Viking Has Fantastic Season Under the Prince
May 27, 2009
What a year it has been for platform tennis and the Viking brand! The 2008-2009 season saw the platform leader transition seamlessly into the Prince Sports portfolio of companies — retaining its authenticity while acquiring much needed resources to reach more players with improved, consistent equipment. Further strengthening Viking was the arrival of John Embree as President of Prince Americas. John, known throughout the racquet sports industry as one of platform’s biggest advocates, now oversees the Viking brand working closely with Viking founder and platform legend David Kjeldsen and VP of Indoor Sports at Prince, Scott Winters.
“As a company, Viking is completely dedicated to continuing to grow the sport, and bringing to market the best equipment for new, frequent and high-level players,” said Embree. “We feel more confident than ever that with our all-star staff in place, and a host of resources at our disposal that will allow us to continue to raise the bar and bring Viking and the sport of paddle to new heights.”
In May of 2008, Viking’s larger-than-life founder David Kjeldsen stood before the Prince national sales force to formally introduce the first line as part of the larger racquet sports brand. The ‘Father of Modern Paddle’ unveiled the most complete Viking line to date – new technology, new grips and grip shapes. The response could not have been more positive. “Across the board, players embraced the line wholeheartedly and with the support of an expert and far-reaching sales force ready to hit the road, a new era of Viking had officially begun,” says Kjeldsen.
According to Scott Winters, “I could not be more pleased with the transition. Our sales team completely embraced this category and took sales to levels beyond expectation. We made smart and substantial improvements to the products and actually sold out of paddles much quicker than we ever expected due to new levels of demand.