Ray gives back to the community by sponsoring youth teams, coaching and sitting on boards for sports organizations, community events and charity golf tournaments.
2018 is a new year and new beginning for Ray Gomme and his family as they say goodbye to Spirit Sportswear and hello to MTC. Below is a brief history on Ray’s now 26 year career in the team wear and promotional product industry.
It began with Spirit Sportswear.
Spirit Sportswear opened its doors in the spring of 1992. The founder and original owner Ray Gomme, at the age of 20 he decided riding the Go Train to the city for a retail job was not for him. It was time to put his dream and education of working for himself in the sports industry into place. His bedroom in his parent’s home quickly became converted into the home office of Spirit Sportswear. With many ups and downs and lots and lots and lots of hard work Ray grew the business so much more space was required.
Spirit Sportswear has moved from a 150 square foot bedroom, to 400 square foot office, to 1000 square feet and now reside at 10 Sunray St occupying units 12 and 13. Even with the now 2000 square feet of space it is often popping at the seams.
In 1999 Keith Hales and Ray merged Bretzky’s Team and Corporate Apparel with Spirit Sportswear. Keith had developed a very successful company in his home and was looking to expand and Ray was in need of assistance as Spirit was growing. And as they say it is all history from there.
Spirit Sportswear and Bretzkys both originated as team wear suppliers but both Keith a Ray realized there was much more opportunity and crossover from teams to corporate and vice versa. As a result Spirit Sportswear is very unique in that it does not specialize in just one area being sport or corporate. They do it all – we outfit and supply large corporations such as GM, Hydro One, Durham Region, Johnson and Johnson, to individual self employed landscapers that need just a few tees and hats. Spirit Sportswear outfits full sports organizations with uniforms and clothing such as Oshawa Minor Hockey, Oshawa NASC, Oshawa Hawkeyes, Whitby Chiefs to individual adult hockey and baseball teams.
With this balance of products and customers they have been able to survive two recessions as where one area drops the other area picks up. It is quite a juggling act with the economy but also with the over one million products they are able to sell and try to familiarize themselves with so that they can give their customers the best knowledge and service available.
Along the way they have met many people and made many friends and they look forward to continue growth and hope to never lose sight as to where they began and how they got to where they are – treating all customers like friends and family and no matter how large or small the order everyone gets served the same.
At Monster Teamwear & Promotional Products we understand that there are a lot of companies that do what we do. In order to be on top we have to do 2 things – offer competitive, to better than competitive pricing and then add services. That is what we do!
Some of the unique services we offer are:
a) Art approvals – all orders are proofed out prior to production to ensure the detailing is correct and to instill confidence in our customers that they are getting what they want.
b) Online ordering programs for leagues, schools and businesses
c) Orders packaged by team and player, or class and student for easy distribution
d) We generate your order forms
e) On and off premises fittings
f) Better than industry standard turnaround