Over the years, many of my friends and family have asked me why Lifetime doesn’t have the NBA logo on their basketball hoops. Well, the answer is simple. Money. To have the NBA logo on Lifetime backboards, it would cost money. A lot of money. Money that Lifetime chooses to instead put into the actual quality of their products. Whether it’s using that money for more research, new manufacturing equipment, or improved materials, the end result is a higher quality product for you.
As a former employee, I can assure you that this philosophy carries through all aspects of Lifetime. You won’t find any lavish corporate offices at the Lifetime Products headquarters in Clearfield, Utah. No marble floors, revolving doors, or plush corner offices with beautiful wraparound windows. Nope, far from it. The Lifetime Products headquarters are actually in the Freeport Center, an old army warehouse depot. Each long (almost windowless) building that Lifetime occupies houses a different portion of Lifetime's manufacturing process. It’s not that Lifetime doesn’t care about their image, it’s just that they would rather invest in their products and state-of-the-art manufacturing technologies to better benefit the consumer, rather than invest in fancy, shamcy, corporate offices for themselves. If you’ve never read the history of how Lifetime Products began, take a few minutes to check it out... it’s pretty amazing. The owner started making basketball hoops in his garage and he still maintains that down-to-earth attitude... even today after 37 years of Lifetime's tremendous success. You won’t find him driving a decked out car or flying around in a corporate jet, he’s just your average guy-next-door.
So, while Lifetime realizes there are some people who buy products based soley on labels, Lifetime feels it is in your best interest not to pour money into expensive licenses. And, if customers do their homework and research when buying a product, hopefully, they will realize that the Lifetime logo truly represents quality and that is the only logo, brand, or label on the product that really matters.