brine family and named Brine, Inc. before it was acquired by

New Balance New Balance Athletics, Inc. (NB), doing business as New Balance, is one of the world's major sports footwear and apparel manufacturers. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the multinational corporation was founded in 1906 as the New Balance Arch Su ...

on August 4, 2006.

History

Foundation

Brine was founded in 1922 by W.H. Brine as the W.H. Brine Company. It started as a small sports equipment and uniform

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

. They sold to

private school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

s and regional camps, quickly growing to a major manufacturer of

and

equipment. The Brines the founder's family have been sports goods vendors first as retailers since 1867. James F. Brine's founded in 1867 in Cambridge, Massachusetts is currently located in Concord, Massachusetts.

1950s

During the 1950s Brine focused on

. Lacrosse sticks were all wooden at the time and the only company producing them was Chisholm Lacrosse which was located on the St. Regis Reservation, Cornwall Island,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. With the encouragement and assistance from A. MacDonald Murphy of

Governor Dummer Academy The Governor's Academy (informally known as Governor's or Govs) is a co-educational, college-preparatory day and boarding school in Byfield, Massachusetts. Established in 1763 in memory of Massachusetts governor William Dummer, Governor's is th ...

, Ferris Thomsen, coach of Penn and

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

and Mort LaPointe of

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. It was chartered in 1794. The main Bowdoin campus is located near Casco Bay and the Androscoggin River. In a ...

, the Brine family began to explore the possibilities of manufacturing lacrosse sticks.

1960s

Brine started to manufacture soccer balls and equipment in the 1960s. It was the first company to cover the ball with synthetic leather to make it more durable. It was also the first to make a perfectly round bladder and the first to unconditionally guarantee a ball.

1970s

Attempting to make a lacrosse stick that was durable and easy to make, the Brine family experimented with laminated wood, plastic, fiberglass and aluminum but could not find a material that met the performance standards. They continued to experiment and eventually found

Surlyn An ionomer () ('' iono-'' + '' -mer'') is a polymer composed of repeat units of both electrically neutral repeating units and ionized units covalently bonded to the polymer backbone as pendant group moieties. Usually no more than 15 mole perce ...

, a

DuPont Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to: People * Dupont (surname) Dupont, also spelled as DuPont, duPont, Du Pont, or du Pont is a French surname meaning "of the bridge", historically indicating that the holder of the surname re ...

plastic, to have the necessary properties to survive the intensity of lacrosse. Brine then developed a molding technique that was the basic draft shape of the standard in modern sticks.

Cascade

In 1986 Bill Brine left the family's company and founded Cascade, now the largest lacrosse helmet and eyewear company in the world.

Recent years

Brine started an

apparel Clothing (also known as clothes, garments, dress, apparel, or attire) is any item worn on a human human body, body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin s ...

line and a line of

equipment in the 1990s. In 2000, it released a full line of

equipment. Brine began to make lacrosse helmets and eyemasks in 2003. Also in 2003, Brine acquired In The Crease, a lacrosse goal and accessories company based in

Penn Yan, New York Penn Yan is an incorporated Village (New York), village and the county seat of Yates County, New York, Yates County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 5,159 at the 2010 census. It lies at the north end of the east bran ...

and in 2004 it began making athletic footwear. On August 4, 2006,

acquired Brine and shortly after that the name was changed to Brine, Corp. from Brine, Inc.

Video Game

In 2005, they released the first mobile lacrosse video game, titled

Brine Lacrosse ''Brine Lacrosse'' (sometimes also called ''Brine LAX'') is a lacrosse mobile game. Development It is the first lacrosse game ever made for mobile phones and the second ever lacrosse video game on any platform (the first being '' Blast Lacross ...

References

External links

Brine Official WebsiteBrine Sporting Goods Official Website
Brine Sporting Goods is a retailer founded by W.H. Brine's grandfather {{New Balance Sportswear brands Manufacturing companies established in 1922

Manufacturer Manufacturing is the creation or Production (economics), production of goods with the help of equipment, Work (human activity), labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary se ...

Shoe companies of the United States Sporting goods manufacturers of the United States Companies based in Massachusetts Clothing companies established in 1922