Tech Talk: How Technology Plays into the Pro Athlete Game Day Experience

A 130” 2x2 video wall for our new yoga studio? Check.

A self-service solution for employees to seamlessly use their ID badges to get JustBats.com and Pro Athlete gear? Done.

A need to get into a room or the building using a biometric fingerprint? No problem.

These are a few of the many examples of how technology works for us at Pro Athlete. With some engineering, design, and, most importantly, out-of-the-box thinking, we make ideas into reality while streamlining manual processes.

As you walk through Pro Athlete, you will notice digital signage, visualizations, TV’s for watching baseball games, and stereo equipment among other things. These are all systems that we have built and designed through technology to make the experience first class for our customers, guests, vendors, and employees. Embrace Innovation is one of our twelve Core Values that direct the way we do business. This arguably applies most to our technology. We recently had the idea to play a motivational song close to our shipping cut-off time as a reminder to our Distribution Center employees each night. Using some progressive thinking, we were able to accomplish this using a Raspberry Pi, A/V receiver, and IR controls to turn this fun idea into an automated solution.

We also provide a specialized technology service to our employees known as the Triple Crown Program. This program allows employees and their families to bring in anything tech-related they need to have repaired. We fix it for them at no cost outside of any materials and also provide consulting/advice for any questions they may have. This service is heavily utilized and has led the team to work on computers, phones, TVs, RC cars, and children’s toys among other things. We will attempt to fix anything we can to help our fellow teammates.

Having such a unique culture requires us to do things our way; the Pro Athlete Way. Boxed solutions to solve a problem rarely work for us here which is why we value creative thinking, resourcefulness, and problem-solving. The IT department takes pride in taking abstract ideas and turning them into working parts of the business. Having the freedom to experiment with new technology to deliver exactly what is needed equates to a tool provided to truly Embrace Innovation. With this approach, there is no limit to what we can accomplish.