BARBARA CHRISMAN: STORM ISN’T GOING ANYWHERE

Editor’s Note: BCM caught up with Storm Products Inc. co-founder Barbara Chrisman shortly after her husband Bill’s passing but also after the deadline for the November issue of BCM. This story was prepared for the monthly BCM Briefing email newsletter.

BY BOB JOHNSON, BCM Editor

There are two things Barbara Chrisman would like everyone in the industry to know.

First, she is extremely appreciative of all the people who have reached out to her in the days following her husband Bill’s death.

Second, Storm Products Inc. isn’t going anywhere.

Barbara told BCM Briefing that she got wind of a rumor making the rounds that it probably wouldn’t take long for Storm to wither away now that Bill is gone.

“I was really angry at first,” she said. “I mean, how disrespectful. But I decided to sleep on it and waited until the next day to post a reply on Facebook. It would not have been as nice if I didn’t wait.”

Chrisman explained that virtually all of Storm’s senior leadership team has been in place for years, “and none of them is about to age out. Bill would meet with them every so often to make sure someone wasn’t going off track.”

She noted that her husband had been mentoring Tyler Jensen, who has now been named Storm’s president, for more than six months.

“He’s totally on board with maintaining our reputation as ‘the bowlers’ company’ and doing things the right way,” she said. “We’re doing well. We’re on track. We’re making money. But most of all, I think everyone is on the same page when it comes to protecting Bill’s legacy, and we do that by continuing to innovate, maintain our market share and take care of our people.”

Chrisman said she tried not to take the rumor personally, but it was difficult.

“What some people don’t realize is that we went into debt together to make Storm a reality,” she said. “They also don’t know about some of the things that I had to deal with and overcome even before Bill and I met. Those things made me stronger.

“I don’t know how to make a bowling ball, but I do know how to create a team atmosphere and to get people to talk and work together.”

Storm Bowling today is a far cry from the company in its early years, when it shared an office with the Chrismans’ chemical company. When Bill began spending more time on Storm, they hired a secretary to help.

Sometimes the Chrismans’ discussions would get loud, and one day the secretary came in and asked if they were going to be getting a divorce because they were always fighting, and she needed the job.

“I laughed and told her that she would know when we were really fighting,” Chrisman said. “Both Bill and I are very strong, fiery, opinionated people, so it was only natural we wouldn’t always be on the same page. We became known as the ‘Bickersons.’

“We fought all the time, but that was because we were together all the time. We ate together, we slept together, we worked together, and that first office wasn’t much bigger than a bathroom with two desks.”

But as one long-time Storm employee told BCM, it seemed as if they were ”willing” Storm to success.

“Through the years, there were some times when I thought Bill loved Storm more than me,” Chrisman reflected. “But we got closer in the later years. I know he loved me with every cell in his body. And he was the love of my life.”

While Chrisman may not have known how to make a bowling ball, she did play a key role in one of greatest marketing advances in the history of ball manufacturing.

“We were watching ‘Animal Planet’ on TV and a couple of puppies had just been born,” she recalled. “They were talking about how the first sense newborns have is the sense of smell. We knew how important scents were in the chemicals we sold, and I asked Bill, ‘Could we add fragrance to a bowling ball?’ He said he didn’t know but would get the team working on it.”

The company ultimately perfected the process, and ever since, a specific fragrance — such as “strawberry shortcake” on Storm’s DNA ball — has been included on each release’s tech sheet.

Chrisman had been able to be involved with the company because she’d had her children young and was still in her forties when the children were grown. So she and Bill could attend trade shows and tournaments together, and she said she’d never forget pulling up to the Sam’s Town resort in Las Vegas one year when the women pros were in town and seeing the Storm logo on the giant message board outside.

“We were almost speechless, and we were so happy,” she recalled.

Having adult children also meant Chrisman could get involved in what she called “the political side” of bowling. She spent countless hours trying to convince delegates — both women and men — that a merger between the ABC and WIBC (and YABA) would be a good thing because it would enable bowling to speak to corporate America with one voice.

“I worked on that board for the betterment of bowling.”

Ultimately, the Chrismans were inducted into the USBC Hall of Fame together in 2021. It wasn’t just for what they had done together in founding and growing  Storm, but also for the contributions they made individually.

Under the radar, the couple also made a significant impact on their local community.

“We never really needed much, and once we were doing well, our Christmas presents to ourselves were writing checks to charities and delivering them,” Chrisman said. “Whether it was the Salvation Army or a shelter or a domestic violence center, we loved seeing the surprise and joy.”

Chrisman said their daughter, Carrie, wants to find some way to honor her father’s legacy, and might now start taking part in those annual check deliveries to charities.

What will that legacy be?

“I think it will be Bill’s love of the sport,” Chrisman said. “It was also like a single-mindedness of purpose. I actually got to see a dream materialize. It took a lot of work and sacrifice. There’s not a lot of people willing to work 25 years with their house hocked so they could build a business. We were willing to risk everything for a very long time and were too stupid to realize we might not be able to do it.”

Added Chrisman: “Our policy at Storm is to never bad-mouth the competition, and to care about bowling. Bill gave his entire life and soul to promote the sport of bowling.”