Every Sunday in the NFL, equipment managers are already thinking about next season. Every Olympic cycle, national teams are racing to outfit their athletes on the floor of the venue. And every week during the NRL season, equipment rooms across Australia are managing some of the most complex kit operations in professional sport, many still running on the same spreadsheets and manual processes the world’s elite left behind years ago.
Teamworks Inventory Management has become the equipment and inventory operating system of choice for the NFL, NBA, Olympic programmes, and leading collegiate institutions globally. Now it’s arrived in Australian rugby league, with the NRL’s Dolphins already running on the platform, and more clubs taking notice.
Here’s the story behind the global shift.
NFL: LA Chargers — Where Inventory Management Gets Serious
Managing equipment for an NFL franchise is as demanding as it sounds. Chris Smith and Chad Jessop at the LA Chargers oversee 50+ vendors, 30+ orders a week, and a helmet fleet of 200+, with NFL regulations requiring roughly 90% to be replaced every year. Before Teamworks, it was manual, fragmented, and time-consuming.
| “Being able to observe that detailed lifecycle tracking is extremely valuable. We can easily see the exact journey of a helmet: who it was issued to, if it was reconditioned and why, and if it was returned to the shelf. In the case of issues or injuries, having this level of detail is critical.” — Chad Jessop, LA Chargers Equipment Assistant |
Today, every serialised item, from helmets to shoulder pads, is tracked through its full lifecycle: issued, reconditioned, returned. When players are traded, their complete equipment profile transfers instantly to the new team. The finance team tracks ROI on capital investments over $50,000 directly through the platform. And the entire operation runs mobile, because the equipment staff rarely sit at a desk.
NBA: Detroit Pistons — Everything in One Place
In the NBA, the pace is relentless and the gear is endlessly customisable. John “Kong” Coumoundouros, Equipment Manager for the Detroit Pistons, was managing mountains of specialised kit, custom socks, game-worn jerseys, Wilson basketballs — across a season that never really stops.
“Whether you need it for finance, team information or simply tracking inventory, you don’t have to go searching on different platforms. Everything’s in one place,” Kong says. The platform’s Size Chart Collection Tool, RFID tracking for game-worn assets, and real-time dashboard have replaced the mental juggling act that once defined the role. For Kong, like most NBA equipment managers, it’s all done on his phone: “I live by the mobile, and that’s pretty much everybody in the NBA.”
The Olympics: USA Track & Field — Zero Distractions in Paris
At the Paris 2024 Olympics, Brad Birling, Manager of International Teams & Logistics at USA Track & Field, had one overriding mission: remove every possible distraction from America’s athletes before they competed on the world’s biggest stage.
Managing a roster with new kit designs and highly personal performance preferences during an intense 10-day competition window is a logistical challenge most people never see. With Teamworks Inventory Management’s mobile app, Brad could issue kits, process exchanges, and track inventory in real time, right on the floor of the venue.
| “The platform allows for quick and efficient management of uniforms and equipment, ensuring athletes can focus on their performance.” — Brad Birling, USA Track & Field |
USA Track & Field manages more than 10 teams annually, from World Championships to Mountain Ultra Trail events, each requiring Olympic-level preparation. The platform also bridges the gap with finance: end-of-year reports detailing all issued items and transactions are generated in minutes, streamlining audit season for the back-office team.
Smarter Rosters: Closing the Communication Gap
Equipment staff at every level know the pain of a player showing up in the equipment room who no one told you was on the team. It’s one of the most common, and most fixable, breakdowns in sports operations.
Teamworks’ integration between Inventory Management and Hub solves it. When a new athlete is added to Hub, they’re automatically imported into Inventory Management. At Boise State University, Assistant AD Matthew Sterling calls it a “game-changer” — especially for late additions, transfers, and spring-semester newcomers. When an athlete leaves, they’re automatically moved to inactive.
At IMG Academy, home to over 1,600 athletes and staff, Director of Equipment Troy Bixler took that same approach to a new scale. Where uniform distribution was once entirely manual, the Hub-Inventory Management integration now means that by the time an athlete arrives to collect their gear, their profile is already populated and ready. “It’s like night and day,” Bixler says. “Now, we have a proper system to connect all the dots.”
The Dolphins Lead the Way in Australia
If the NFL is the benchmark for elite sports operations, the NRL is closer to it than most people realise. Large playing squads, State of Origin call-ups that disrupt kit rosters mid-season, and the back-to-back travel demands of a full NRL season, the equipment challenges facing Australian clubs are genuinely complex, and they deserve a proper solution.
“Before Teamworks Inventory Management, we only tracked equipment through ordering and receiving, which meant we had limited visibility once items were distributed. The platform has given us a clear view of inventory across departments, helped eliminate costly over-ordering, and significantly reduced admin time by streamlining tasks like receipting items through the mobile app.” – Ian Flippo, Sponsorship & New Business Executive, Dolphins
The Dolphins are the first NRL club to make that move. Based in Queensland and one of the competition’s newest franchises, the Dolphins recognised that building a winning organisation means getting the foundations right, including how equipment is tracked, distributed, and managed. By adopting Teamworks Inventory Management, the club joins a global roster of teams that have replaced guesswork with data, and fragmented systems with one connected platform.
| The Dolphins are now operating with the same inventory management infrastructure trusted by NFL teams, Olympic programmes, and the NBA, bringing world-class operational standards to the NRL for the first time. |
For the Dolphins, it means equipment staff spending less time chasing down what’s on the shelf and more time focused on the athletes. Roster changes sync automatically. Kit is tracked from order to issue. And when the budget questions come, as they always do, the answers are already in the platform.
“Using this system, we feel that we will be better equipped in the future to understand which items we are over-ordering, underutilising, or no longer require top-ups for. It will also save significant time when managing lengthy processes, as I touched on with the receipt, distribution list, and inventory management.” – Ian Flippo.
The Dolphins won’t be the last NRL club to make this call. The same problems that drove the Chargers to Teamworks, and Kong to live on the mobile app, exist in every NRL equipment room in the country. The question is which clubs are next.
From NFL to NRL — it’s already happening.
The NFL, NBA, Olympics, and the world’s leading sporting institutions have already moved on from manual processes and disconnected systems. Now, NRL is following. The Dolphins have made the first move. The platform that powers the world’s best equipment operations is here, and it’s built for every club ready to raise the standard.
Ready to see it in action? Visit teamworks.com/inventory-management to schedule a demo.
