Shoe sleeves battle fake turf pellets

Westchester County Business Journal, Mar 3, 2008 by Doran, Ryan

Connecticut natives Chris Parisi and Mike Mulvey used some ingenuity to help parents of athletes from White Plains to Westport avoid a mess from the tiny rubber pellets embedded in modern artificial turf.

Think of spats, but couple the thought with an all-out sprint for the goal - lean, low spats.

Parisi and Mulvey y designed Turf Dawgs to combat the rubbery home invasion - that's where the cleats come off and where the pellets love to roost. Cars, too. And they're molten hell in dryers.

Turf Dawgs cover the athletic shoes with polyester-coated Neoprene. The sleeve is held to the shoes via the laces and Velcro strips on the Turf Dawgs.

"In the past several years, synthetic turf has revolutionized the logistics of high school sports," said Parisi. "While witnessing this trend around me, I was also painfully aware of the only major by-product of these fields, those damn rubber pellets that unavoidably penetrate your shoes and seem to accumulate in your house. After a two-and-a-half-hour practice, it feels like you are walking around barefoot in a gravel pit.

I have size 13 feet, so the irritation for me was probably greater than for most people."

Parisi and Mulvey were team teachers in the Advanced Placement. American Studies Program at Fairfield, Conn., High School as well as lacrosse coaching partners. Parisi is currently a social studies teacher and football and lacrosse coach at Fairfield Ludlowe High School and lives in Fairfield with his family. Mulvey taught English and was the head coach of the Fairfield High School lacrosse team. He currently resides in Jacksonville, Fla., with his family and continues to teach and coach lacrosse.

Parisi began to notice that as the high school kids geared up for the spring seasons, parents were complaining about the post-game mess from rubber pellets, plus the more traditional grass and dirt in their cleats, that left trails wherever the player walked.

"You certainly don't want these particles rolling around your floors at home if you have small children who might ingest it," said Parisi. "On top of that it travels with your socks right into the dryer where it partially melts into your clothes. Custodians have told us that they have to use cheesecloth when vacuuming it up, because it has a tendency to melt to the fans and burn out the motors on their vacuum cleaners."

"At the beginning of football season in 2006, I began wearing my Montrail sandals to practice, just to avoid the pain in my feet," said Parisi. At one of these practices, a defensive tackle named Gonzales shouted, 'Coach, I can't stand these damn pellets in my shoes. Somebody's gotta do something about it.'

As a history teacher with a deep admiration for Connecticut tinkerers Eli Terry and Eli Whitney, the spirit of innovation had always captivated me."

Parisi made a visit to Eastern Mountain Sport where he purchased outdoor apparel products and began cutting them up to work with materials and designs. By Thanksgiving, he had a prototype and began running and playing on the turf field at Fairfield Warde High School to test it.

The design provides different lacing options and Turf Dawg's exterior affords customization to display a team or school's logo and colors. Because he can't sew, Parisi had to have the fashion arts teacher at the high school stitch together the first pair of Turf Dawgs.

Mulvey, who was just finishing his MBA in Jacksonville soon partnered.

According to Parisi, Mulvey was eager to put his studies to practice.

"Geza Zeiglar at Perman and Green in Fairfield and Tom Walsh from Brody Wilkinson, walked me through the patent process and the legal incorporation," said Parisi "I cold-called John Strotbeck at Boathouse Inc. in Philadelphia and he was willing to help me turn what I had into a product that could be manufactured."

The company manufactures with two Wisconsin-based companies, Empire Screen Printing and OTC() Inc. While the Neoprene conies from Asia, Parisi said,

It is a point of pride that Turf Dawg USA manufactures in the heartland of our country."

The marketing conies from even closer to home. The Turf Dawg logo was drawn by Parisi's neighbor, Christine Budd.

According to Parisi, there are about 4,000 pelleted synthetic turf fields in the USA and Canada, and the number is growing at a rate of 20 percent per year.

"We expect our product to grow at the same rate," said Parisi. It will fulfill the athletes that play on these fields and then become a fashion statement for those who don't."

The Darien Sport Shop recently discovered the product and will be premiering Turf Dawg this spring at its store on Boston Post Road.

"We are always looking for the latest equipment to offer our student athletes," said Steve Zangrillo Jr., head of the Youth & Team Sports department at the Darien Sport Shop. "Turf Dawg is an ingenious way to keep the turf on the playing field and. not in players' cars or homes. Another great benefit to this product is that it keeps players comfortable during action as well. I think Turf Dawg will generate a lot of excitement among the local teams this year."