Gunther’s Has Latest in Gridiron Garb : Football: Company is the leading outfitter of new or reconditioned equipment.

ANAHEIM â€”  First, a quick review of the bone-protecting, pain-buffering hardware worn by football players. . . .

Let’s see, there are the super-duper, heavy-duty helmets with many different types of face masks. They help you recognize your teammates and keep you free of amnesia after a hard shot. Then come the neck braces and shoulder pads--essential equipment for those with sensitive collarbones.

The elbow, kidney, thigh and knee pads are a must for guys with low pain thresholds.

Finally, covering most of the armor, are the colorful uniforms with the fancy logos, numbers and lettering.

Chances are the next time you see this equipment at a high school or college game in the county, it will have been provided by Gunther’s Athletic Service.

“Literally, we do schools from the Mexican border to 50 or 60 miles north of Fresno,� said Bob Brown, who owns and operates the company with partner and brother-in-law Craig Drager. “We even do stuff for teams overseas.�

When it comes to outfitting teams with new or reconditioned equipment, Gunther’s has few peers.

“Our head silk-screener averaged 65 to 70 hours per week during two months last summer,� said Brown, who typically sees the workload increase this time of year because schools are getting ready for the fall.

Housed in two facilities within a half-mile of each other in Anaheim, Gunther’s is 32,000 square feet of workshops, showrooms, store rooms and offices from where most of the company’s 55 employees keep the multimillion-dollar operation going. Salespeople trying to generate some of those revenues will visit campuses to promote products in person.

The company also has outlets in Fresno and San Diego, but those facilities concentrate primarily on sales.

One of the buildings houses a warehouse and the company’s silk-screening and lettering services. Among the equipment are computerized embroidery and lettering machines, and an 80-foot-long silk-screening gas dryer, which Brown said is one of only a few that size in the country. Brown said it’s one of the busiest parts of the business.

The primary facility, housed in two buildings a few blocks down the road, has its lobby’s walls plastered with samples of silk-screened logos of virtually every high school in the region, UNLV, USC and even the Turku Trojans, a school in Finland. There are also representatives from teams in Canada, Australia and Japan.

Around the corner are three display rooms for company products. There are offices on the second floor and in an adjacent building, and a room equipped with a computer and drafting tables for the three staff artists who design or reproduce team logos.

In addition to providing new products, Gunther’s also mends and cleans uniforms and refurbishes football helmets and shoulder pads--lots of them.

Brown said between 35,000 to 40,000 helmets and about 25,000 shoulder pads are reconditioned each year. The fee: $20 to $25 for a helmet; $7 to $8 for shoulder pads.

Those are bargain prices considering a new helmet can cost about $100 and new shoulder pads about $80. However, Brown said that even when athletic budgets continue to be cut, schools still have to repair or replace equipment.

“Most schools lose between $500 and $1,000 in missing equipment every year,� Brown said. “Some have lost up to $7,000. People don’t realize how difficult it is for high school football coaches. They have to worry about everything, and that includes taking care of their equipment.

“They have to replace about 15% of their helmets every year because of cracking or aging. They need a budget of about $5,000 or $6,000 a year just to buy or recondition helmets. That’s a conservative figure.�

That’s also quite a jump from when Brown and Drager purchased the company in 1969.

Back then, the two 21-year-old friends from Lakewood were attending Cal State Fullerton, wondering what they would do when they graduated.

Brown thought he was headed for a desk job with the social services department. Drager, who had played pro ball in the Houston Astros’ organization, was loading trucks at night to pay for school. He figured he might end up driving one.

But then they decided to buy Gunther’s from Frank Gunther, who wanted to get into a different business. Drager said they kept the name because “he (Gunther) was a little better known than we were.�

The men began their venture in a 500-square-foot building in Garden Grove. They were the owners and the entire staff. They expanded gradually, moving to larger locations in another part of Anaheim and then Orange before settling on their current Anaheim site.

“As late as 1974, we had only two employees,� Brown said. “We were strictly clean and repair for a long time. We started with nothing . . . We worked night and day to buy the machinery to do a better job.�

Two of their first customers were Stan Thomas, now the Southern Section commissioner, who was then football coach at Neff High School in La Mirada, and Tustin football Coach Marijon Ancich, then at St. Paul High in Santa Fe Springs.

“If it wasn’t for Marijon, I don’t know if we would have survived in the business,� said Drager, who handles production responsibilities while Brown focuses on finances. “He made sure we were paid as soon as possible all the time.�

Brown said the company made about $80,000 its first year, much of it at the rate of $4 or $5 per reconditioned helmet.Their revenue increased dramatically about 10 years ago, when they added a team sales operation. Brown said it generates more than 80% of the company’s current business.

Now, Gunther’s is prospering from orders for new equipment and repairs generated by schools.

“We are really strong in Bakersfield,� Brown said. “Within Orange County, we have areas where we are very strong and areas where we are very weak. . . . It’s a tough business, but it’s also a fun industry.