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Kurt Ainsworth, the Baton Rouge native and co-founder of Marucci Sports, will be inducted into the Sporting Goods Industry Hall of Fame as part of the National Sporting Goods Association’s Class of 2027.
The honor adds another milestone to Ainsworth’s career, which began on the baseball field before transitioning into entrepreneurship. A former standout at Catholic High and LSU, Ainsworth was selected in the first round of the 1999 Major League Baseball draft and played for the San Francisco Giants and Baltimore Orioles. After injuries cut short his professional career, he returned to Baton Rouge, where he worked with LSU athletic trainer Jack Marucci who founded the Marucci Bat Company in 2002.
What started as a backyard bat-making operation grew into a collaboration creating Marucci Sports in 2004, now one of the most recognizable brands in baseball. Ainsworth, Marucci and Joe Lawrence launched the company from Ainsworth’s River Bend backyard, handling manufacturing, finishing and shipping themselves.
Marucci became the most-used bat brand in Major League Baseball by 2013, overtaking Louisville Slugger, and has since expanded into gloves, metal bats, apparel and other sporting goods. The company also grew its Baton Rouge footprint to nine buildings and as many as 90 employees.
Ainsworth’s business leadership has previously earned local recognition. He was named to the Business Report’s Forty Under 40 list, while Marucci Sports was selected as the Business Report’s 2016 Company of the Year in the fewer-than-100-employees category.
The Hall of Fame induction adds a national honor to Ainsworth’s record of building a Baton Rouge-based company into a prominent sporting goods brand.
Ainsworth will be formally inducted May 25, 2027, during the National Sporting Goods Association Leadership Conference at The Wigwam in Litchfield Park, Arizona.
