Passion for rugby sparks business

Local jersey maker and store is built on four decades’ love for the sport

Rugby Imports co-owner Mark Hoder has gotten some surprising orders for rugby jerseys – like the times the company outfitted the crew of a U.S. Navy submarine, or made jerseys for rodeo cowboys to wear while competing on Fox Sports’ “Toughest Cowboy” show.
And then there was the math team from St. Mary Academy-Bay View, which sports pink-and-white rugby jerseys.
No matter the purpose of the jersey, however, the East Providence store and the owners’ hearts remain focused on the sport on which they built their business.
“Rugby is our heart and soul, but the jersey – it fits everything,” he said.
Hoder’s father, Bob, founded Rugby Imports in his basement in 1971, and he remains a co-owner. He has been playing rugby since 1966, and he has been promoting the sport – his passion – in Rhode Island since then, forming the Providence Rugby Club with a few former Brown University players, supporting the New England Rugby Union, and working to develop a national coaching program for rugby.
Worldwide, the game is played in 100 nations, Bob Hoder said, and three billion people are expected to watch this year’s rugby’s World Cup, to be played in Paris.
The sport is also growing in the United States, he said. There are about 2,000 teams here, and Rugby Imports does some kind of business with almost every one of them.
The bulk of Rugby Imports’ business is in retail, according to Mark Hoder. Along with jerseys, the company sells everything related to rugby – balls, T-shirts, cleats, you name it – mainly through its catalog and Web site.
Rugby Imports also makes its own jerseys, through a sister company, Halbro America, started in the early 1980s. When Bob Hoder first started Rugby Imports, he was buying jerseys from Halbro, a British company. In the early 1980s, he and Halbro owner Bert Moores, along with Moores’ nephew Robert Moores, formed Halbro America together, and Bob Hoder bought three of Halbro’s 100-year-old knitting machines to make jerseys here. That reduced costs, he said, because cotton is less expensive in the United States.
The jerseys are made almost entirely from scratch in the back room of the store in East Providence. The fabrics are knitted together using the Blackburn machines (a fourth one was added in 2004). Then the material is cut and knitted by hand. Mark Hoder said the only time that the items leave the facility is when they are shipped off to Acton, Mass., to be pre-shrunk.
Mark Hoder said about 40 percent of Rugby Imports’ business comes from team sales, while the rest is generated from individuals buying gear and apparel through the company.
He said that Rugby Imports does not have a lot of fluctuation in its sales because of the company’s reliance on college teams. Rugby is a popular game at colleges, he said, because there are a lot of ex-high school athletes looking to fill a sports void. He added that the company is also seeing a rise in sales from women’s rugby teams as well as from high school rugby.
Although Mark Hoder said the company has done well in its niche, away from the “big-box stores,” Rugby Imports still has its challenges. The Internet, for example, has been mainly beneficial, he said, but it has also created more competition.
“It keeps us on our toes,” he said.
Another challenge facing Rugby Imports is fabric, as in the changing of fabrics. Rugby jerseys have traditionally been made out of cotton, but now they are also being made from lighter materials. Rugby Imports has started manufacturing “Dri-Release” jerseys, which are lighter and do not hold as much sweat.
Then there is fashion. Ralph Lauren has created fashionable rugby jerseys that, at $150 apiece, are a lot more expensive than Rugby Imports’ $45 jerseys. However, Mark Hoder said Rugby Imports is concentrated on outfitting teams and groups, and not focused on fashion.
Although the company remains committed to dressing rugby teams, Mark Hoder said he continues to get calls from other sport teams for rugby jerseys. Hoder said other sports are attracted to the rugby jersey because of rugby’s image as a “rough and tough sport.”
Rugby “helps sell the shirt by itself,” he said.