Fort Wayne has a rich history when it comes to the world of baseball, and with the help of Logan Wiening, owner of Old Fort Baseball Co, we now have a way to preserve, support, and represent the teams that have called Fort Wayne home throughout the years. When we asked Logan what the word business meant to him, he said,
“It’s the ability and justification to live out a hobby. As a designer, I’ve been looking for a while to find something I could do to fill a niche and provide a creative outlet for. I wanted to do something different and not what everyone else was doing; copying something you see online and slapping it on a sticker is easy. I wanted to create something original, and a brand people would want to support, and I found that with Old Fort Baseball Co.”
Logan Wiening was born in Fort Wayne and graduated from Bishop Dwenger High School in 2013. When he talked about what it was like growing up in Fort Wayne, he said something that we believe many of us felt ten years ago, everyone he knew wanted to leave the city and go elsewhere. He said, “There wasn’t much to do back then; downtown didn’t have much going on, nothing really happened at the coliseum, and the events around town were not that exciting. Throughout the last decade, that isn’t the case anymore; with all the growth happening in our city, we don’t want to leave. Fort Wayne is a great place to be, and when I talk with people that didn’t grow up here, they talk about how we have so many exciting things happening here, and it’s so easy to fall in love with the town and call it home.”
Looking back at Wiening’s childhood, he remembers always liking the concept of being a business owner. He told us about how whenever he would play video games about various professional sports leagues, he always wanted to play as the general manager or other roles that required more of a business outlook on the game rather than just the athlete’s perspective. During his senior year of high school, he had an opportunity to experience the business side of sports when he accepted a position with the Mad Ants. He went on to work with the Mad Ants for six seasons. Throughout this time, Logan realized he enjoyed the business side of things, so he began thinking of ways to create his own company.
Logan is a creative; he enjoys making designs and graphics for various things, so he knew he wanted to do something within that realm to ensure he followed his passions. He knew he didn’t want to be like other companies that see an overused design, recreate it, and throw it on apparel. Knowing what he didn’t want for his company, he needed to figure out what he did want. What he came up with came down to three main things; a unique idea, quality products, and to fill a void in an industry. Now that he knew what he wanted, he began sketching out a few different ideas. After several dead ends, he started on a very different concept, creating a logo for The Kekionga's, Fort Wayne’s first and only professional men’s baseball team formed in 1871. After this, he recreated the logo for the Fort Wayne Daisies, a female professional baseball team that played from 1945-1954. During this process, he realized he had a great idea here, and the concept for Old Fort Baseball Co was born.
When Logan described what the company is today, he said
“The main goal and focus is to celebrate and reinvigorate the love, support, and history of Fort Wayne baseball. Sport is an important part of our community, so we highlight teams people may not know about through our apparel and merchandise to bring more awareness and new life to old teams. Bringing back the nostalgia for people is a lot of fun too.”
When we discussed the hardships Logan has been through since the creation of the business, he told us the most challenging part was really in the beginning, when he needed to turn his designs into quality apparel items. He knew he didn’t want to be the person that printed the shirts because that wasn’t his specialty, he was the designer. He wanted to ensure from the beginning that the brand was only providing customers with the best quality products. So, to do that, he needed to use a company with experience in creating quality apparel. After much research, what made the most sense for Wiening and the company was to use a third-party, print-on-demand service. This allowed Logan the ability not to have to invest a ton of money in inventory and gave him the ability to use that money in different areas of the company. Using a print-on-demand service meant that a third-party company would instantly print the item and send it directly to the customer whenever a client purchased an item from his website. After figuring out how the products would get to his clients, the next challenge was establishing the best pricing, deciding what to offer, and thinking through every detail of how the shirt would look and feel. Today, many of the early choices Logan made are still in effect but he has had the opportunity to create a relationship with Nick Morken, owner of Pulled & Pressed, which has given him the ability to screen print more designs locally. Aside from purchasing items on the website, people can also find Old Fort Baseball Co at the YLNI marketplace downtown once a month. Soon they hope to have a small display within a new baseball facility that is currently being built here in Fort Wayne.
As for the future of Old Fort Baseball Co, Logan wants to continue expanding into other areas with the help of his Support Local Baseball initiative. This program was Wiening’s first go at a more national approach. Through this process, he’s created partnerships with companies nationwide, helping design and produce apparel for their baseball teams. Wiening enjoys building new relationships with people and hopes to expand on this as the company continues to grow. He has plans to expand the products and teams they offer and has hopes to expand into other local sports industries to help bring more awareness to the Fort Wayne sports community as a whole. Currently, Logan is the only person working for the company, but he can see himself hiring another person part-time when the timing is right. Logan has big visions for the company, and with the ongoing support of the community, he can continue to make them happen.
Logan Wiening is an excellent example of what it’s like to be an entrepreneur. He had the itch to start a company and took the time to follow that and create something new and unique to Fort Wayne. When we asked him if he had any advice for other entrepreneurs hoping to start their own business, he said,
“You need to be willing to work hard for your company, but don’t get too deep into what you’re doing. You have to be able to notice your shortcomings and be ready to adjust as needed. Most importantly, you need to build your brand because that is what will set you apart from other companies, especially in a town like Fort Wayne. Creating a brand gives the community something to stand behind and want to support. Word of mouth is what will really help your company grow.”
If you would like to see more of what Logan is doing at Old Fort Baseball Co, follow them on Instagram @oldfortbaseballco or check out their website at www.oldfortbaseballco.com.
We want to send a huge thank you to Logan Wiening for his time and sharing his story with us. We also want to thank Nikeshia Young owner of Creative Roots Media for capturing these photos. If you enjoy reading these stories about the people helping shape Fort Wayne, subscribe to our free newsletter to stay in the loop with what's happening here at the Fort Wayne Business Journal.