Kiwi firm dominates at Olympics

If gold medals were awarded for field hockey equipment, Palmerston North-based OBO would be the red hot favourite at this year’s Olympics. 

Like any elite athlete, the company has focused single-mindedly on its goal, and when the Olympic hockey competition kicks off, some 70 percent of goalkeepers will be protected by OBO gear.

Company founder and Massey University graduate Simon Barnett calls his business “niche/niche” because its product range caters only for field hockey goalies. 

“Focus has always been a big part of my business philosophy,” he says, and it’s something he teaches his students as a part-time marketing lecturer at Massey.

“OBO was clearly going to be a global business from the start – that comes from being niche/niche,” he says. “It allows you to be very focused and to develop the perfect product, but the target market is always going to be small. There’s probablyonly 100,000 people we can sell to globally, but we export to 62 countries and have a 65 to 70 percent market share.”

Both New Zealand’s hockey goalkeepers, Kyle Pontifex and Bianca Russell, will be sporting OBO gear at the Olympics, and Barnett says the fact that most teams don’t have back-up goalies is a good sign that the equipment works.

“In the old days, they would definitely have taken two goalkeepers, but goalies just don’t get injured as much as they used to because the protective gear has improved so much.” 

Black Sticks goalkeeper Kyle Pontifex works part-time for the firm to provide player feedback, and its high-tech impact laboratory allows designs to be tested and continuously improved. The lab includes a set-up that takes video footage at 22,000 frames per second to capture the impact of a hockey ball hitting a dummy’s head.

Barnett probably gets more than a little feedback from his 18-year-old daughter Georgia as well. She’s a goalkeeper in the Junior Black Sticks squad, and while she received her only serious sports injury while playing soccer, he admits “it’s a stressful business being the parent of a hockey goalie”.

Barnett sees OBO’s location in Palmerston North as an advantage, not a challenge. “On balance, being based in a small town in a small country like New Zealand has been a very powerful thing for us,” he says. “It gets us out of the rat race and that environment where you unduly worry about what your competition is doing.

“Success comes by finding new answers to old questions and, for that, you need totally new insights. Being here allows us the time to think, and that’s very important because we can’t afford to sell the same thing that everybody else sells.”

That OBO does things a bit differently is obvious in every aspect of its business – from its products, to its colour palette, to the company slogan “Good sh*t that really works”.

“Creativity is a critical aspect of what we do – our design and our brand is about pushing boundaries. We express ourselves in a confident way that says we are not run-of-the-mill. You need two legs to stand firmly in the global marketplace; a strong product gives you one leg, and a strong brand gives you the other.”

But Barnett says the thing that really makes OBO different is the passion of its staff. “When you are focused and small, and your people care about what they are doing, it can take you to places that you can’t get to if you’re just doing a job,” he says.

Barnett is looking forward to admiring the skills of the best hockey goalkeepers in the world at the Olympics.

“I love the excitement of the game, especially now that it is played on synthetic surfaces and is so fast,” he says. “And I’ll be keeping a close eye on who is wearing what, which will be easy as OBO gear is instantly recognisable to everybody.”