11/19/21- Continued Supply Chain Issues Related to Basketballs and Delivery

November 19, 2021 Basketball Blog Updates

This information was shared by our Kentucky rep for Spalding and wanted to be sure we updated our schools. This week, communication was sent to all dealers with timelines and information. Each of us are familiar with the supply chain issues plaguing so much of our economy and visible each night on the news.

Pete Latkovic, our rep, met many of our ADs at this year’s annual meeting in September and has been a strong supporter of all of your programs. Here was his message – 

I wanted to give you an update on our current basketball shortages. Similar to most companies, global supply chain disruptions have resulted in extended delays. I have just been informed that we will be out of stock on our NFHS stamped balls, LEGACY TF-1000 and PRECISION TF-1000 until January. We have a limited number of balls due in early January but they will not fully cover all the backorders. We anticipate inventory problems on these products for the next few months. Understanding basketball is starting now, I wanted to ensure you were aware and can share this information with your schools. Below is communication that I am planning on sending to all of our dealers by the end of this week.

I apologize for all the issues this causes you and your schools. If you have any questions please let me know.

Further communication went to all of the local dealers late this week stating – 

I wanted to give you an update on our inventory issues with the LEGACY TF-1000 and PRECISION TF-1000. As some of you are aware, we were working on a plan to air in product to service demand before basketball season started. Unfortunately, we were informed today that our factories continue to struggle with shutdowns and/or limited capacities and will not be able to get product out in time. We have some balls on the water and will plan to allocate them to orders based on order entry date. These balls are due in early January. This inventory will not be enough to cover our current open orders. We are still waiting on a full production plan but don’t anticipate more inventory until February.

We have communicated this information to all the state associations which they in turn will communicate with their schools.

We will continue to monitor the situation throughout this first part of the regular season. At this point, there are no changes for postseason, but we will update as the season progresses.

-KHSAA-

About the Kentucky High School Athletic Association
The Kentucky High School Athletic Association was organized in 1917 and is the agency designated by the Kentucky Department of Education to manage high school athletics in the Commonwealth. The Association is a voluntary nonprofit 501(c)3 organization made up of 285 member schools both public and non-public. The KHSAA awards 215 state championships to 51 teams and 164 individuals in 13 sports and 6 sport-activities, funds catastrophic insurance coverage for its more than 106,000 rostered member school student-athletes, provides coaching education and sports safety programs for more than 12,000 coaches, and licenses and facilitates the distribution of training material for over 4,000 contest officials.