Marucci Sports buys equipment designer Lizard Skins
27 October, 2021
Marucci Sports has purchased Lizard Skins, a designer and seller of branded grip products, protective equipment, bags and apparel for use in baseball, cycling, hockey, esports and lacrosse, the companies announced today.
With the new deal, Marucci, which makes equipment for baseball and softball players, builds on its position in diamond sports and expands into new sports under Compass Diversified, which purchased the locally grown company last year for $200 million.
“Our team at [Compass Diversified] prides itself on being business builders, having completed nearly 30 add-on transactions for our subsidiaries since our inception,” says Compass CEO Elias Sabo.
Terms of the new transaction were not announced.
Retired professional baseball players Kurt Ainsworth and Joe Lawrence and LSU trainer Jack Marucci founded Marucci Bat Company in 2004. Ainsworth and Lawrence partnered with Reed Dickens in 2009 to launch Marucci Sports, which acquired the bat company. Marucci was named a 2016 Company of the Year in the Baton Rouge Business Awards and Hall of Fame.
Lizard Skins launched in 1993 with a focus on designing products to protect bicycles and riders and has since expanded to a range of sports. Lizard makes the official bat grip of Major League Baseball, grips for various pro cycling teams, and a hockey grip tape is a licensed product of the National Hockey League, the company says.
Compass Diversified (CODI on the New York Stock Exchange) owns and manages middle market businesses that it says are leaders in their niche markets. CODI maintains controlling ownership interests in each of its subsidiaries, providing debt and equity capital, the firm says.