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March 16, 2021 / TorchCo, a sports media company, today announced the launch of a new digital platform, TorchPro.com, that provides fans and young athletes unprecedented access to elite figures in the sports world. TorchCo, rebranded from Kompany39, is also announcing the acquisition of NYC-based daily sports newsletter startup Morning Blitz.

The newly formed company further announced the strategic addition of Drizly veteran and go-to-market executive Bryan Goodwin as a co-founder of the new entity and the company’s President & CRO to lead this next phase of growth. The company is backed by the teams from York Creative Collective and York IE, as well as other prominent angel investors, raising a total of $1.5M USD to date.

“The vision of TorchCo is a big one: to Inspire Greatness by providing a place to access information, knowledge, and inspiration for anyone looking to gain an edge in sports and life”

said Matt Fornataro, CEO, and Co-Founder, TorchCo. “Today’s announcements of the launch of the platform, growth of the team behind what we’re building, the athletes involved, and our future roadmap are all big steps forward in pursuit of that vision.” Fornataro founded Kompany39 alongside Joe Diamond and NHL all-star Joe Pavelski in 2017.

Digital Platform – TorchPro.com

TorchPro is TorchCo’s Athlete Services business that helps athletes build and grow their digital brand, tell their authentic stories, and open up new doors during and long after their playing careers are over. This includes brand-building services, content strategy, and content creation for business-savvy athletes. TorchPro.com is the platform that is the safe place where those stories are brought to life and can be accessed by fans, Inspiring Greatness in future generations through the transfer of knowledge and information from the best in the world. It also will provide an ever-growing collection of elite athletes and their stories, offering a unique place for brands to interact with these players and their engaged audiences. Join TorchPro.com today.

The platform launches with featured content from:

• TorchCo Co-Founder and NHL All-Star Joe Pavelski (Current Dallas Star, Former SJ Shark Captain, former captain of Team USA)
• Charlie McAvoy (Boston Bruins Defenseman)
• Kacey Bellamy (Team USA, Olympic Gold Medalist)
• Brandon Yip (Former NHLer & 2022 Chinese Olympic hopeful)
• Mike Green (Former Washington Capital, Detroit Red Wing NHL defensemen)
• Riley Sheahan (Buffalo Sabres forward)

TorchCo will be expanding the platform through the addition of new athletes and other sports, as well as creating and distributing more authentic content created with those players.

“We wanted to create a place for both athletes and fans to engage and fuel the next generation,” said Pavelski, co-founder, TorchCo. “Today, we’re seeing the evolution of that vision with the launch of TorchPro.com, something I would have benefited from greatly as a young athlete and well into my career. Additionally, the company can provide athletes with guidance and a safe space to understand the best way to tell and share our stories with consumers,” Pavelski added.

Morning Blitz powered by TorchCo

In addition to the platform expansion, TorchCo will now power the Morning Blitz, one of the hottest daily sports newsletters enjoyed by pro athletes, sports reporters, die-hard and casual fans alike. The newsletter, which was founded by Danny Healey and Noah Cartwright, will continue to cover the “need-to-know” information across all major sports, delivered every morning at 5:30 a.m. EST. Sign up for the newsletter at MorningBlitz.com.

“Today marks a huge step forward for the Morning Blitz as TorchCo will accelerate our ability to expand our loyal subscriber base at an increased rate,” said Healey. “Looking ahead, we are excited to share the stories of TorchPro athletes with our readers.”

Bryan Goodwin as Co-founder President & CRO

Goodwin was most recently a senior executive at Drizly, the leading on-demand alcohol marketplace in the US, which was acquired by Uber for $1.1 billion, and will be responsible for aligning the team around the company’s strategic vision and execution, as well as revenue generation.

“I’m truly energized at the opportunities in front of TorchCo to reinvent the way athletes, fans and brands interact digitally. In my 20 year career, I’ve been on the front lines as the internet has changed entire industries – from travel to beverage alcohol – and the same is happening in sports. TorchCo has the vision, foundational team, passion, and ambition to create the world’s most accessible, engaging, and largest sports media marketplace to Inspire Greatness. TorchPro Athlete Services, the TorchPro.com platform, and the Morning Blitz daily newsletter come together as the first step to building the foundation of a complete offering. We look forward to giving athletes the space to build and grow their digital brands, providing access and great content with those athletes for consumers, and offering brands of all sizes a new medium to showcase their products and reach global audiences,” said Goodwin.

Find your edge and sign up for free at TorchPro.com

Read coverage in The Boston Globe, ESPN, NHLPA, or SI. 

