Trampoline History

Joe Burchfield - ITIA's First President - A Pioneer In The Consumer Trampoline Industry

The International Trampoline Industry Association's first President, Joe Burchfield, is often referred to as a "legend" in the consumer trampoline industry. As President of TC Baycor, and Vice President of the Nicolon Corporation, Burchfield has had a tremendous influence on the growth of the trampoline industry. He nurtured its growth in the mid to late 1970's, and eventually seized the opportunity to rapidly expand its growth. He recognized and implemented several key elements, which changed the consumer trampoline industry forever.

Burchfield has remained steadfast in his passion for the trampoline, as well as in his quest for a trampoline trade association. Burchfield brings years of knowledge and experience to his position as the first president of ITIA. It is befitting for a man of Burchfield's stature to guide us into the 21st century, where new demands may be placed on the industry.

In the following interview with Burchfield, his personal experience, which led to his becoming a leader in the industry, as well as the history of the consumer trampoline industry, itself, are described in detail.

During his early years, Burchfield's family traveled frequently. His father, a typical southerner, elected to leave the coal mines of Alabama and do construction work in different states to support his family. His mother was a strong Christian woman who dedicated herself to her family. Looking back, Burchfield now realizes that his family, who lived in a small 17 foot house trailer, and moved from one state to another each year, would have been considered poor.

Burchfield was a fine athlete in high school, and was offered a partial athletic scholarship to Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. Burchfield recalls that this was not "a happy time of my life." He was a poor kid in a large university hundreds of miles away from home. But, he says, "it made me realize, for the first time, that life would be a lot easier if I were financially successful."

After a couple of years at Kent State, it was apparent that he could no longer afford to stay in college. So, he elected to take the other option that was prevalent back in the late 50's and early 60's which was to join the army.

Burchfield served in the Army Security Agency for three years. Following his military experience, he worked for eight years in the aerospace industry as a Purchasing Agent, Contract Administrator, and Sales Engineer for the Boeing Company, Sterer Engineering and Manufacturing Corporation, and an aerospace manufacturers representative group. Burchfield specialized in NASA contracts and represented the Boeing Company in negotiating weight savings changes with NASA on the Saturn V Space Vehicle.

Q: Your introduction to trampolines came when you joined Chicopee Manufacturing Company. Describe what took place.

A: I joined Chicopee in 1974, and worked my way up to Regional Sales Manager. In July, 1979 they announced the closing of the weaving mill. One of the tasks that we had at the end of Chicopee, when they were closing the Cornelia operation, was to find buyers for some of the weaving equipment. During this search, we found that Bay Mills of Canada and Nicolon BV of Holland had future plans to open a weaving operation in the United States in a 50-50 joint venture. Thus, four of us from Chicopee formed a management group and developed a plan. If Bay Mills and Nicolon BV would put up the money, we knew there was a trained work force in Cornelia, Georgia. All we needed was a facility and equipment.

In late 1979, with Bay Mills and Nicolon BV financing, we formed Baycor. We built a new facility in Cornelia, Georgia and began to produce similar industrial fabrics to those made by Chicopee. One of those fabrics was trampoline fabric.

To my knowledge, up until that time Chicopee made the only suitable trampoline fabric for what we now call backyard or consumer trampolines. This was a high strength, UV resistant, woven, polypropolene fabric. While the Cornelia operation of Chicopee was still operating in the mid to late 70's, we were selling trampoline fabric into Australia.

Keep in mind that I'm talking about the backyard or consumer trampoline. Australia and New Zealand were both very serious competitive trampoline countries and the manufacturers of these competitive trampolines also offered the smaller, mostly rectangular, backyard trampolines. To my knowledge, they were all using American made fabric from Chicopee.

After we started Baycor, I made a trip to Australia/New Zealand and converted those trampoline manufacturers to Baycor fabric. It was interesting to me that in a country the size of Australia, about 15 million people, the manufacturers sold over 50,000 trampolines per year and had been doing so for a decade. While in the United States, with 300 million people, we could hardly get the industry going.

I believe there were more trampolines being sold in Australia than there were in the United States in the late 70's. The reason was obvious to me. In Australia, trampolines were available through retail stores, such as K-Mart. In the United States, no major retailer carried trampolines.

Most of the trampoline manufacturers in the United States were small, did not carry product liability insurance, and they had not developed a unit that would fit into a box. It seemed to me the ingredients needed to make trampolines available on a much larger scale required the following: 1) A manufacturer with enough financial strength to produce large quantities of trampolines; 2) The design had to be changed so that large round trampolines could be packaged in a box; and, 3) Reliable product liability insurance would be necessary before any large retailer would consider purchasing trampolines.

The first round trampolines were made during the 70's. Several manufacturers claim to be the inventor of the round trampoline, but it's my belief that a company out of the Florida panhandle called "Round Trampoline" manufactured the first one. The whole idea was safety. Clearly the round trampolines did not bounce you as high as the rectangular trampolines, and because of the wider area, the round trampoline was safer for backyard use. Most of us believed that if we were to overcome the product liability problems in the industry, we clearly needed to emphasize safety.

At that time, the trampoline fabric was only produced 6 feet wide. So, the manufacturers had to put seams in the trampoline fabric to cover the 10 foot, 11 foot, or 12 foot diameter trampoline. Baycor introduced the first wide width trampoline fabric.

When we formed Baycor in late 1979, I was Sales Manager. Over the years, the business grew. In the mid-80's, Nicolon BV/Royal Ten Cate bought the Bay Mills shares, and became 100% owners of Baycor.
Nicolon BV/Royal Ten Cate grew significantly in geotextile fabrics. Geotextiles are soil separation and reinforcement fabrics used in construction, dams, etc. The name Nicolon Corporation became synonomous with the geotextile, construction industry, while Baycor remained as the industrial fabrics division. Baycor continued to produce several recreational products, of which trampoline fabric was just one part.

I was selected to be the first president of TC Baycor about 3 years ago. As I mentioned earlier, we believed that it would be necessary to form a different kind of trampoline manufacturer in order to penetrate the retail market. In the mid-80's a company called Weslo began to supply some of the major retailers. Baycor formed a holding company that acquired two trampoline manufacturers in 1988, and consolidated them into the largest trampoline manufacturer in the world. The companies were both Texas companies, Ensho, in Weatherford, Texas, and Sidlinger, in Garland, Texas. In January 1991, Baycor sold Ensho and Sidlinger to Weslo and the three trampoline manufacturers were consolidated into one - JumpKing. During 1992 or 1993, Weslo became Icon and Icon still owns 100% of JumpKing.

(From: ITIA Newsletter; Spring 1999; Vol. 1, Issue 2; by Lani Lokendahle)