PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Before the crack of the bat in October, there’s the craft behind it – and at Victus Sports in King of Prussia, that craft is a labor of love.
Founded in 2012 in a friend’s garage in Central Pennsylvania, Victus Sports has grown into a global brand, supplying bats to some of Major League Baseball’s biggest stars, including several Philadelphia Phillies players.
“About 25 to 30% of the big leagues on any given night are swinging our bat,” said Jared Smith, founder and CEO of Victus Sports. “So every lineup, you can expect two to four people – typically some teams more than others.”
Among those players is Bryce Harper, who famously used a Victus bat to hit the home run that sent the Phillies to the World Series in 2022.
The bat-making process is meticulous. Smith says dozens of Pennsylvanians are involved in each step – from shaping and sanding to finishing and engraving.
“We have seven guys out there on hobby lathes, hand-sanding each of these bats, checking them for weights,” Smith explained. “Then we have three to four guys who are turning the bat.”
Another team of eight workers handles the spraying and finishing, followed by engraving – the final step before the bats are ready for the big leagues. Major League players often visit the facility to test their bats in the on-site cage.
“It’s absolutely surreal,” Smith said. “There are certain days where you pinch yourself – with the playoffs coming up for the Phillies, that’s something we’re really excited about. I just look at where we’ve come from to where we’ve gotten now, and you don’t lose sight of that.”
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