MOTIV Bowling is an American company involved in the manufacture and sale of

bowling balls A bowling ball is a hard spherical ball used to knock down bowling pins in the sport of bowling. Balls used in ten-pin bowling and American nine-pin bowling traditionally have holes for two fingers and the thumb. Balls used in five-pin bowling, ...

. The company headquarters are in

Spring Lake, Michigan Spring Lake is a village in Ottawa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 2,497 at the 2020 census. The village is located within Spring Lake Township; the two share a ZIP code. History In 1837, Captain Benjamin Hopkins p ...

, with the main manufacturing facility in nearby Muskegon Heights.

History

MOTIV had its beginnings in the 1990s as Wilbur Products, a company that engineered cores for other high-performance bowling ball brands. When its largest customer ( Brunswick) chose to move its manufacturing from Michigan to

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, Wilbur Products embarked on a project to start its own bowling ball production, launching the MOTIV brand in 2009.

Patents

MOTIV patented a process called NeoMark M/small>, which integrates logos and other graphics into the cover stock of the ball. (Other bowling ball manufacturers use etching or engraving for logos and graphics.)

Current company

MOTIV continues to operate out of the Muskegon, MI area, and employs approximately 65 people. It has become a notable high-performance brand among league, tournament and professional players, and is now one of three parent companies (with

Storm A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere of an astronomical body. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, tornadoes, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderstor ...

and Brunswick) producing balls authorized for use on the PBA and PWBA Tours.

MOTIV-sponsored professional bowlers

MOTIV has produced many bowling balls used in the sport by competitive players, and has several sponsorship agreements on both the PBA and PWBA Tours. List of notable MOTIV-sponsored players as of December, 2024: *

Dick Allen Richard Anthony Allen (March 8, 1942 – December 7, 2020), nicknamed "Crash" and "the Wampum Walloper", was an American professional baseball player. During his 15-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, he played as a first baseman and thir ...

*Sam Cooley *Ethan Fiore * A. J. Johnson *Sean Lavery-Spahr * Wesley Low * Erin McCarthy *Maria José Rodriguez *Ronnie Russell *Matt Russo * Tom Smallwood * E. J. Tackett *Zac Tackett *Santtu Tahvanainen

References

{{Bowling Ten-pin bowling equipment manufacturers