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What Will the NFL Coaches Be Wearing This Sunday? Just ask LISC Indy!

If you’re watching the Super Bowl this Sunday, look carefully: every single coach in the entire league now wears a Diamondback “communications” tool belt, and every referee studies replays on a tablet with a Diamondback case. So what’s the LISC angle? In Indianapolis, we’ve been a longtime supporter of Ruckus, a makerspace where Diamondback Toolbelts prototyped the NFL products. What’s more, Diamondback’s new owner, Michael Williams, even hired a client of one of our Financial Opportunity Centers to help his small business grow.

So you could say that LISC’s got a little skin in every NFL game!

The excerpt below is from:
Diamondback Reaches the NFL
by Chris Marshall, Woodworker's Journal

When Michael Williams and Connor Crook bought Diamondback Toolbelts this year, their goal was to take a decades-old venerable brand and make it even better. What they couldn’t have seen coming was the National Football League (NFL), who contacted them just a week after relaunching Diamondback to the market.

“One of their VPs was looking for custom communications tool belts for every coach in the League,” Williams says. “Next thing you know, I’m on the sidelines of the Pro Bowl with a handful of prototypes I’d personally designed and sewn … did I mention I taught myself to sew? Ha!”

While Williams considers being approached by the NFL the “opportunity of a lifetime,” it wasn’t just lucky happenstance. A couple of years ago, he founded Calavera Tool Works, which makes a line of integrated gear bags for jobsite users and workshops, as well four styles of handmade leather work aprons. His products are sourced and assembled entirely in the U.S, and they’ve been gaining traction in the marketplace quickly. Williams also knows his way around the world of savvy marketing — he was VP of marketing for Festool USA for several years, prior to starting Calavera.

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