Mark McGarry, CEO of YORK Athletics Mfg., has had a unique journey to entrepreneurship. He was introduced to the footwear industry at 23, getting his foot in the door through a new skateboarding division at Nike. He worked his way up through the sneaker industry, later traveling the globe as a senior executive for brand strategy at PUMA. In 2016, Mark pursued his dream of entrepreneurship by relaunching a legacy brand into the e-commerce space with YORK Athletics Mfg. Read this Thrive Global feature to learn more about Mark’s professional path, advice he’d give to budding entrepreneurs and the latest innovations he’s working on for YORK. 

Assessing a business venture’s potential is about so much more than its balance sheet. An op-ed written by our Founder & CEO, Travis York,  is featured in Entrepreneur, discussing why “get rich quick” is not in his playbook, the three key qualities he looks for in a venture — creativity, craft & quality, and authenticity —  and why evaluating investments through these criteria has worked for him.

Here’s how three York Creative Collective creative ventures and their leaders embody these traits:

Creativity: The two co-founders of Iron & Air Media — whose entrepreneurial venture rests squarely on the shoulders of their personal passion — are the perfect example of this concept. Iron & Air Media produces Iron & Air Magazine, a quarterly, heavy-stock magazine celebrating motorcycles and all the places they take us. As true motorcycle enthusiasts, the creative entrepreneurs behind Iron & Air create the types of content they want to consume. They dive deep into the wide range of individuals who find freedom in motorcycling using custom photography, illustrations and emotive storytelling to fill each of its 114 pages. Every edition is truly a collectible piece of art. Whether it’s documenting the journey of female riders who became fast friends while exploring New Mexico on their Indian Motorcycles, or commissioning an artist to design mid-century-meets-modern covers inspired by the timeless designs of the iconic Triumph motorcycle, you can feel the creative passion behind every page of Iron & Air’s product and its makers’ painstaking effort to create something that’s one-of-a-kind for fellow enthusiasts. 

Craft & Quality: Noble & Cooley is a seventh-generation drum company that’s transcended generations from the Civil War through the Industrial Revolution and into the modern age. With a firm reputation rooted in its history, it took that foundation of drum manufacturing and tinkered with the way it markets. Today, Noble & Cooley still handmakes everything, ensuring it’s only making quality items, even if that means selling less. It takes its time on its craft to ensure nothing about its product is compromised.

Authenticity: For a digital sports management company like TorchCo, I was drawn to the Founder & CEO’s passion and personal story behind the idea. As a former professional hockey player, he knew the opportunity and impact for athletes at any level to make the most of their personal brand. His proficiency in understanding the nuances of how athletes operate is an unmatched skill that can’t be manifested without living it first. Moreover, his self-awareness was unmistakable. He consciously stays vigilant expanding on what he knows and fine-tuning his room for growth. There’s a credibility to their service with the ability to relate to their target audience on the one thing they’ve shared — the game. That connection is invaluable.

Aly Raisman is continuing her long-running collaboration with YORK Athletics and launching a pair of signature sneakers for a good cause. For every pair of “The Gail by Aly Raisman” purchased in October, YORK Athletics will donate a pair to an individual experiencing homelessness with help from the Boston homeless-serving agency Heading Home. The nonprofit helps people find housing and fulfill their needs. 

Read coverage in Boston Magazine, Boston.com or NBC Boston.

October 21, 2020 / Noble & Cooley, a family-owned premium drum manufacturer specializing in handcrafted snare drums and drum kits for some of the world’s leading professional drummers, announced today that Luke Garro has been appointed to the newly created position of General Manager.

At an exciting time in the 160-year-old drum company’s history, Garro is contributing to the development of the strategic vision and business plan for Noble & Cooley, charting the course for the brand’s next chapter of growth. He is responsible for guiding sales, marketing and partnership strategies, and evaluating opportunities to accelerate growth. In addition, Garro is overseeing day-to-day operations for Noble & Cooley, driving operational efficiencies and evaluating key investments in equipment, infrastructure and talent. Garro, who joined Noble & Cooley in September 2020, reports to CEO John Keane and is based out of the company’s headquarters in Granville, Massachusetts.

Garro brings to Noble & Cooley a truly complementary set of skills, passion and experience, including nearly three decades of drumming. Luke has played the drums for bands such as Fast Break and In My Eyes, and for the past 19 years has been the lead drummer for an alternative rock band, Piebald, touring internationally. A true creative entrepreneur, Garro began his 20-year business and marketing career by co-founding a company called Street Attack, which was a pioneer in guerilla, grassroots, experiential and social marketing just as social platforms came on the scene. The company rebranded as Antler in 2009 to better reflect its strategic shift to digital and social-focused offerings. In 2013, Antler was acquired by GYK Marketing to become integrated marketing company GYK Antler. As EVP, Content Director, Garro played a significant role in helping to build GYK Antler’s social and content production capabilities, leading modern marketing initiatives for both established and emerging CPG and lifestyle brands, and fueling company growth through new business efforts.

