Star-Ledger Follow Up: The Facts About FieldTurf and Duraspine Fiber from FieldTurf CEO and President Eric Daliere
m reaching out on behalf of FieldTurf regarding the recent story that ran in the New Jersey Star-Ledger. As expected, the article sought to paint a sensationalistic and negative portrayal of the company instead of presenting a balanced accounting of the facts.
We want to be very clear: we strongly disagree with the fundamental accusations and conclusions upon which this story is based and we believe the implications in the story run counter to the very heart of who we are as a company.
We think it’s important to set the record straight on several points:
New Jersey fields were not, and are not defective. We maintain the Duraspine UV issue has not caused, and will not cause, fields to fail during their warranty periods in New Jersey. The fact that over 75% of all Duraspine fields in the state that are ten years or older (two years past their warranty life) are still in use supports this. It is ridiculous to insinuate, as the story does, that a field is defective simply because it does not look the same when it nears the end of its warranty period as it did when it was first installed. Just as a tire loses tread over time, splitting and fibrillation is normal for fibers – it is how they age.
The story mischaracterizes what ‘FieldTurf knew’ and when FieldTurf knew it. In the years following the launch of Duraspine, certain persons at FieldTurf began to believe that the fiber was not the breakthrough in technology the Company was led to believe it would be by its former fiber supplier. However, there was no awareness that Duraspine was defective or had a UV issue. The emails cited in the article demonstrate that everyone at FieldTurf still believed that Duraspine would deliver durability and longevity in-line with the best slit-film fibers in the market. For example, Kenny Gilman noted in one email that the fiber “probably will not last that much longer than a high quality slit-film yarn.” In other words, even though there was disappointment that it might not outperform slit-film fibers, the belief was still that the Duraspine fiber would meet or exceed its warranty periods.
We did not ‘stonewall’ or ‘keep quiet’. The idea that we kept this quiet or covered it up is simply not accurate. We sued our fiber supplier, publicly declaring what we believed the defect to be and stating which types of customers we expected to be impacted. In fact, a substantial amount of the Star-Ledger’s information came directly from public documents associated with the trial. While we did not proactively reach out to every customer on the Duraspine issue, since it did not impact every customer, we have been proactive in dealing with the issue. And while we are not perfect, when customers have been affected we have worked hard to make it right for them.
The story’s implication that we sued TenCate for access to Duraspine is false. Once I realized the issues with the Duraspine product and prior to initiating litigation, our goal was to move away from the fiber as fast as possible. We used the courts to ensure access to products we had greater confidence in – primarily TenCate’s XP slit-film fiber. And while we had to take additional delivery of Duraspine fibers by TenCate for Europe as part of the settlement, the suit was about supplying fibers other than Duraspine. This is clearly described in my declaration to the court at the time (see here).
The testing cited by the story, including the 3.6 pounds of force benchmark, is NOT an industry standard. Industry testing for tensile strength tests for UV impact only. The Michigan test used by the Star-Ledger is a new test method that does not relate to any standard we are aware of and tests not only the impact of UV but also mechanical wear. What’s more, the Star-Ledger neglected to compare these test results with those of any non-FieldTurf fields, which would have provided an important baseline.
We have always lived up to our warranties in New Jersey and have not hurt taxpayers. To the best of our knowledge, 96% of our installed Duraspine fields in New Jersey have made it through their warranty period and will be used into their ninth year and beyond. Noticeably absent from the article is the fact that our proprietary design and patented system delivers unmatched performance and safety, as backed up by independent peer-review studies published in leading sports medicine journals (see here and here). The infill, not the fibers, is what protects athletes. And it’s our heavy weight infill system that makes our products safer and more expensive. It’s also important to note that our new fibers (which we began producing internally in 2011) outperform the competition in multiple industry tests, including Pennsylvania State’s Fiber Wear Testing and Labosport’s Fiber Performance Index.
There’s a reason customers support us. FieldTurf is dedicated to serving its customers. We believe it is telling that even in a story clearly aimed at damaging FieldTurf’s reputation, multiple customers who are ‘very happy’ with our service and best-in-class products are cited. We would also point to the many positive comments in a story by the Cleveland Plain Dealer (see here). We have already received numerous other expressions of support from customers in New Jersey and across the country, and we want to thank those who have reached out or sent letters to the Star-Ledger.
While we don’t agree with this story, we are truly sorry this issue happened. This has been a frustrating and disappointing experience for impacted customers, for FieldTurf employees and for me personally. However, we never hid from this problem, we value our relationships with and the trust of our customers, and we strongly disagree with any attempt by the Star-Ledger to suggest otherwise.
Please let me know if you have any additional questions. And should you have any concerns about an existing field, we would be more than happy to send – at our expense – a technician to assess your field. Should that be of interest, please contact:
Julie Paquin Director - Customer Service T: (514) 375-2609 Julie.Paquin@fieldturf.com