Youth sports has a hidden economy, and every coach has it sitting in the back of their car. Hot stock pick: Buy water bottles. After every and game practice, I add to my portfolio sitting in my trunk. A dented blue bottle. Two $100 sweatshirts. Sunglasses. Headphones. Three basketballs. One sock that has seen things. The cargo area looks like a Dick’s Sporting Goods clearance rack. I send the same text every time: “Is this anyone’s?” Crickets. That’s the part that kills me. We just left the gym. We were the only team in there. Somebody’s kid walked out with shoes on, a backpack over one shoulder, and left half the family balance sheet behind. Aspen estimates families spend $30 to $40B a year on kids’ sports. That still feels low. Because nobody is counting the stuff quietly getting rebought on Amazon on Sunday night. The Lost Water Bottle Index is undefeated. And bullish. 🫵 Your turn - if lost youth sports gear had ticker symbols, what would it be?
Ski gloves, helmets, goggles… end-of-season unclaimed lost-and-found is basically a 🆓 retail outlet. Even more shocking! The level of early specialization and $$$ now expected in youth sport, despite a robust body of research supporting multi-sport participation during these years. To help our kids stay competitive, we are often pushed into investing heavily in gear, coaching, training, and competition pathways, while overlooking the systems that support these peak developmental periods. Most environments still underinvest in the foundational pieces that support adolescent health, maturation, physical development, performance, and long-term wellbeing. All this money into coaching, training, and gear… yet your kid, or half the team, may have low iron stores, be under-fueled for games, have inconsistent protein intake, and get omega3s mostly from the weird-tasting gummies (when they remember to take them). Back to the gear in the trunk: keep leaving your balls, bottles, and hoodies. I am that “no shame” mom who collects it and re-homes to keep it out of the landfill. There are plenty of families who will appreciate the generosity of forgotten and repurchased gear, and put it to good use.
the funny part is parents don't mind buying gear. They mind buying the same gear three times.
$SOCK — high volume, zero liquidity. Nobody ever claims it. Meanwhile $HYDRO (water bottles) keeps splitting because families just buy two more every month. The Lost Water Bottle Index is the only economic indicator I trust. 🤣 Great post, Bill Flitter! The Sunday night Amazon rebuy is painfully accurate.
Again, the struggle is real. The ticker symbol might be BY^AGN
Water bottle 1000%
I used to charge our u10G $1 an item to get it back next practice (used it to buy team icecream year end) as a responsibly tax but I guess that only works if they claim it!