Back in 2012, in a small garage in central Pennsylvania, Victus Sports CEO Jared Smith didn't start out making Crayola or Santa Claus or Uncle Sam bats.
His lumber did stand out color- and design-wise, but for the most part, at the outset of his lumber-making business, the 26-year-old and two of his friends were focusing on quality. They were hustling. They wanted their work to be prompt and sound and trustworthy.
"We were the guys making and selling the bats," Smith told me on a call. "It was all we did. We weren't making them like they are now out of the gates. It was obsessing over quality of the product and the service. We wanted to show players that we cared about taking care of them and getting them their bats on time."
But what about that last part? How would they get their product in front of Major League Baseball players?
Smith and his friends played baseball growing up and knew a few guys who made it to the Minors. First, they supplied them, and, eventually, whether in Spring Training or during a callup -- a big leaguer would see a Victus bat, pick it up and feel like trying it. Maybe they were in a slump. Maybe they just thought it looked cool.
Kyle Seager, who shared a locker with one of their Minor League friends, used one and asked for his own. He was the first big MLB user.
Adam Jones gave the company a shoutout for their custom camo bats on MLB Network.
Once they developed a sort of foothold among big leaguers, they could experiment a bit more. The team could work toward the vision Smith and his company had dreamed of from the beginning.
"[Starting Victus] was very much a passion play for us," Smith said. "We were young at the time and so it made sense for us to take that leap and try to make something unique out there. We saw an opportunity where a lot of baseball bats were pretty plain."
The company began to expand and, with the help of an investor, moved to a larger facility in Blackwood, N.J. A couple years later, they moved to their current, much-larger home (retail store included) in King of Prussia, Pa.
They still create game-used bats, but also produce lumber with a little more flair: sticks for BP and other MLB jewel events.
Remember Gary Sánchez's intricately designed El Kraken bat for the 2017 Home Run Derby? Or, perhaps more memorable, Bryce Harper's "We The People" bat from the 2019 slugfest?
"For us, that was the really first viral moment. That was incredible," Smith recalled.
The artist behind the themed bats over the past four or five years? Bruce Tatem, AKA, The Bat King.
Tatem has always been an expert in airbrushing -- working on motorcycle, T-shirt and shoe designs. Those skills have translated well over to bats. Some are mass produced, but some of these unique jewel-event bats can take up to six hours to make. That involves paper sketches, computer graphics and unbelievably detailed paint jobs.
"In some instances, I will get direction from players on where they're looking to go," Tatem told me. "Other times, I'll design for them and they'll just take it. I've been very fortunate that they've liked what I've done for them."
Julio Rodríguez is a frequent collaborator with Tatem, as well as nearly every player in this year's Home Run Derby. The 2023 Little League Classic was also a perfect opportunity for Tatem to show off his talents and the Bat King knew exactly what to create for frequent customer Harper.
"I knew anything that I did that involved the Phanatic, his family or Philadelphia -- it was gonna hit him right in the heart," Tatem said.
And, of course, there was the pencil bat. Tatem gave the backstory on the piece of lumber that broke the Internet.
"The pencil bat is a bat that I designed 3 1/2 years ago," he said. "In the beginning of this year, we thought it was the right time to finally release that bat. We had done a lot of buzz around that bat. We had videos of people swinging with it. It had been in MLB The Show for a number of years [Victus has about 13 bats in MLB The Show]. But yeah, we released it at the beginning of the year and it did really well.
"Recently, we had a lot of people reach out to us that they missed it. They said they couldn't get it. The bat kind of never died. So, we decided, let's try and get one into the Classic into a pro's hand. But even if a pro didn't use it, we were already gonna re-release that bat as a back-to-school version. And yeah, it just caught fire again."
Bats will be shipped to players or, on an off-day, they can stop by King of Prussia and take some swings at the company batting cage.
Sometimes, the bats are so crisp and fun-looking that players will ask Tatem, "Are you sure you want me to swing this?"
"I always say, 'It's swingable art,'" Tatem laughed. "That's what we're really going for here."
Victus Sports now sits at 50 employees in a 30,000-square-foot facility. It produces a top bat used by Major Leaguers in today's game. Stars clamor for their custom bats for special events.
It's all a giant leap forward from a three-person operation working out of a garage in Pennsylvania. Smith credits his talented team and the fact that they're all doing something they love for a living.
"It's fun," Smith said. "We're fans of the game, No. 1, and we want to keep growing the game. For us, we're gonna do what we can to bend the rules and always be pushing the envelope as much as possible. MLB, from 10, 12 years ago to today, has come a really long way. I think it's all trending in the right direction. We're happy to be a part of that process."
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