ESSX-UST MAMIYA The Next Level By Adele San Miguel
Team ESSX has a lot to brag about, including eleven athletes competing in the XXXII Olympiad using their vaulting poles. But they are not boastful. Instead, a small team of former pole vaulters, Tye Harvey, Brian Mondschein, Jeremy Scott, and Mike Vani intently focus on the needs of their profes-
sional, collegiate, and club athletes. A part-time crew with full-time jobs elsewhere, their love for the sport and the relationships they foster within the vault community are their why. Listening is their how.
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In 1996, track and field entrepreneur Bruce Caldwell purchased a shell company with the intentions of bringing a new pole to the market. The company made a box device called Essx that split the interchange between fax and voice on an incoming line. The device itself was sold to Ma Bell (AT&T), but Bruce owned the trademark. Liking the snappy sound of Essx, he used it for the name of the pole company he launched in ’98, took public in 2001, and private again in 2004. Bruce’s acumen for designing a pole to get the most from it, paired well with Beto Sanchez, the engineer who knew how to build it. When Sam Kendricks needed a solution for how to take massive jumps on small-
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er poles without breaking them, his parents reached out to Bruce. Bruce and Beto constructed two sets of poles and drove them to Sam’s house, confidently telling him to try and break the poles. Eight years, and a medal-filled career later, Sam is still jumping for ESSX. In 2012, Bruce sold ESSX to UST-Mam-
iya Golf, a Japanese enterprise that engineers the shafts for golf clubs. In this partnership, UST-Mamiya augmented the aerodynamic details and contributed the next tier of materials for pole making. Considering the high quality of the existing pole, the new team pondered, how can this be improved? They interviewed the athletes. What would a dream pole feel like in your hands? When you plant and swing, what do you want the pole to do? How can we make a pole that will help you achieve your potential? Retooling something great to make it even better, they created the Recoil Advanced from the lens of possibility rather than the limitations of manufacturing, producing what is arguably the most vaulter friendly pole in the market. It is easy to roll with and offers a powerful return. The streamlining of ESSX poles meant that poles with heavier weight ratings did not have to increase in diameter. Athletes can
move up to the next pole more easily, because the poles are easier to manage, lighter in the hands, and flexible. Sam’s success, which includes two world championships; the American outdoor record; 3-time indoor national championships; 6-time outdoor national championships; an Olympic bronze medal and another trip to the Games this month, put ESSX on the map. Other elite athletes followed. In fact, quite a few. In 2016, four Olympians competed on ESSX, Sam, Ruby Peinado of Venezuela, Luke Cutts of Great Britain, and Pauls Pujats of Latvia. In 2021, nine vaulters and two decathletes will take the runway in Tokyo with an ESSX pole to plant in the box and hopefully take them to Olympic medal heights. From the USA, four of the six Olympic pole vaulters are ESSX users: Katie Nageotte, Morgann Leleux, Chris Nilsen, and Sam Kendricks. Other Olympic athletes include: Valentin Lavillenie – France; Ruby Peinado Venezuela; Seito Yamamoto - Japan; Maryna Kylypko - Ukraine; Zach Ziemek, Team USA decathlete, and Damien Warner, decathlete, Canada. In a press conference anticipating the Olympic Trials, Katie Nageotte said, “The ESSX pole allows me to get