Garro is also joined on the company’s management team by Noble & Cooley Production Manager Lou Scalzo, a musician, carpenter and drum builder. As part of the company’s efforts to continually enhance its world-renowned products, Scalzo has been hired to improve manufacturing processes and create efficiencies on the shop floor. He will also guide production techniques, from innovating new shell concepts to woodworking to custom paints and finishes. A skilled craftsman, Scalzo began working in carpentry in the late 1990s, honing his creativity over time to become a fine finish carpenter and furniture builder. Prior to that, he worked in the music sales and recording industry, becoming a well-rounded recording and live sound engineer.

Scalzo had the opportunity to bring his skills to the drum manufacturing business when he first joined Noble & Cooley in 2003. There, he learned the craft of steam bending drums and handmaking components from solid brass to sculpting fine boutique drums. Years later, Scalzo joined drum company SJC, where he increased his knowledge in manufacturing drums and created new ideas for innovative drum designs. An accomplished stage musician, Scalzo has been a drummer for nearly 40 years and played the drums in bands for audiences across the United States and beyond.

“Noble & Cooley is all about craft, innovation and family. The company has been shepherded by generations of people passionate about bringing the highest quality drums and experiences to customers across the globe. I’m excited to bring some fresh perspectives to the table and to help chart the course for the company’s next chapter,” said Luke Garro. “Lou and I both have drumming in our blood, and I’m very much looking forward to partnering with him and this great team to advance Noble & Cooley’s goal of becoming the world’s foremost premium drum boutique.”

No other drum company in the world shares Noble & Cooley’s history of innovation and production. The company can trace its lineage back to 1854, to humble beginnings with Silas Noble and James P. Cooley making drums by hand in the Noble farmhouse kitchen. The duo would later move to a factory that would craft more than 100,000 drums each year, including those used by the Northern Regiments in the Civil War. From designing the first modern steam bent drums to creating the largest drum on record to being on the forefront of the custom drum movement and premium drum era, Noble & Cooley has been an innovator in the drum making industry since it began.

Noble & Cooley is part of York Creative Collective (YCC), a privately-owned ecosystem of creative ventures working together to maximize their growth potential. YCC was founded in October 2019 by GYK Antler CEO Travis York with the mission of building brands and businesses that are connected by a shared focus on quality, craft and authenticity. GYK Antler’s creative marketing services serve as the growth engine powering the collective.

Of Garro’s appointment, Travis York said: “I’ve had the pleasure of working with Luke since 2013. As the YCC and Noble & Cooley leadership team began mapping out a strategic plan for the brand’s next chapter, it was undeniable that Luke had the perfect blend of talent to bring to the company. His experience building businesses for the future and passion for the world of music and drumming is exactly what they need to propel this iconic brand forward. I’m excited to see Luke’s vision brought to life, and how Noble & Cooley shares its legacy of craft and innovation in a way that inspires the next generation of drummers.”

About Noble & Cooley
Noble & Cooley is a family-owned premium drum manufacturer specializing in handcrafted snare drums and drum kits for some of the world’s leading professional drummers. No other drum company in the world shares Noble & Cooley’s history of innovation and production. The company can trace its lineage back seven generations to Silas Noble and James P. Cooley’s humble beginnings manufacturing drums in 1854. A true industry pioneer, Noble & Cooley was at the forefront of the custom drum movement and has raised the bar for drum manufacturers everywhere, almost single-handedly creating the boutique drum market. The company continues to innovate to this day by regularly introducing new designs and always seeking to push the envelope of drum quality. http://www.noblecooley.com

About York Creative Collective
York Creative Collective (YCC) is a privately-owned ecosystem of creative ventures working together to maximize their growth potential. YCC believes creativity is the ultimate brand and business advantage — it challenges ways of thinking, fuels big ideas, opens the door to new business opportunities and propels an entrepreneurial spirit. Ventures that are part of YCC are given access to a comprehensive suite of resources to help them grow and thrive while they prioritize and focus on what drives their business forward. This is why YCC has put marketing services at the center of its creative ecosystem to drive growth. Whether they need strategic counsel, business operations support or supplementary capital through its partnership with York IE, ventures can create efficiencies through YCC’s shared services offering. https://ycc.gykdev.com

On September 24, Noble & Cooley celebrated its rich history by launching the Union Series Drum kit, a unique product line made out of tulipwood. To channel the company’s heritage and bring it to the current day, GYK Antler developed a creative marketing campaign called “Set the Tone.” 

