Easton Aluminum Fungo Baseball Bat: F4

As the industry leader for over 30 years, Easton Baseball/Softball has continued to raise the bar with innovation, originality and ingenuity. It began in 1969, when Easton produced the first true aluminum bat, and has continued throughout the past three decades with virtually all significant industry "firsts" having been pioneered by Easton: first CU31 bat; first C405 bat; first titanium bat; first Carbon Core bat; first Scandium bat; etc.

The trend continues today with bats such as the Tri-Shell and the ConneXion. The patented Tri-Shell design features a super elastic rubber sleeve sandwiched in between thin outer shells for unparalleled performance, feel, and durability. The patented ConneXion design takes a separate handle and barrel piece and mechanically interlocks them using a ConneXion” elastomer piece for outstanding flex, feel, performance, and vibration reduction. In the spring of 2002, Easton introduced the Tri-Shell ConneXion, merging the technological advancements of the two bats into one.

The bats are just a part of Easton's Baseball/Softball product stable. Easton carries a wide range of high-performance baseball and softball equipment including ball gloves and batting gloves, sport bags and other accessories. Each Easton product is engineered with the player's needs and specifications in mind to provide a competitive edge in the games of fastpitch and slow-pitch softball and adult, senior youth and youth baseball.

Of all aspects that have contributed to Easton's success, none is as important as the research and development Easton engineers put into every product. Easton's trademark of innovative research and development goes back to Doug's initial experiments with aluminum and continues today in a variety of high performance materials.

Along with the many milestones Easton has set in the sporting goods industry, a little-known fact is that Easton engineered and produced the thermal shroud for the seismometer used on the first Apollo lunar landing. Jim Easton, Chairman, has always placed great importance on expanding into new markets. And today, Easton's presence in the baseball/softball, hockey, and bike markets show its continued legacy of producing innovative, high performance products.

The Easton Sports Lab, located in Van Nuys, is one of the most unique testing facilities in the sporting goods industry. Originally established to study the parameters of Easton equipment, it has evolved into a lab that not only tests equipment performance, but human performance as well. The Sports Lab has become an invaluable tool with which Easton engineers continue to create superior products.

An example of their unique testing was proven when the Easton Sports Lab teamed up with tent manufacturer Sierra Designs to create sensors and integrated software to test a state-of-the-art tent design that is supported by Easton E9 tubing in the most extreme weather conditions. In actual mountain tests, with the wind blowing up to 96 mph, Sports Lab technicians were able to record the stress on the tubing to confirm its strength and durability.

At Easton, most of the engineers are also athletes in the sport in which they innovate and design product based on their own experience. The two-piece aluminum Easton hockey stick, for example, was developed by an engineer with a passion for hockey. He developed a design that would in time become the number one hockey stick in the National Hockey League.