Ian Kinsler’s Warstic Opens Dallas Location
The Deep Ellum neighborhood in Dallas took on a new baseball-centric feel with the fresh Warstic brand announcing plans to turn 2900 Main St. into its own hand-turned wood baseball bat manufacturing facility, flagship retail location and headquarters.
Scheduled to open in early 2018, the new location will serve as the brand’s first brick-and-mortar retail location for a relatively new company now co-owned by Third Man Records’ Jack White, the Tigers’ Ian Kinsler and OneFastBuffalo’s Ben Jenkins.
“The idea is really about custom design service for our customers, and about celebrating the craft of turning and finishing wood bats,” Jenkins said. “We want a place where we can truly interact with our customers and bring them into the process and creation of our products.”
Warstic Sports Inc., an independent company focused on the “art of hitting,” creates metal and wood baseball bats, gear and apparel. Warstic was founded by Jenkins, a former professional player turned designer, with the idea that each bat serves as a “sacred weapon crafted to express an individual player’s substance, style and identity.”
White and Kinsler joined the effort as investors in 2017.
Plans for the company’s first headquarters include a warehouse, retails store with bat-fitting room, wood and metal bat design studio and finishing lab, full batting cage and a players’ bar and diner.
“Customers will be fitted for a Warstic baseball bat just like being fitted for a custom suit,” says Jenkins. “They’ll be able to choose the personalized aesthetics of their stic while watching it come to life by our master bat craftsman.”
— Tim Newcomb covers gear and business for Baseball America. Follow him on Twitter at @tdnewcomb.