Set the Tone evokes passion for high-quality premium drums and sets out to marry together the old and the new — tapping into history and highlighting the product’s lightweight functionality on the battlefield, while also underlining the distinct sonic characteristics that entice musicians today. The rich storytelling aims to reach beyond Noble & Cooley’s diehard enthusiasts by capturing how their drums have set the tone from the battlefield to band practice for more than 150 years.

The campaign comes to life across digital channels, including Facebook and Instagram and paid social. Check out the hero video below and view the work in Ads of the World to learn more.

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August 31, 2020 – Integrated marketing company GYK Antler has continued its 2020 growth trajectory with three account wins within the financial services and consumer packaged goods categories. The company kicked off 2020 with a refined strategic focus and evolved business model, reinforcing GYK Antler’s position as a creative growth engine fueled by an entrepreneurial spirit. This momentum is reflective of the growth engine at work and a shared belief with these new clients that creativity is the ultimate brand and business advantage.

GYK Antler is proud to welcome the following three clients to its roster:

Sallie Mae – Based in Newark, DE, Sallie Mae is the leader in private student lending, providing financing and know-how to support access to college. Sallie Mae believes education and life-long learning, in all forms, helps people achieve great things. Staying rooted to this core belief, Sallie Mae has tapped GYK Antler to strategically redefine their brand positioning. As lead agency, GYK Antler will bring this new positioning to life through an integrated brand campaign, establishing a cohesive look and feel that will support all marketing assets.

Ocean Spray – Headquartered in Lakeville, MA, Ocean Spray is a farmer-owned cooperative founded in 1930 by three cranberry farmers. Today, Ocean Spray consists of 700 small family farms across the United States, Canada, and Chile, who have preserved the family farming way of life for generations. Just as their farmers have been innovating for 90 years, Ocean Spray is driving forward its health, wellness, and sustainability goals. GYK Antler is working with the Ocean Spray food team to reinvigorate the 25-year young Craisins® Dried Cranberry brand with a new advertising campaign, leaning into the cooperative’s dedication to the health of people and planet. The campaign is slated to launch in the early Fall.

brekki – A Carlsbad, CA-based company with a line of dairy-free, ready-to-eat Overnight Oats, brekki was founded in 2017 with the mission of providing people with a convenient, nutrient-dense meal option that tastes great and can be enjoyed during breakfast, lunch, dinner, or anytime in between. brekki was acquired in December 2019 by the executive team of Cedar’s Foods, the global leader in Mediterranean Foods, and has enlisted the help of GYK Antler to establish new branding for the company and its products, from packaging to digital content to branded merchandise, and develop an integrated marketing strategy to differentiate the brand amid a crowded and fast-moving overnight oats category.

“Our team could not be any more excited to be partnering with these truly great brands – and just all-around fantastic clients and good people,” said Managing Director Mark Battista. “GYK Antler has been making tremendous strides this year, leveling-up an already strong foundation of integrated thinking through the hiring of some excellent new talent and enhanced marketing services offerings. These wins are a testament of our people’s hard work and commitment to creating ownable, actionable and enduring ideas that ignite our clients’ brands and fuel business growth.”

These client wins, in addition to GYK Antler being named lead agency on the Wahlburgers business in Q1 2020, follow the appointments of two key executives to the company’s leadership team in the past year. Mark Battista joined the company last summer, bringing more than two decades of experience building impactful, insights-driven campaigns for leading brands across several highly awarded advertising agencies. Pam Hamlin, a veteran in the advertising industry and former CEO of Arnold Worldwide, was named President of GYK Antler in September 2019. In partnership with CEO Travis York, Hamlin and Battista have been propelling growth at GYK Antler, implementing a strategic plan to modernize the business, hire best-in-class talent and champion the belief that creativity is the ultimate brand and business advantage.

Read coverage of the brekki and Sallie Mae wins in MediaPost. 

About GYK Antler

GYK Antler is a creative growth engine fueled by an entrepreneurial spirit. Established in 1975, this integrated marketing company of creative entrepreneurs embraces its clients’ challenges as its own and believes that creativity is the ultimate business advantage. To deliver on this belief, GYK Antler unleashes an integrated team of strategy, creative and media to create ownable, actionable and enduring ideas that ignite brands and fuel business growth. GYK Antler is proud to represent both emerging and established brands, including Cedar’s Hommus, New Hampshire Travel & Tourism, Ocean Spray, Wahlburgers, Baskin-Robbins, York Athletics, Dunkin’, Sallie Mae, Ken’s Foods, New Hampshire State Lottery, Timberland, ESPN and Sweet Baby Ray’s. A fiercely independent company, GYK Antler is headquartered in Manchester, NH, with an office in downtown Boston.

