Here's The Background
I met the manufacturers of this patented product not long after the product-launch of their fine Wind WeightedŽ Tarps. I was immediately impressed with this husband and wife team, both professionally and personally.
They are innovators and detail-oriented people with a highly successful manufacturing background .so they understood the importance of managing quality skilled people to produce quality products.
They also understood the problems of traditional field tarps and covers.
My Factory Visit
I stopped at the Florida manufacturing facility while on a trip to catch a college tournament.just to eyeball the process. There's really nothing but positives to enter here. Workers were buzzing around everywhere and the place was neat as a pin with everything in its place. I was shown expansion plans in the adjacent acreage (now a reality) and given all the time I required by my gracious hosts, owners Bill and Tammy.
My Test
My initial purchase was for my son's High School baseball coach and program.
During the Spring of 2004, I purchased an 8-sided (STANDARD MODEL) mound cover and the slightly more expensive 36-sided (PRO MODEL) home plate cover and an installer for my son's High School field in Atlanta. (Sizing was easy using a simple tape measure).
All products were made from the same heavy-duty material. Both offered the same perimeter-weighted galvanized & rustproof chain carefully sewn/stitched into the material, relieving coaches and players from ever again needing to weigh these tarps down with folding chairs, cement-filled cans, tires or sandbags!
The optional installers proved to be worth the extra money as well. nice and easy to use and requiring only 2 or 3 players to complete the entire install/de-install process.and in record time. The coaching staff was thrilled with this newfound time and back-breaking saver!
Fall of 2004
I followed-up after school was back in session -- the downtime between the end of summer ball and the beginning of fall ball season -- and learned some important lessons.
1st - It did do the basic chore that it was purchased for. (they even creatively hung the installers from some hooks on a nearby chain-link fence rather then on the ground. This kept them from having to mow or trim around the installers and reduced the possibility of them becoming an ankle-buster too).
2nd - I noticed that when I pulled back the 8-sided mound cover, it was killing the grass where the points overlapped the dirt-to-grass area.
The Summary
 Unless you have a 22-man grounds crew like Yankee Stadium (yes, they do use these same tarps), the much "rounder" 36-sided version is your play!
The 8-sided models are much better utilized for moisture management, where tarps are removed and installed and worked 1-2 times each day, as in pro parks.
High School or College programs tend to purchase mound, base and home plate covers for protection from the elements on a year-round basis (especially helpful for during the season moisture management).
Final Notes
Wind WeightedŽ Tarps are now in many Pro, College, High School and municipal parks throughout the USA and beyond. We have had no returns for any quality issue and plenty of programs that chose to get the tarps first (due to budget constraints) have now purchased installers.
My son graduated High School and signed to play at his #1 choice, a fabulous academic institution called The University of the South (aka Sewanee) in Tennessee (check out SewaneeBaseball.com). This place is 10,000 acres, on top of its own mountain, with occasional high winds and some cold during winter. After 2 seasons of use, head coach Scott Baker is pleased with his purchase.or believe me, I would have heard about it!
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