We appreciate your candid review of our Reaction Pro Plate. Your 30 years of umpiring experience certainly gives you a deep and wide perspective.

Listening to the positives and negatives from professionals like yourself have really made our officiating line what it is today. We are continually trying to improve our product so we appreciate not only hearing about areas where we can improve, but also what you you think we are doing right.

Thanks again for the post! Hope to see you in the Mid Cut next year!

Our company and trade name is 3N2, but a bit of confusion sometimes arises because our web URL is 3N2sports.com. Because of this, there are many folks that believe that our company name is 3N2 Sports, which would imply that we currently focus on a wide range of sports.

The fact is that we have always been a company dedicated exclusively to ball and bat sports, developing our product solely for the baseball and softball markets. Our core focus at 3N2 is to design and develop the best footwear, apparel and uniforms for the serious softball and baseball athlete.

That being said, we have found that our apparel, uniforms, trainers, turfs and cleats have been widely used in other sports (ranging from Lacrosse, Football and Basketball, to Bowling and Horseback riding). Although we find a small and growing portion of our sales coming from outside baseball and softball, we are not currently targeting these markets specifically.

Whatever the sport, players want a quality product and if our product is delivering on its quality promise than I would see more and more athletes – regardless of the sport – using 3N2 product.

Thanks for the question.

Have owned and worn out just about every shoe you can think of. Some plate shoes were industrial work shoes altered to have a metatarsal support affixed. Heavy and uncomfortable. Some of the new stuff from major shoe manufacturers have excessively large irritating logos while remaining heavy like a steel-toe work boot.

Glad to see the Pro-Plate will be introduced in a high top. Offering a size 12.5 was good, and I recommend strongly to order a size 1/2 to 1 size larger than your true size.

Although your company is 3N2 sports, it focuses only on baseball related sports, i.e. softball, fast pitch, etc. Have you ever thought to expand to several different sports or is it a baseball related company only?

Thank you,
Mike

Thank you for your thoughtful question. Let me start by saying that 3N2 is headquartered in the United States and supports an enthusiastic and growing base of Florida-based employees. All 3N2 products are designed by our talented stateside design team and some of our apparel items and uniforms are currently proudly made in the USA. In addition, 100% of the many outsourced services 3N2 currently supports – from marketing and advertising, to printing, accounting and legal – are all US-based.

To your comment, I completely agree that hardworking men and women in the U.S. produce some of the highest quality goods in the world. The issue is that the labor and overhead costs are also close to the highest in the World.

The great majority of athletic footwear brands produce their footwear in China and Vietnam. We simply cannot compete against the athletic footwear giants if we manufacture any other place besides Asia. Keep in mind that manufacturing footwear in Asia is not solely related to cost; Asia actually has some of the most advanced machinery, technologies and processes on the planet for the manufacturing of athletic footwear. There is a reason why over the last several decades that they have become the footwear manufacturing capital of the world. Believe me, there are less expensive places to manufacture than China and Vietnam, but you risk quality when you consider pioneering footwear manufacturing in countries with lower labor costs and no experience in shoe making.

Once again, footwear is a product we simply cannot currently manufacture effectively in the US but as mentioned previously we have a uniform line and many apparel products that are made in the USA and are always looking for opportunities to deepen our “Made in the USA” product base.

In any case, our product is currently available in Japan and Korea at US military bases, and of course online.

You are right. It is hard to find a sharp looking Umpire Shoe and, as you know, design is relative. Throughout the years we have learned that no design pleases everyone and that for umpire shoes function often trumps form.

Both the POS and the Gerry Davis you mention are nice looking kicks. I have to point out that they retail at about $30-$40 more than the 3N2 umpire shoes but also have many design lines and leather cuts that allow for dirt build up which makes it more difficult to polish and clean.

One thing we learned from our loyal umpire community is that being able to clean the shoes easily is a very important attribute for an umpire shoe. When you design a shoe for premium function there are certain restrictions we have on the overall shoe design.

What you will see in our new Reaction Flat Bottom Referee shoe is that we have broken the bounds of the traditional clunky midsole and outsole and developed a non-marking outsole that is made to reduce the stress on the joints and back and made to run…It is definitely a more design-forward referee shoe, while maintaining optimum functionality.

It remains our goal to marry form and function in 3N2 products and as footwear technologies and materials evolve, we continue to get closer to the point where form and function will become synonymous.

Thanks again for your honest insight.

I like my NB and Reeboks, but would like something good looking, which neither of them are.