YORK Athletics and GYK are proud to have launched the #FightFromHome campaign to help keep everyday fighters and COVID-19 frontline workers on their feet.

The initiative asked fans and community members to purchase a pair of Gail sneakers for a frontline worker, either for someone they know personally or as a random act of kindness for a stranger. In exchange for their generosity, donors were rewarded with a pair of YORK sneakers for free. 

To spread the word, GYK deployed a targeted digital campaign via owned and earned media, mobilizing people to help support everyday fighters across the country and beyond. As a result, 1,163 pairs of sneakers were delivered to essential workers coast-to-coast in the U.S., and as far away as Australia. Additionally, the #FightFromHome campaign took home a Silver Bowl in the 60th annual Ad Club Hatch Awards in the Work for Good Category.

Read coverage in NBC Boston, the Boston Herald and Gear Patrol.

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Oct. 17, 2019 / Pam Hamlin, former Global CEO of Arnold Worldwide, and Mark Battista, former EVP of Brand Experience at Arnold Worldwide, join a group of creatively-minded business leaders to launch York Creative Collective (YCC). The company, founded by Travis York, CEO of marketing agency GYK Antler, unites the resources, relationships, experiences and capabilities of numerous highly successful, independent and creative ventures, with the mission of growing brands and businesses that share a commitment to creativity, craft and quality.

“We created York Creative Collective as a home for brands that seek the resources of a highly creative and entrepreneurial team in order to drive growth and take them to the next level. YCC has the freedom to flex talent across teams, ensuring that all businesses and employees alike reach their highest potential,” shared York. “As a lifelong entrepreneur, I’m proud to introduce YCC as we seek to lead, inspire and champion creative entrepreneurs through our collaborative model.”

YCC was formed to maximize growth opportunities for its creatively driven brands, businesses and people. The network of ventures all operate under an integrated model, with shared bottom line, infrastructure and business operations. At the center of YCC is marketing services, which serves as the growth engine to fuel the ventures. The model is self-sustaining, where the ROI of the work is reinvested to scale the collective.

The first ventures to join YCC include:

• Full-service marketing agency with a content studio with integrated media offering, GYK Antler
• Emmy-winning video production company, Big Brick
• Direct-to-consumer training footwear brand, YORK Athletics
• Media platform with a content arm, Iron & Air
• SaaS reporting & analytics platform, Explorics
• Sports media platform, Kompany39
• 7th-generation premium drum manufacturer, Noble & Cooley
• Non-profit, Rock on Foundation

YCC also has a strategic alliance with the newly launched investment company, York IE, that provides access to supplemental capital to accelerate scale of the collective’s ventures.

“It’s been rewarding for the YORK Athletics team and advantageous for the business plugging into the extended GYK Antler and YCC family to more strategically plan our growth, leverage their marketing expertise and collaborate with some awesome talent,” said Mark McGarry, Co-Founder and CEO of YORK Athletics.

“YCC brings together a really unique combination of talent and capital to grow brands and businesses who believe that creativity is a key to sustained growth. Being independent gives us the freedom to do what’s best for our ventures and our people,” said Hamlin. “I’m passionate about building businesses and I believe this model represents a new way forward to elevate the impact of creativity and entrepreneurship in today’s changing marketing landscape.”

YCC companies have continued to grow over the past few years with GYK Antler achieving a 62% growth rate over the last five years, and YORK Athletics having sustained an average yearly growth rate of 131%. GYK Antler was also recognized by Forbes’s list of Small Giants – 25 companies that value greatness over growth – as well as Inc. and Entrepreneur for exceptional growth. Big Brick Productions is a recognized Emmy-winning production company and Iron & Air is a robust and innovative publishing shop complete with a content arm that works with iconic brands like Toyota, Rebel Yell and Converse.

Read coverage in our Forbes or Adweek features. 

Pam Hamlin is joining York Creative Collective as president. A 20-year veteran of Arnold Worldwide, Pam formerly served as the historic ad agency’s global CEO.

For YCC, Pam will lead strategy and operations across the portfolio to help fuel the growth of the creative ventures and inspire a high-performance culture. 

York Creative Collective was founded by Travis York, the CEO of marketing agency GYK Antler, which serves as the growth engine powering the collective. 

Read coverage in Ad Age and MediaPost.