Forrester Goalie Equipment

By Fiorenzo Arcadi

In the late 90’s I heard of Colin Forrester, who was a goalie equipment manufacturer based in Georgetown Ontario. I had a contract from Perani Hockey to make Contact goalie pads. Graham from Perani Hockey Windsor arrived with a huge truck to pick up 250 pair of pads. I thought it was going to be an easy streak, thinking next year they would order more. It was a good account. But like all things, competition got the best me. I imagine Forrester or some other goalie manufacturer won the contract for that following year.

I was amazed in the quantity of goalie equipment Forrester was able to manufacture. The equipment was well built and nearly indestructible beside from some minor wear. The volume of pads that Forrester produced, I also repaired them in terms of replacement straps. It seemed to me Forrester established a very efficient manufacturing enterprise that in many ways exceeded some of the established brands in the market place. After that Forrester went on to be employed by Bauer Performance Group as a designer. This was a good move because he got access and dealt with all the pro goalies sponsored by Bauer. Colin Forrester spent close to 12 years working for Bauer leaving in September 2009. It was a suitable time for Colin to leave the company on his own terms.

A few years later, Bauer Performance Group went public. The CEO was awash with an enormous amount of money to improve acquisitions, mergers and consolidations. The spending spree included buying Easton Baseball, Cascade, Combat, and myriad of other companies that simply made no sense in generating revenues. Management felt by purchasing Easton Baseball and Cascade, it would strengthen and dominate the growing baseball market in the US. Unfortunately it did neither. The CEO painted a rosy picture to investors by lying and telling them Bauer Performance Group was a well-run company with solid earnings. The company filed bankruptcy on October 31st 2016 with over $608 million in debt. Eventually Bauer Performance Group was sold to Fairfax Financial and now it runs efficiently and successfully. At that time the CEO of the company stated “if you want to run the company better, you can say that. But to say I’m a criminal, you can’t say that. But in this country you are allowed to.” He noted that in Canada, where the company was also publicly traded, no securities suit was brought forth. He said that is because if the plaintiffs lost they would have to pay legal fees.

The reason why I bring this up is because it shows the stoic character of Colin Forrester. He did extremely well, and to this day a vintage Forrester pad is going for good money on the Internet. He went on to build Edenwood Custom Furniture, he now lives in Orangeville. The company is very successful. Colin Forrester leaves a legacy of character and faith that inspires others to dream more, do more, and become more. His resiliency in life corresponds to his honesty which still exists today in the great county of Orangeville Ontario.